Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long wait. I temporarily fell out of love with both Joseph and Aiden (the main character of Phoenix). I was also working on my next project, which is a fic about Allen, Lenalee, Kanda, and Lavi going into the future to help 2008's Black Order. I should have the first chapter of that out soon once I figure out what the Innocence of one of the exorcists should be and all of the future Noah's abilities. It's a collaborative project with my friend, Wolf (he doesn't have an account here).

Disclaimer: I still don't own D. Gray-Man.

It took three days of hell for Joseph and Kanda to pay off Cross's insane amount of debts in Verona. They mostly ended up washing monstrous amounts of dishes. They still owed a lot after they had finished with the dishes and cleaning the places. Joseph was forced to sell some of his drawings and almost turned to prostitution until Kanda captured and turned in a wanted highway man and got the reward. They paid off the debts and had some money left over. Joseph immediately led Kanda to the nearest restaurant and attempted to eat his weight in pasta.

In the middle of the meal, Kanda suddenly spoke up, "This has been irritating me for a while and it won't leave me alone until I ask you."

"Ask me what?" Joseph asked between bites.

"What is your first language?"

"I didn't know my accent disturbed you that much. I know it's unusual, but still . . ."

"It doesn't disturb me. I've never met anyone else with the same."

"I'm one of the only three people in the world with this accent. The other two are my mother and one of the Noah's."

"I see. What is your first language?"

"I'm not sure if I learned Chinese first or German first. I spent my first five years of life in China with the rest of the clan and moved to Munich when I was six, but I learned German when I was still in China . . ."

Neither said much more until they were on the train. Joseph merely got up halfway through the ride to call the Order. He came back thirty minutes later looking murderous.

"What's wrong?" Kanda asked.

"Dieser frauenjagender Faulpelz stirbt wenn ich ihn das nächste Mal wieder sehe!"(1) Joseph growled.

Kanda just gave him a questioning look as he didn't understand German all that well.

"Komui just spent twenty minutes yelling at me about not finding out where Cross went," Joseph said in English as he sat down and dragged his fingers through his shoulder length hair in frustration.

The train came to a sudden halt and was knocked off the tracks. Screams came from the other compartments. Joseph suddenly punched out the window and jumped out. About thirty level one akuma and four level twos were attacking the train.

By the time Kanda was out on the battlefield, Joseph had already defeated at least five of the level ones. His right forearm was covered in flames. He currently had his fist buried in the body of a snake-like level two. The akuma was screaming in agony until it suddenly exploded with a bit more force than akuma's dying explosion usually had. The ground cracked from the force of the explosion and several level one akuma were destroyed by the flames produced.

Joseph looked at Kanda with a sadistic grin and eyes that could only be described as animalistic before moving on to the next level two. Kanda suppressed a shiver as he turned to his own opponents. After completely destroying the train tracks and the surrounding area, Kanda and Joseph managed to destroy all of the akuma without sustaining too many injuries. Kanda had several bruises that were already starting to heal and Joseph had a few small burns on his face and right arm from the first explosion. His right sleeve was burnt off to the elbow.

Kanda looked around the battlefield trying to make sure they didn't accidentally kill some of the train's passengers. He didn't see Joseph anywhere. Had Joseph possibly gone back onto the train and killed the passengers? Kanda was suddenly drawn out of his thoughts when he felt someone pulling on his sleeve.

Joseph was standing slightly to the left of Kanda with an iron grip on Toma's wrist. He was a lot calmer than he had been during the battle. His hand wrapped none too gently around Kanda's wrist and he started running at that speed that a person could only achieve after several years of ninjitsu training.

They quickly made it to the town below the cliff where the Black Order was located where Joseph promptly fainted. Toma gently supported the weight of the exhausted exorcist as they made their way to the Order. Kanda took Joseph when they got to the building and dropped him onto his bed before going to give Komui the report. Kanda desperately hoped that Joseph never met General Tiedoll. Judging from the walls of his room, Joseph and the General would get along perfectly and somehow end up irritating Kanda about it.

--

Joseph woke up in his own room. Running at full speed took a lot out of him. He was merely surprised that Toma knew where his room was. He made it a point to never let anyone except Luke, Brianna, Kanda, and Lavi know where his room was. Luke and Brianna were his best friends, Kanda lived in the room to his left, and Lavi found the room on accident. He finally concluded that Kanda may have had a moment of kindheartedness and brought him.

He shrugged off his burnt uniform and ruined shirt and replaced them with a white sleeveless shirt and a long green coat with the kanji of despair sewn onto the back. He walked out of his room headed toward the dining hall. His innocence was finally giving him a proper appetite.

He walked into the dining hall to find it mostly empty. Lavi and Luke were sitting at his usual table. He ordered a huge amount of food and joined them at the table.

"What did I miss?" he asked.

"Allen woke up, but he's in the infirmary for about another week or two. I think Komui made another Komurin and Brianna did something wierd," Luke replied.

"Explain what you mean by wierd," Joseph said.

"Lavi should explain."

"Lavi, what happened?"

"Brianna stole my coat and stabbed me in the arm," Lavi whined.

"She's just being Brianna. She stabbed you to draw blood. She does that to every redhead she meets," Joseph said before starting to devour his food.

"That's right . . . she does, and that's why I confiscated all of her kunai. I just wonder how she got one to stab Lavi with," Luke said.

"I gave them back," Joseph said between bites.

"Why?"

"So she wouldn't use the ghost crystal unnecessarily."

(1) That's supposed to translate to "That womanizing slacker dies the next time I see him!" but I, unfortunately don't speak German, so I don't know if it makes sense or not. I think I may have corrected it, but I'm still not really sure (I thank you so much, asa).