I don't own D-gray-man or any of its characters, though Yuki is my creation.

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Kanda stormed along the corridor of the Black Order, growling in his frustration. The Moyashi had been so excited about the arrival of the newest Exorcist – who was apparently an old friend of his – that he had knocked over Kanda's soba. He didn't even have time to get more, he had to report to that idiot Komui right away.

He stalked into the room, slamming the door behind him, startling Komui with the sudden loud noise. Kanda glared at the purple-haired Chinese man as he smiled broadly back at him.

"Kanda, glad to see you're on time," Komui greeted him cheerfully. "Come meet our newest ally, Fujii Yuki."

Kanda frowned and glared at black mass of clothes sat cross-legged on the couch, annoyed because he hadn't noticed the new Exorcist in the room. A boy of indeterminable age sat on the couch, with a pair of swords strapped to his back. His coat, which marked him as an Exorcist, was similar to Kanda's own but the hood was pulled up and hid most of his face. Only his large sapphire-blue eyes and his broad, good-natured smile could be made out through the shadows.

Yuki got up from the couch and offered his hand to Kanda, grinning like an idiot. As he approached Kanda, he noticed that Yuki was no taller than the Moyashi.

"You're from Japan as well, aren't you, Kanda-san?" Yuki asked, offering his hand out to shake. "It's nice to meet some one from my home country, I haven't been back since I was five."

Kanda raised an eyebrow when he noticed Yuki's voice had yet to break, he couldn't have been more than twelve or thirteen years old. Kanda turned to Komui, refusing to acknowledge Yuki.

"This better not be the only reason you brought me here," Kanda said, glaring at the purple-haired supervisor whilst touching the hilt of Mugen lightly, hinting at the consequences if this turned out to be a waste of his time.

"No, no!" Komui replied hurriedly, waving his hands in front of his in an attempt to ward off Kanda's bad temper. "You have mission."

Kanda's hand dropped from the hilt of his sword and Komui offered both Exorcists the specs for the mission. Yuki sat back down on the couch and started to read it immediately but Kanda decided to stand.

"You'll be headed to Bordeaux, a city in the West of France," Komui informed them. "There have been an increasing number of reports of Akuma from the Finders as well as people suddenly going mute."

"And we suspect this has to do with Innocence?" Yuki asked, looking up from the specs.

"Yes, Innocence sometimes causes-"

"Strange phenomena," Yuki finished for Komui. "I know, Cross was very fond of telling me stories from before he was a General."

"Ah, so you're memories of General Cross are fonder than Allen's," Komui commented, completely ignoring the bitter tone in Yuki's voice.

"I suppose," Yuki replied. "We got very different treatments from Cross."

"Probably thought you couldn't handle it," Kanda sneered.

"Probably," Yuki agreed, then continued in a much lower tone. "He always was a chauvinistic pig."

"Anyway, as I was saying, you'll be headed for France," Komui continued. "I'm aware that you don't speak French, Kanda, but Yuki is fluent so that shouldn't be a problem."

Just barely, Kanda could hear the new Exorcist mutter something under his breath.

"I never said I was fluent," he protested quietly. "I said my French was passable."

Brilliant, Kanda thought sourly. My translator can't even speak the language properly.

Three hours later, the two Exorcists were on a trained headed for Paris. Once they reached the famed city, they would change trains and continue south until they arrived at Bordeaux. Until then, Kanda would have to refrain from killing the chatty young boy who he'd been saddled with.

"The file says that almost all of the people who have gone mute were female, though there were one or two males," Yuki rambled on. "They all live in an area of about two miles radius and the majority of the girls went mute after auditioning as singers at a nearby theatre. So the best thing to do would be to talk to the owner of the theatre and if that doesn't turn up any leads I'd like to talk to the girls that went mute but didn't audition."

"Will you shut up!" Kanda shouted, finally snapping. "You've done nothing but talk since we got on this train, so give it a rest, stupid gaki."

"Gaki? Brat?" Yuki asked, his usual smile replaced by a thoughtful expression. "You do realise that we're the same age, don't you?"

Kanda stopped, frozen in the action of drawing Mugen so he could slice Yuki to pieces. There was simply no way that this gaki was the same age as him… well, Lavi was the same age as him so maybe there was a chance.

"I met Lavi and he mentioned you were both 18," Yuki continued, seeing the confused look on Kanda's face. "My 18th birthday isn't until next month but that still makes you less than a year older than me."

Kanda glared at Yuki, trying to figure out whether he was lying or not. Instead of squirming under the harsh gaze like a normal person, Yuki sat there and smiled in a good-natured way.

"So," Yuki began again, trying to strike up conversation. "Have you ever been to France before?"

"No!" Kanda snapped again, sitting back down and abandoning his previous intentions of killing Yuki with Mugen. "And I though I told you to shut up."

Yuki's smile turned smug and there was a definite mischievous glint in his eyes, even as he met Kanda's seemingly permanent scowl. However, before Kanda could challenge the look, Yuki looked away. He drew up his legs so he could sit cross-legged on the seat and pulled a sketch-book and pencil out of thin air before beginning a drawing.

Kanda narrowed his eyes. This was going to be a long trip.