Chapter Text
~On the first night of Chanukah, the-real-narnia gave to me:
Some actual activity!~
*sobs*
So this is basically what happened this year:
Me: I'm going to write SO much during quarantine
My depression and executive disfunction teaming up to beat the shit out of me in a back alley: bitch you THOUGHT
So yeah, I basically dissociated for almost the entire year. Not really sure if I'm back now, but at least I know it's December.
[Personal rant you can skip: Also I got Covid two weeks ago and it's a PAIN IN THE ASS and WHY DO I STILL HAVE IT WTF. I'M 22! I'M MODERATELY HEALTHY! But my 56 something Dad had it and is fine and my 48 something mother who has an imbalanced immune system due to recently donating a kidney recovered in like 4 days! AHHHHHH
I don't want them to be sick but it DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.]
Oh well, here's the chapter, after FOREVER. I will try and do my tradition of posting something each night, but I will definitely be updating one chapter of this, DoD, L&WoG, and Tsunami. Maybe another part of Live, because there's no way I'm putting the rest of the story in one epilogue like I thought I would, it's too long.
ANYWAY! ENJOY THE CHA P-TER! PLEASE REVIEW!
*returns to crying in the corner*
Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen - A New Piece
"Wow."
"It's so soft."
"Feel the fur!"
"Yes," Laxus said, trying to keep his temper in check. "It is very soft. Now stop petting my coat!"
Laxus and I were official S Classers, now, but that news seemed to pale in comparison to Laxus's shiny, fluffy new coat.
But Laxus was very possessive of his new soft accessory, and, in his words, 'Didn't want sticky children's fingers on it!'
He actually made them wash their hands before he allowed them to touch it.
"I can't believe Salamander was right."
Gajeel stood next to me, watching the younger kids (Sting, Rogue, Yukino, Wendy, and of course, Orga and Natsu) touch the fur in fascination. Gajeel had already snuck a feel earlier.
"What are you talking about?" Erik asked, also beside us. He, like Gajeel, had touched the coat once or twice before shrugging it off. While it was soft, it 'wasn't his thing', which I'm pretty sure is a lie.
"When we were talking about hoarding," Gajeel explained. "Natsu said that Laxus hoards soft things. Can't believe he was right."
The three of us looked back at the kids swarming Laxus's coat.
"Is…is he growling?" I asked.
"Yeah," Gajeel sighed. "You should probably get the midgets away from him."
"Gajeel, you're not that much taller…" I pointed out.
Now he growled.
I rolled my eyes and walked over to Laxus. "Alright kiddos, time to shoo. Laxus wants his coat back."
The kids burst into a bunch of groans and whines.
"You're going to make the S Class Dragon Slayer angry," I told them. "That's enough."
Luckily, Gray, of all people, came to the rescue.
"I can't believe Flame Brain is too stupid to listen to Elle!" he shouted, running past the group.
"Get back here you stripper freak!" Natsu shouted, chasing after him. The rest of the group eagerly took off after them to watch the ensuing fight.
"Remind me to reward Gray later," I muttered to the two slayers next to me. "With candy or something."
"New clothes?" Erik suggested, before bursting into snickers.
I rolled my eyes and went over to join Laxus, who seemed much less stressed now that he and his coat were no longer being used as a playground.
"Better?" I asked him, sidling up next to him.
"Better," he agreed, throwing his arm around me and pulling me into his side. He leaned back against the wall and sighed.
"You realize that you may have gotten rid of the little monsters, but now you need to deal with me touching your coat," I teased.
"You can touch my coat all you want," he said honestly, his voice still sounding relieved.
I sat up a bit straighter. "Really?" I asked, stroking his coat with one hand. What? It was soft.
"Mmmhmm," he said, completely relaxed.
"Huh," I said.
"I told you we need to have that Talk," Gajeel said, appearing next to me.
"Fuckin-" I jumped as he surprised me. "Don't do that Gajeel. Jeez, since when were you able to move so quietly?"
"Rogue has been giving me lessons," he said proudly.
"Of course he has," I muttered.
"Anyway," Gajeel said, ignoring me. "I told you, we need to have the Slayer Talk. You'll understand why things like this happen."
I sighed. "Alright. But I don't want you telling the kids everything. We'll have a talk with just you, me and Laxus, and Erik and Kinana. Actually, maybe we should tell Erik and Kinana separately."
"Okay, then lets do it now," Gajeel said, nodding.
"Now?" I asked, sitting up suddenly.
"Now," he nodded.
"This is not what I would call private," I said, gesturing around the guildhall.
Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Just use one of the Sound Barrier cards Freed and Cana made."
I glared at him, but requipped out a card and activated it.
The sudden silence as we were cut off from the guild hall was a bit shocking. Even though nothing really loud was happening, the background noise was a nice balanced hum in the background, and the absence of it was more than a little disturbing.
"We need to find a way to only block the noise one way," I said. "The lack of noise is…"
"Weird," Laxus finished, nodding.
Gajeel rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. Though to be fair, he'd only joined the guild around half a year ago, and Laxus and I grew up surrounded by the noise for a few times that.
"Alright, so, toss it on me-" I started before we were interrupted.
Freed ran straight at our barrier, waving his arms like crazy and shaking a letter in his hand. He was yelling something too (probably 'Ella-sama') and looked frantic.
I took down the barrier.
Look, I get that I have to do the 'Slayer' Talk eventually, but it's just really weird that Gajeel is the foremost expert on this stuff. He's super tiny! He's like a baby. It's just weird.
"What is it, Freed?" I asked him, as he stopped trying to get my attention maniacally.
"I – got – a letter," he puffed, bending over to take a deep breath before passing me the letter. He must've run to the guild straight from Fairy Valley.
I gave him a look, asking him if he really wanted me to read his mail. Freed just nodded, still panting for breath.
I unfolded it and began to read.
Dear Mr. Freed Justine,
I highly doubt you remember me, as I can barely remember you, but I know enough to know that if anyone can help me, you can.
Much like you, I am in a stifling aristocratic home, and I would like to leave to pursue magic, as you did. I acquire your assistance in running away from home, and, if possible, would like to join your guild.
Sincerely, your cousin, Rufus Lore
I froze, staring at the letting. Rufus was Freed's cousin? They did have a similar sort of air about them. But this didn't make sense. It was only the beginning of X778. Rufus couldn't be older than six!
I'm pretty sure I had to write a letter to the President when I was six. It was in utterly horrible handwriting and I'm pretty sure it went like 'Hello Mr. President please fix my orphanage Thank You.'
"Do you remember him?" I asked Freed.
He nodded. "Just barely. He was born a few months before you spirited me away." He straightened, and stood firm. "I would like to rescue him, Ella-sama."
I chuckled. "You don't need my permission, Freed. And you're old enough to spirit people away on your own if you want to."
His eyes widened, but he didn't back down. "I would still like you to accompany me."
"Alright, we'll go get him," I promised. I turned to Gajeel, who looked testy, and Laxus, who looked like he was trying not to laugh. "We'll have the conversation when we get back."
"Fine," Gajeel grumbled. "Go kidnap another minion."
He humphed again and I rolled my eyes and turned to Freed, asking him to lead me to a map.
Rufus had written his address down in the letter, who, upon checking with the map and cross-checking with my locating magic, we found easily enough, though he actually didn't know the entirety of his address.
That makes me feel better about him. The kid's around six years old, either there or turning six soon, and his vocabulary is better than mine when I died. (Then again, I ran away from public schooling when I was twelve, so it's kind a given that I only learn vocabulary from reading things).
From Freed's storytelling, he couldn't have been much older than five or six months when Freed left, and I wondered how Rufus could remember that far back. I thought to the newly born children in the guild; to Yukino remembering an incident when she should've been too young to remember; to the all-too knowing eyes of the children in this universe. Even how crazy intelligent Levy was when she was five.
Dammit, Mashima.
Which brought me back around to Maxie, wondering if she was going to remember the odd way she was born and me screaming 'what the fuck' at her.
…Well, I guess we'll find out eventually.
Freed and I left the guild and teleported a few cities over, on the hunt for our new guild member.
We stood outside a large manor house.
"Ready?" I asked Freed.
He nodded nervously, picking at his fingers as he fidgeted.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand, before teleporting into the house.
I took out the push pin and let it roll around in my hand before it focused on Rufus's signature. "This way," I breathed to Freed, and he nodded.
We followed the tack until we were close enough to hear crying, and my heart went out to the boy. I put away the tack and approached the door, hearing him cry on the other side.
"Let's go," I told Freed, before grabbing his arm and popping into the room.
Inside, Rufus lay on his bed, his face in his pillow, crying and curled up as much as he could. He was very, very small, barely bigger than Yukino.
Freed looked at me completely terrified on what to do, and I rolled my eyes as I stepped forward to comfort Rufus.
I knelt down beside the bed and whispered, "Hey, don't cry."
Rufus got very, very still. I don't blame him, it'd be kinda terrifying for something like that to happen.
I put my hand softly on his head and stroked his hair. "We got your letter, Rufus. If you want to come with us, you can."
Slowly, he lifted his head, and spotted me, with Freed a step behind me. "Is this real?" he whispered.
I smiled at him. "It's real."
His fear seemed to vanish and he jumped into my arms, hugging me tightly. I could feel his tears and he sobbed into my shirt.
I have to admit, he's a hell of a brave kid. He reached out to what were essentially strangers to him, and he committed.
"Let's go to your new home," I whispered, hugging him back.
After ransacking the house, we returned to find the guild in utter chaos. Not that that is unusual or anything, but usually it's not that chaotic. Which meant one of the kids Did Something.
"Do I even want to know?" I asked Gildarts as we stood by the entrance.
"I'd have to know to tell you," he said, shrugging.
"Natsu wanted to fight Erza." Erik appeared next to me silently, making me jump.
"Are you fucking taking lessons from Rogue, too?" I asked him, glaring.
"Of course," he said nonchalantly. "It's our mission to be as silent as possible. There are bets on who can make you jump the most."
"Ass," I muttered, punching his arm.
He just laughed before gesturing to the mess in front of us. "Erza didn't want to fight Natsu, so he stole her cake. And then she essentially beat the shit out of him."
I sighed. Yeah, that sounded about right.
I climbed onto the bar, and clapped my hands. Using Saturn, I compressed the air around the clap so it was louder than usual.
"Hey, I've got a new movie to show you guys, so break it up and proceed to the training room if you wanna watch it!" I shouted at them.
Luckily, that was enough to get the kids to disperse.
"What's a movie?" Rufus said as I hopped down from the bar. He had been quiet so far, merely holding onto Freed's long coat and staying by his side.
"Did you see us at the Grand Magic Games without actually being there?" I asked him.
He nodded.
"That's a recording – we record what happens and play it back. A movie is much like a recorded play – there's a plot and characters and it tells a story. Now come on, this one is one of my favorites."
We all migrated into the training room, where most people were already spread out among the floor. Laxus lay back against a chair-like cushion near the front, surrounded by Lucy, Juvia, Orga and Yukino, with Jellal and Natsu a bit farther away. He also growled if anyone approached the empty spot next to him.
I smiled and gave him a little kiss on the forehead as I walked past him to start up the memory card.
"Alright, this one is called Rise of the Guardians," I said, queuing it up. "The guardian characters here are pretty well-known back in my world, like little stories and traditions that were passed through cultures."
I started it and went back to Laxus, leaning against him, and he took his fabulous new coat and wrapped it around the two of us. Then the vultures – I mean, children – descended and curled up around all of us.
Freed and Rufus settled down nearby, and I smiled at them.
I really do just need to pick up Minerva now, and I'll have the Sabertooth set. That's kinda cool. And also completely an accident. I didn't really mean to stop an entire guild from forming, but I'm not too bothered by it. These kids were my family now, and they should be with the rest of them.
I settled into Laxus's arms and smiled.