History: A Touch of Color in the Gray

Book 1 : Shading the black.

Date : May 25, 2021

Beta: Lucky's-Dice

Fandom : D Gray Man

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

Summary : After waking up in the 19th century, Ennaël took the name Eve, became the companion of Tricia Kamelott and decided to make her own opinion on the charac ... people of this new world despite her knowledge of the manga. Little by little, she became aware of the difference in social codes for women of this time and began to fear for the future, especially when Road, the twins, Allen, Tyki, The Earl, Lulubell and Skin Bolic arrived little by little.

While trying to flee the Earl, Eve meets Victor Hugo who gives her a lot of information on the holy war before dying. Eve discovers she has a strange talent for musical instruments and wonders with horror if she could be the 14th. It doesn't help that the Earl has discovered her talents and seems to be more and more interested in her.

She then argues with Tyki who fails to kill her with his Noah powers, begins a correspondence with Conan Doyles and again nearly dies of Tuberculosis. And since things always come in threes, she once again avoids dying by falling into an icy lake after having celebrated Christmas with the Noahs. Yeah, not her best year. But the next will be better!

Kof ...

And in the last chapter : Tyki screws up, receives a marriage proposal and Road tries to make Eve fall with him.

French version: ...FINISHED !

English version: A moment of silence for Lyra, AxZi, Koneko, Nouilleverte and Fluffyluffy our wonderful past-Beta (... I'm going to think there is a curse)

Fanart: You can see drawings of Eve and some fanart made by readers on my Tumblr (Ennael too). Also, Elogane made a canon side-fic but in french, It's "Nuancer les sentiments"

Italic: french, important thought (or both)

A round of applause for our new Beta Lucky's-Dice! Also, it looks like somes people actually sent me PM those last months but, hu, it only gets sent on the app ? And I mostly use the computer so, yeah, I'm really sorry I didn't see it… Should have answered to all of them, now, though !

Anyway, Good Reading !

The room was so silent you could hear a needle drop. It must be said, with the shock that Road had just created, it was indeed the only thing my brain could think of at the moment ...

"Road, darling, don't say such things..." Said Tricia with pursed lips and I had never seen her so pissed off. Turning to me, she looked sorry. "Eve, I don't think you should be her-…" She started to say but the Earl cut her off immediately.

"Come sit down, Eve." He said with a smile but his tone of voice left no option but obedience and I found myself immediately to his left, in front of Tyki. It was strange, I noted absently, even though I had heard him call me by my first name the night before at the ball, it was always weird to hear the Earl call me "Eve" when he hadn't ever deviated from the "Miss Campbell" which made him laugh, before.

"What's going on?" I asked, worried, when the conversation struggled to restart. It was always intimidating to speak in front of all the Noahs, especially Sheryl, Lulubell and the Earl but in the face of Tyki's grim despair opposed to Sheryl's and Road's way too happy look, I couldn't afford to be silent. It was even worse in the great dining room, all seated around the large round table as in the middle of an important meeting. Even the servants, always there usually, had left the room adding more weight to the situation.

"Well, Tyki?" Sheryl almost chirped. "Why don't you explain to Miss Campbell what happened?" Tyki let go of his hair, leaving behind a messy mass that made him look even more pathetic, while his grimace went further, if that was possible. "No?" Sheryl exclaimed delighted and he turned to me again with a victorious smirk. "My little brother fell in love with a very respectable young girl yesterday and her father made me a marriage proposal for our two… lovebirds, most interesting."

Wow, so much was wrong with that sentence. Tyki had gone to find some fun yesterday, certainly not a woman, and given his painful expression, there was no way they had fallen in love at first sight and were "lovebirds" as Sheryl put it. What did he...

Oh.

OH!

My head snapped towards the young nobleman and I met his gaze with wide, incredulous eyes. "Don't tell me you actually did…?" I started and the Noah of pleasure let out a sound that could be compared to the sound of a pig being slaughtered. "And you got caught ...?" He nodded and I had to violently restrain myself from giving him an 'I told you so!' which would have been bad taste. "Merde." I blurted out instead without doing it on purpose.

Oops.

What's more, in the heavy silence, barely interrupted by the sips of tea that Lulubell sometimes swallowed, everyone heard it distinctly and they didn't need to know French to understand that it was a curse.

"Eve!" Tricia exclaimed and I immediately lifted my head, taking on an innocent look.

"I don't want to marry this girl." Tyki suddenly declared with the most serious air in the world, his gaze falling for a second on his brother before quickly fixing on the Earl with an air of beaten up dog even more effective than that of Road. Well, If it was possible. He had saved me from a good shouting match from Tricia with his intervention, I owed him one.

"Don't say that Tyki, you're going to love marital life!" Sheryl smiled a little too broadly and the whole table, even Lulubell, looked at him doubtfully. "And anyway, you can only blame yourself, my dearest little brother."

"I'm sure we can do something!" Tyki pleaded, his sad eyes still fixed on the Earl, but again, even though the Earl opened his lips hesitantly, it was Sheryl who answered first.

"Don't be so dramatic, Lady Harmsworth is a good match. She's from a good family, she's pretty, young and docile, I really don't see what else you're looking for in a wife." He said annoyed and I looked at him in disbelief and a hint of disgust.

"The Harmsworths have an older son however, Tyki will not be able to claim the title." Tricia suddenly pointed out seriously and Sheryl turned to her, his eyes full of surprise. To be true, I had never seen Tricia speak against her husband in public… Maybe the comment about docility had annoyed her too? Had my views on the place of women in society rubbed off on her after two years? More reasons for Sheryl to hate me ...

"That's why Tyki should marry Eve!" Road exclaimed and all eyes turned to her. "That way Tyki will become the heir by marriage to the Campbells, he won't have to marry Lady Harmsworth if he is said to be already engaged and Eve will truly be my aunt. Everyone will be happy!"

What?

"What?" I stammered, having trouble swallowing the sentence. Still, it seemed like I was the only one, Tricia looked contemplative, Sheryl calculating and Tyki seemed to have regained hope. "What do you mean by 'heir by marriage'?" I asked nervously, the pieces starting to fall into place in my mind even though I didn't want to recognize them.

"Since Lucie was married into the Belle family, you are the only remaining heir to the Campbell title and your future husband will be the heir too." Tricia explained patiently.

Again… what?

"But… I'm not the Duke's daughter?" I was stammering, and it sounded more like a question than the assertion it had to be. At my words, all eyes flickered to the Earl and if I hadn't felt my world crumble under my feet, I would have found the analogy to a game of tennis quite funny.

As it was, I was just trying not to choke on my own saliva.

"Oh, I must have forgotten to share the good news!" He exclaimed with real surprise before taking a sheepish then cheerful look and turning to me. "You officially became my rightful daughter a few days ago." He chirped before frowning. "The papers took a lot longer than I wanted to process..."

...

Brain rebooting.

...

"Wait, wait, wait." I stammered quickly before taking a second to put my thoughts back in place. All these weird events finally made sense... why had I started to be totally integrated into the family dynamic since the new year, why Lulubell had approached me and asked me to call her by her first name, why the Earl hadn't overreacted the day before when the Drebbers' took me for his daughter ...

"But… why would you… adopt me? Besides, I didn't accept anything and…"

"Why would you have refused?" Asked the Earl, looking genuinely intrigued by my answer, even a little hurt, as if he didn't see why I would have refused. Sure that a class advancement from "Unknown Undocumented Servant" to "Daughter and sole heir of the Duke" was something few people would even have the audacity to think of refusing but that is because these people did not know that it was a family of BLOODY NOAHS. What's more, as a Noah's wife's best friend, my position couldn't be more perfect. I did what I wanted, I had very few obligations, I was around people I loved (for the most part) every day and most of all I had the possibility of running away in case of infamous shit.

As the daughter of Duke Campbell aka THE Millenium Earl?

Ah ah ah.

"I… Let's pretend, but I thought that an adopted child can't inherit the title so even though I'm your… dau… daughter?" I stammered over the word. "And if I marry Tyki, it wouldn't do him any good, he better marry Lady Harmsworth." I replied even as I tried not to let my eyes wander to the betrayed gaze Tyki was stabbing in my head. Hey! We had said everyone for themself concerning marriage… I was only respecting our previous agreements.

"Yes, that's true." The Earl replied, nodding his head and I had a mini-hope that it could all end in daisies and rainbows before he shredded it with his next beaming words. "That's why I made you pass for my legitimate daughter!"

"That is… not possible." I whispered blankly as my brain worked overtime figuring out the full implications of what was going on. "Dukes' children don't appear out of nowhere. You can't just announce that I exist, 21 years after I was supposedly born, casually in a conversation. It doesn't work that way." I answered, almost begging him with the last sentence. It was ridiculous, implausible and yet I seemed to be the only one reacting so badly; the others were watching us like we were a reality show.

I was having trouble breathing.

"Don't worry about it, everything is arranged!" He said with a calm smile and it took all my self-control not to take the nearest dish and shove it in his face. Or in mine. At this point I wasn't sure if I should let my anger or my panic run free but somehow it was going to spill over soon. Very soon.

"It might, in fact, be a good idea…" Sheryl said then frowning, in intense concentration. Incredulous, I stared at him with a hanging mouth, not believing his words. Sheryl? Accept a marriage between me and his darling brother?! Of course, now that I had the title of Duchess Campbell behind my back, it helped a lot but still! He who had fought so hard with Tricia ...

"So Tyki can marry Eve!" Road exclaimed again.

"No."

The word barely sounded as soon as Road had finished speaking and it took me five more seconds to realize it was coming from my lips. Tyki buried his head a little deeper in his arms and Sheryl looked strangely approving but at the same time annoyed at hearing my words.

"Why not, Eve?" Tricia asked, really puzzled. "You get along very well and there are no more rank issues now that you are Adam's daughter."

"But I don't want to get married!" I exclaimed, getting up suddenly feeling all their attempts to close on me and suffocate me.

"I know you said you didn't want to get married right away, but you're going to be 21 next week, you're right in your marital age… you don't want to be an old maid!" Tricia insisted and I felt betrayed. I knew intellectually that these were her beliefs, her upbringing, she said all this because she thought she was helping me but I had told her so much, again… and again… that I didn't want to get married, why couldn't she understand it?!

"Why not!" I responded much more aggressively than I wanted. "Marital happiness may have worked for you Tricia but that's not what I want!" I replied as frustration swelled inside me. How can I make her understand that I was not cut for love as a couple? That even though I had tried because of all those books and movies that praised it, I had never felt anything other than a deep apathy to it? I had said to myself, maybe that would interest me later… but in the 19th century? Where was I unlikely to ever find someone who didn't want to be in control of my life just because I was a woman? Where I couldn't work, have the right to vote or even own a bank account without my husband's consent? Where marital rape wasn't even a concept for another hundred years or so?

Why would I want to get married?

"Miss Campbell is still a minor anyway, even if for only a week longer." Sheryl cut in annoyingly, as if this whole thing had gone on too long already. "Whether it's under my patronage or by her father's decision, we can marry her without her approval, whether she likes it or not." He logically remarked.

"Sheryl!" Tyki and Tricia exclaimed. But if the Pleasure Noah actually sounded pissed off at his brother's words, the hostess just looked disapproving, as if Sheryl had only badly chosen his words. Around the table, Road was looking at the whole story with big shining eyes and Lulubell continued to drink her tea, not seeming the least bit involved.

"I won't force anyone to get married, Sheryl, this is serious business." Replied the Earl but I barely heard him. Still standing with ringing ears and staring eyes, I felt very, very empty.

I took a deep breath.

Slowly sliding my hands off the tablecloth, I pushed my chair a little further before mechanically turning and heading for the door as if it was the only goal of my life. Behind me, sounds erupted but I was too out of the world to understand them properly.

No one came to see me all day. No Road looking for a playmate, no worried Tricia, no annoyed Tyki, no bossy Sheryl, no clumsy Lulubell or even a curious Earl.

My heart couldn't decide whether it was bruised by this sudden indifference or incredibly relieved to be spared another confrontation.

Perhaps it was also because I had locked myself in the dustiest room I could find, deciding to avoid a place where I would have been sought first: my borrowed room or the library. I had no doubt for a second that they could have found me if they wanted to, and maybe the Earl even knew exactly where I was all the time. It was his mansion after all… In fact, it was mine too, right? Or at least it would be that of my future husband since it would seem that I had no voice in the chapter concerning the rest of my life.

Laughing harshly, I unwittingly swallowed a little dust and immediately sneezed miserably. For a Duke's mansion with an army of (akumas) servants scouring every corner until every stone glistened, it was very strange that parts of the Mansion were so derelict. The floor of the library, this bedroom… The furniture was not even covered to protect it! The bed and the piano were so covered with dust that I hadn't dared to sit there for fear of annoying the spiders… Instead, I had slipped on the window sill and I was looking at the garden. slowly turning and turning one of my knives between my fingers. I was wondering if…

No.

I couldn't get lost in silly thoughts again, I was just fooling myself. The problem would not solve itself or rather it will, but not to my advantage. So I had to sort out my thoughts and be ready to speak calmly again. It had been stupid to leave like this but… I knew Sheryl was not my biggest fan and had badly digested my friendship with his brother but still… I thought we had managed to connect in some way… is it that the gap between our principles of the 19th and 21th centuries was too great?

I felt betrayed, in a way, and the taste was not pleasant on the palate. Pissed off again, I grabbed my knife properly and threw it with all my might at the door as if to vent my anger with it. It sped through the air, cutting the wind with a precision due to the last two years of training and it went to crash, much harder than I would have thought, in the doorframe ... exactly when the door opened.

"Tyki!" I jumped as he stared at the knife stuck right next to his head with a troubled look.

"... I should have knocked." He admitted before starting to close the door. "Sorry, I'll come back another time if you need to…"

"No!" I responded by getting up to grab the handle and slam the door open, pulling him inside. "It wasn't against you, I didn't know you were there and I… I… listen, it's a mess and I handle it pretty badly, I admit, but you gave me enough time, let's talk about it. Now. Both of us." I stammered and he nodded, closing the door behind him.

"Sorry, I fucked up, you told me but… I didn't think they would throw you in there." Tyki began as we stood in front of each other, two idiots unsure of what to do. "And I understand that you don't want to get married, that would be hypocritical on my part, I don't want that either but you know Eve… Now that the Earl has adopted you, I doubt my brother will let it go. He will use it as soon as he can to marry you to a good party and if he has respected my choices somewhat in recent years, I'm afraid that for you…" He didn't need to finish his sentence. I had no more doubts after this morning and I couldn't even count on Tricia to help me; For her, marriage was practically a cure for all illness.

"Yeah…" I mumbled, pushing a pesky lock out of my eyes. "What went through the Duke's head? It doesn't make any sense! Of course, we've talked a bit and got to know each other a little in recent years, but from there to adopting me? And without even talking to me about it? I don't understand a thing!"

"... Yes, it is very strange." Tyki replied but his voice sounded a bit wrong. Turning to him, I fixed his uncomfortable gaze suspiciously.

"You know something. What aren't you telling me?" I whispered, my eyes narrowed before suddenly opening them wide as I understood something. "You knew it! You knew the Duke adopted me, that's why you and Road reacted weirdly when I said yesterday that I wasn't noble! Since when?"

"Well, he's been talking about it since before the new year." He replied uncomfortably. "But it wasn't quite over until a few days ago. I thought you talked together about it and that he would tell you officially it was done later. I didn't think he had… forgotten." He grimaced. "But Eve, when he says that you are his real daughter now, that means exactly that: you are his biological daughter in the eyes of the law. He has planted papers and rumors everywhere, only the family and our servants know that you're not really his daughter. " He explained slowly. "I guess, the good thing is, you actually have real identification papers now." He smiles slightly.

"For all the good it's going to do me…" I replied bitterly. "You know better than I that the life of a noble is only a pretty golden cage… And it's even worse for women" I sighed, letting myself fall, without thinking, on one of the dusty armchairs before sneezing and getting up immediately. "But you're right, Sheryl won't hesitate to sell me to the highest bidder and even if the Duke is on my side, Sheryl only has to threaten me a bit for me to accept and get it done."

"Honestly Eve, you are already part of the family, why not make this official? Considering your very… free character, you will be better off here than in any other noble family in search of obedience and social power." He said and we paused for a second to take the time to wince at the real disaster that would cause. "Also, as Tricia said, we're already friends… I don't want to get married and I don't like you that way, but I tell myself that with you, it wouldn't be so bad… would it? Would that be really so horrible for you?" He said with a smile but his eyes showed how real the question was.

If i thought about it logically… he was right.

I refused this marriage in every aspect because of my education in the 21st century, but precisely: I was no longer there, in the 21st century. And if I wanted to safeguard my principles, I had to make choices. Currently, I could refuse this marriage to Tyki, sacrifice him to the Harmsworth family, and wait for Sheryl's next move while getting used to my new life as a noble. I could also flee, for sure, but… to do what? My whole life was here and the only other person I trusted was somewhere in India. What would happen to me if I decided to run in the streets, my savings in my pockets? Of course, Tyki and Allen had taught me a lot and I could probably manage but… what a life.

And then I could marry Tyki. In a way, marrying a Noah was still the less terrifying version of this story… But if we had to do this, then we had to do it right and for that, it was better to do…

"Contract." I let go suddenly when my thoughts finally came together. "Let's make a contract."

"Contract?" Tyki frowned, lost. "Like a marital contract? Of course there is one, but it's more up to our guardians to fulfill it… so Sheryl and Adam."

I shook my head negatively. "No, a contract for us. If we are to get married then we have to be on the same wavelength, knowing exactly what we can and cannot do with our relationship." Still seeing his confused eyes, I hesitated for a second. "The heir, for example. I guess we are going to need one, right? But I don't want to give birth or even… have relations with you." I replied and seeing his confrontational air, I continued immediately. "But we can adopt! The Duke somehow managed to pass me off as his legitimate daughter when I was 20, it shouldn't be hard to do the same for a baby." I still laughed, a little too bitterly about this whole thing. "But it's something to talk about up front to avoid problems later."

"Don't you want a child at all?" Tyki replied with wide eyes. It was sure that was not a common wish at the time ... "I know you never seemed very interested in a relationship but you like children so I thought..."

"Not biologically, yet, and maybe never." I answered firmly and to my surprise, he looked reassured. "See, you better talk about these things now to avoid unpleasant surprises later. Like, you like…" I paused to look for a polite way to talk about his sexual relations in English. "... spending the night with different girls. We can agree right now that we accept that the other can spend time as he sees fit with other people."

"For you too?" He said frowning.

"If you have this right, I must have it too, the agreement is not there to restrict our freedoms but to cement our confidence in the other and prevent subjects of future discord. And one of the big problems that we risk having is if we are not equal, I refuse to…" I was almost groaning, barely keeping myself from getting angry, it would do no good.

"I didn't mean to say it like that!" He immediately defended himself by placing his open hands in front of his chest. "You said it yourself, you don't want relationships… uh… carnal."

"It's true, but I like to keep my options open and since I have no intention of satisfying your desires, I'm not going to forbid you either." I answered, relaxing somewhat at his tacit agreement on equality. I know that didn't guarantee a marriage without domination, but having his okay now was way better than nothing.

Seeing him think, I looked at him biting my lip. Even in my time, (especially in my time), the issue of sexuality was still a problem. For Tyki, the Noah of Pleasure, even if we allowed ourselves to look elsewhere ... was a marriage without sex conceivable? "It's not against you, you know? I'm not interested, that's all and… and I love our current relationship. You are my best friend and I don't want a label to destroy this. We're not the type to bow to society's expectations anyway, are we?"

Blinking, he gave me a soft smile and shook his head. "No, you're right, it's not our style. I too don't want to destroy what we have. If you're really ok with that, it's fine with me to see other women ... but I'll avoid the Nobles this time, I promise!" He said with a dramatic grimace and I let a small chuckle pass my lips.

"That would be better, yeah" I smiled at him, flicking his arm like I used to when he said something stupid.

"Okay, let's make our own rules and then… I'll have to go ask your 'father' for your hand." He teased me and I let an incredulous smile spread across my lips.

Me, maried at 21. Frankly, who would have believed that ...

As usual, it was a far cry from what I had imagined ... years ago. Much less funny and much more contemplative but hey, I guess that I like this kind of things in my old age X ')

Things will accelerate from now on, especially since we were one chapter behind with the last one but I will still try to add a small chapter before the end to show their new daily life and enjoy it before it shatters again at the end of NLN ... Courage Eve: ')

In the french version (just one year ago) I talked about Covid19 containment which just happened in France… It's weird to look one year backward and to see all which changed with this pandemic. I hope you stay safe, think about letting a review and see yah next 25th !