"Hey Miranda?"

"Hm?"

"I…er…w-was…just wondering…" Miranda watched with curiosity as he stumbled over his words, desperately trying a polite way to continue, "If you don't mind me asking, what happened there?" she followed his gaze and pointed until she caught sight of her hands.

Her bare hands.

She gasped and dropped the box of books she was carrying to snatch the pair of white gloves that lay resting on her desk.

"O-oh! I-it's nothing" she replied quickly while slipping them on in a frenzy as if to erase what he had just seen.

Krory was stunned, unsure of what to do, not at all expecting her to react in such a way of his innocent question.

"Oh…ok…s-sorry for asking" He mumbled softly, doing his best to not take it personally and continue his work. Miranda blinked as if awakening from a daydream, surprised at herself and her natural reaction to desperately cover her hands.

For a moment she watched him, he purposely avoided eye contact as he continued to relocate boxes from the hallway to her room.

Finding no words, to apologize or explain herself, she continued as well, pretending it never happened as she picked up the fallen books and put them away.

Krory let out a small sigh of relief, signaling he was done by wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. He had been doing this job for other exorcists forced to move into new rooms, and now it was time to move on to the next person in need of Krory's strength.

He turned his head and watched her from the corner of his eyes, Miranda continued keeping her full attention on her project, still too ashamed at her outburst and not ready to face him, knowing full well that he was hurt.

Krory opened his mouth to say goodbye, apologize, or anything but nothing came out. Instead he turned and quickly left the tense room before things became even more silently uncomfortable.

Miranda immediately stopped the moment he gently shut the door behind him and let out a frustrated sigh before smacking herself in the face.

"Stupid Miranda! Vhy did you do that?" she growled to herself.

The silence of her room gave no answer except the soft ticking of her Grandfather clock, in which Krory was so gracious to come to her aid when she attempted to move the giant antique by herself.

Miranda slowly let herself fade away into her thoughts, unconsciously taking a seat on her bed and her eyes fell back onto her hands.

Lost in thought she stared at the cotton gloves that covered her small hands, innocently sitting on her lap.

Why didn't she have them on in the first place? She always did. Regardless of weather or occasion her hands were always covered. Away from sight. Away from anyone and everyone.

She sighed, perhaps it was because she was in her room. Well technically her new one, her last room and many others had been destroyed thanks to Komui's newest Kimourin mecha. Yet she had already done what she could to make her new room just like her old one, everything would be just as it were before, and she had made herself comfortable as such.

So comfortably and at peace that she had removed her gloves, not at all thinking anyone would be there to see.

Yet there was Krory, with a big goofy smiling and for whatever strange reason red cheeks and a stammering he came to help.

He didn't deserve to be snapped at; he was just asking a question.

Miranda blinked herself back into reality, still staring into her empty hands. Her thoughts disappeared as she silently picked at each finger with her other hand, gently plucking off her right glove. Slowly slipping it off, revealing her pale skin, black nail polish that needed to be redone and large jagged scar within her palm.

She held her scarred hand, gently tracing the old wound with her thumb, memories of the pain came flooding back as did many other events of that day.

Her run in with the young girl of the Noah clan, being thanked for the first time, and of course, being nailed to her own beloved clock.

The day she became an exorcist.

She subconsciously looked up at the clock as her memories replayed. Luckily the dream world Road had created for the torturing of Allen, Linalee and herself had some part in leaving her clock with not even the slightest scratch on its ancient wooden exterior, although much less can be said about their wounds.

She brought her hand upward, the back of it facing her and now more into the light, she was able to see the other side of Road's work.

Just as jagged and rough as her palm though much wider considering it was the point of entry for the Dream Noah's spikes, she was able to clearly see the discoloration and can sometimes feel the outline of her old wound, like her body was trying so desperately to make it go away but just could not.

At this she laughed sadly," Story of mien life"

With her inspection complete she slipped her glove back on and sighed.

Despite her self consciousness towards her hands, it still didn't justify her actions towards Krory.

She clutched her gloved hands into a tight fist as she stood up and huffed.

"U-um…Krory?" Miranda gently called out, peaking from behind door that was slightly ajar. He was found putting his souvenirs of his travels around the world on his dresser, carefully placing them with extreme care.

"Yes?" he responded but didn't turn around, his attention completely on putting his precious items in a perfect position to be adored.

He gently poked a small flower pot to shift it slightly to the left, he stared at it for a short moment before dubbing it perfect. He smiled at his work and turned around.

Krory could barely stop the gasp from escaping, too busy with his work he didn't realize it was Miranda who had knocked.

She took a deep breath before stepping into his new room, having next to no clue as to why she was so nervous, "U-um…s-sorry to intrude but…I just…about earlier" she stammered.

He blinked in confusion until he saw Miranda clutching her gloved hands, it clicked.

"Oh! N-no don't apologize, I shouldn't have been nosey"

"V-vell I mean…I didn't…I hope didn't seem…vell…I just" she sighed looking away, "…think its ugly"

"…scars are ugly…" he replied softly.

Miranda's head snapped back up at him, her eyes asked 'You have one?'

Krory blushed at the eye contact, for a moment his legs screamed to run but he remained, mentally puffing out his chest and summoning the courage to continue a conversation with the girl he's had his eye on for weeks.

"I-if you want…I can show you mine if you tell me about yours?" he suggested softly.

Her eyes lit up and a smile finally graced her lips, knowing Krory also bore a mark on his skin made her feel at ease, or at least enough to not mind him looking at her hands.

"S-sure!"

Krory smiled big and quickly ran about his room, though everything was still in boxes and the floor a mess he somehow managed to dig up a chair for her.

Miranda giggled lightly at his strange enthusiastic behavior, as he pushed a couple of boxes to make room for himself to sit on his bed ready for story time. Regardless she took a seat and gently removed her gloves.

"Um…vell….here they are…" she sighed, bringing her bare hand upwards to show him her scarred palm. She kept telling herself that it was no big deal yet she was still nervous showing him what no one else had ever seen.

Which brought up another question. Why was she showing him in the first place? He was just a friend that lived a few doors down. Right?

"O-ouch…" he winced, imagining different scenarios as to how it could've happened.

"J-ja it hurt…a lot" she brought her hand down, gently tracing her palm.

"What happened?" he asked, now his eyes on her.

"…Vell…I can't tell the story vithout telling you how I became an exorcist…"

Krory smiled, "I have time"

Miranda smiled back," I lived in a small village in Germany…"

"- und then ve vere back in my apartment like nothing had happened, except for our injuries vhen I had to deactivate mien innocence…"

By now, Krory was at the edge of his seat with his chin resting on his fists with his elbows on his knees, listening intently at her story.

"Wow that's amazing" he commented, story time was over but he still felt a sense of awe as he listened to her dramatic tale.

A lonely clumsy soul struggling to survive, a horrible supernatural occurrence and an amazing destiny ahead!

"R-really? I thought it vas rather pathetic" she laughed a bit at herself but mainly at his big child like eyes as her story ended.

Krory sat up straight and smiled, "Well yes ack! I mean no I mean erm" he panicked as he stumbled over his own words,"…not just how you got it but the whole story…that's pretty amazing"

"O-oh…Danke…" she blushed.

"But…we all have scars…its apart of being an exorcist…"

"Ja but…I mean…a…a girls hands…shouldn't be like this…"

Though her eyes fell back on her hands, he felt like he could see her words.

A girl's hands should be pretty, soft and delicate.

Not scarred or ugly.

Although Krory thought otherwise.

He cleared his throat in an attempt to distract her from slowly slipping into her depression and started up another conversation.

"Um…so…what about those?" he asked.

Miranda looked up at him, "Hm?"

"These" instead of pointing or simply telling her what he was referring to, he reached out and gently grasped her hand, turning her palm face up he poked her fingertips.

Miranda blinked in surprise. He noticed the small scars on her fingers, some were burns from random fires or Akuma attacks during her missions but most of them were from failed sewing attempts.

"Oh, these? Nothing special, I sew. I like doing it even though I end up hurting myself all the time" she laughed at herself but slowly trailed off as she stared at her hands.

"But…you know…I love it so much, I don't mind the pain. These scars…I don't mind them" she finally looked up and smiled.

"That's good to hear" Krory smiled big, more than happy to see her smile again.

A few moments passed before the two slowly looked down, just now realizing that their hands were intertwined.

An awkward silence passed between the two, unable to move or say a word.

Although Krory was fully enjoying this, he coughed and stood up, though gently releasing his grasp, hoping to move on to the next subject before she questioned him.

"Right, my turn. Fair is fair!" Krory said quickly.

His subject changing maneuver seemed to have worked, he reached down, grabbing the ends of his shirt and pulled it up revealing his stomach and the long straight scar across it.

Although that wasn't what caught Miranda's attention, although the scar was there all she could see was his beautiful wash board abs right in her face.

'…holy shit'

"I recently got this one, compared to your story this is pathetic. I turned around and an Akuma nearly cut me in half had I not jumped out of the way in time." He smiled sheepishly, blushing in embarrassment. But she didn't hear him, her minds went into unknown places.

"….oh….I…see…" she mumbled, her face bright red.

Krory watched her, completely oblivious as to why she was so speechless as well as to what he was doing. He gulped and quickly put his shirt down.

"S-sorry, its gross looking"

"A-ah no! Er I mean…um…danke…for sharing" Miranda coughed, almost ashamed of the way she was thinking about him and gave him her biggest smile.

"Of course…" he smiled back.

The awkward silence returned but not for long, Krory cleared his throat and started again, he was on a roll tonight might as well keep it going.

"Um so….you sew…you think…maybe…perhaps…you could patch something for me?"

Miranda's eyes sparkled for a moment, excited to be of use "I'd love to"

But mean while her brain was on another adventure, 'Please be the shirt please be the shirt please please please please'