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People feared her.
Not that Erza would ever blame them. She was obviously a taboo. Stained with blood the same color as her hair. A giant slash down her face, leaving her eye just barely hanging from her socket. She may have the stature of an eleven year old girl, but she knew she looked like a nightmare, a zombie, a wraith. Pale and blood-soaked, any who came across her shied away.
Help was unheard of. Help had been unheard of her whole life. So she did not expect it now. She wandered through towns, scrounging for food and shelter. It was a miserable existence, but it was what she deserved, for abandoning the others to Jellal and the Tower of Heaven.
Besides, she knew her chances of survival. She wasn’t stupid. She knew she was going to die, probably within the next month or two. If not from starvation or exposure, then infection from her wounds would end her.
As life became more painful, as her wounds burned, as her stomach panged with hunger, as her mind did nothing but scream of her guilt and uselessness, she almost began to wish Jellal had simply killed her.
It would have been a kinder fate.
But then she wandered into Magnolia, and everything began to change.
“My dear, why are you out here all alone?”
Erza raised her head, examining the old man that had approached her. He gasped when he saw her face. It’d been a while since she’d actually seen the wound, but she could tell from the smell that it was beginning to fester. She couldn’t even imagine how awful it looked. “Nowhere else to go…” she muttered, pulling her knees closer to her chest. The alleyway outside this strange, colorful building was the cleanest place she’d slept in months.
Sadness crept into his eyes. “Come inside,” he offered. “We can give you a decent meal, some clean clothes, at the very least.”
She narrowed her functional eye. “Why?” Ever since her village had been burned and she’d been stolen away by those fanatics, not a single person had shown her kindness. This man must want something from her.
He sighed. “Because it makes my chest ache to see you out here like this. Please. Let us help you.” He held out his hand.
Ever so slowly, Erza took it.
She learned that the old man was named Makarov, and that he was in charge of the organization the strange building belonged to. It was called Fairy Tail. Evidently it was a place for wizards.
But she didn’t tell them she had magic. Then she would have to tell them what she had used her magic for, tell them about the awful things she had done with it. They would realize that the blood staining her clothes was not her own.
She may not have been given much opportunity to learn how the world normally worked, but she knew that eleven year olds were not meant to be murderers.
They gave her hot, delicious food, as well as clean clothes. Even that made her feel worlds better.
“Will you let me take you to a healer to have your eye looked at?” Makarov asked.
She held her hand to her eye, but didn’t dare to touch it. “My eye is fine.” She knew it wasn’t. She knew that if she survived, eventually, she was going to have to buckle down and finish what Jellal had started, finally cut it out of her head, but she didn’t want to deal with that today.
“Can I ask what happened to it?” he asked as he sat across the table from her.
Erza gnawed at her lip. “A boy cut me.” She stabbed her fork into the ham on her plate, imagining it was Jellal. Then she immediately scolded herself for thinking like that. So violently.
“How long has it been like that?”
She shrugged. The days had all blended together. “A week or two.”
He hummed. “You really should let someone take a look at it, before it makes you horribly ill.”
“I know.” She’d seen what happened to the other slaves’ untreated wounds.
“So let us help you?” he asked again.
She sighed. “Fine.”
“One of your guild members better not be responsible for this,” Porlyusica hissed as soon as she saw Erza’s eye.
“Of course not, you old hag!” Makarov snapped. “I found her trying to sleep in the alley outside of the guild hall.”
The healer’s scowl somehow managed to intensify. “This is from a blade?” she realized.
Erza nodded.
“There’s no way I’ll be able to save the eye. I’m going to have to surgically remove it,” she said. “Maybe I could have done something if the wound was fresh, but it’s infected now.”
Erza nodded again. She’d expected as much.
“But I can give her an artificial eye,” Porlyusica said. “I don’t know if she’ll have perfect vision in it, but it will be much better than this—” she gestured to her eye “—mess.”
“You can really do that?” she dared to ask. She was already blind in the eye she currently had. If any portion of her sight could be returned, she would be forever grateful.
Porlyusica scoffed. “Of course I can. What kind of healer do you take me for?”
Erza cried when she saw her healed face. She couldn’t even tell the eye was artificial. Not only that, but she was clean, her hair had been combed, there were no bruises or cuts on her skin. She scarcely recognized herself.
Porlyusica and Makarov fussed over her as she cried, worried something was wrong, but she assured them everything was okay, even if the artificial eye couldn’t produce tears. It was a small price to pay.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
Makarov never thought he was good with children. It was made obvious by his nonexistent relationship with his son, and even his relationship with his grandson was beginning to become strained as he got older.
As such, he had no idea what to do with Erza Scarlet. Obviously, he refused to let her live on the streets, not when the guild could easily provide for her. But he worried over her. Even if it hadn’t been made glaringly obvious by the wounds she bore when he found her, the girl had been through something awful. She refused to talk about it. Actually, she refused to talk about much. He knew that couldn’t be healthy, especially for a child so young.
He encouraged Laxus to befriend her. Sure, he was five years older than her, but he was the closest guild member to her age, so perhaps she would open up to him. Unfortunately, neither of them wanted anything to do with the other. Erza obviously didn’t trust him, and Laxus made it very clear that he didn’t want her around.
Makarov suspected Laxus might be jealous of the attention he gave her, but he wasn’t sure what to do about something like that.
It came to a head one day though, when Laxus shouted, “You shouldn’t even be here, you little bitch! This is a place for wizards! And you can’t do jackshit!”
Erza curled in on herself. “Leave me alone…”
Makarov sighed, making his way over to break up the fight before it got any worse.
“No! You don’t belong here! Go be useless somewhere else!” Laxus shouted. “Or was that why you were camped out in an alley? You were so damn useless that no one wanted you?”
Makarov was seconds away from throwing his grandson into one of the cells for the night, when Erza Scarlet stood up, glaring at Laxus with enough fire that he stumbled backwards a step.
“You know why he got rid of me?” she hissed as she flicked her fingers, causing a sword to materialize in her hand. Despite being barely half his size, Erza tackled Laxus to the ground and shoved the sword into the floor, mere centimeters away from his head. “Because I cut them to shreds, and he was scared I’d do it again if I stayed.” She bared her teeth and ripped her blade from the floor. “Don’t tell me I’m useless until you’re not getting your ass kicked by little girls.” She stalked off to sit in her favorite corner, still clutching the sword like a lifeline.
Everyone in the guildhall stared with wide eyes, mouths agape. No one had expected Erza to have magic, let alone a fighting spirit. Not when she seemed so melancholy.
Makarov shook his head, and approached Laxus. He needed to make it abundantly clear that things like that weren’t going to fly.
Then he needed to get to the bottom of Erza Scarlet’s past.
It took a couple more weeks for him to get her to tell him what had happened to her. What surprised him the most, was that he didn’t really have to push. She shuffled into his office one day, asking if they could talk, and she told him everything.
How her little village had been burned and looted by a group of dark magic fanatics. How she, along with numerous others, had been taken and forced to work as slaves, building a grotesque alter to a dark god. How she’d been chosen to be sacrificed to the god, but one of her friends offered to take her place. She told him of the slaves attempted rebellion after she stood up to one of the captors, how so many of them were killed for trying to resist. And that was when her magic awakened, summoning every weapon in the vicinity towards her, before she used them to kill the slave drivers.
She broke down into tears as she told the last part of the story. How her best friend had changed when they tried to sacrifice him, how he cut into her eye, threw her out of the tower, and threatened to kill the surviving slaves if she ever dared to return.
Makarov did his best to comfort her, and assured her she had done everything she could to help the others trapped there. He wondered if he could get the Council involved, and inform them of what was going on, but decided against it. If they even believed Erza, they would charge in with no regard for the innocents still trapped there.
So he did the best thing he could. He offered Erza a permanent place with Fairy Tail, where she could learn to cultivate her magic and become even stronger. Strong enough that someday, perhaps she could return to this Tower of Heaven, and rescue the people still trapped there.
She accepted eagerly, and Erza Scarlet finally came out of her shell.
Her fiery nature was revealed, along with her stubborn personality.
She would make an excellent Fairy Tail wizard.
Mirajane curled up in a ball, tugging her cloak as tight as she could around her shoulders. Guilt clawed at her chest, and darkness tore at her thoughts. The dark power of the demon swirled inside her, and she wished and wished that she’d never gone into that church.
She’d just wanted to help the people of her village. They were always so kind to her and her siblings. Ever since their parents had died, they’d brought them food, clothes, even helped to pay the taxes on their little house. So when that demonic beast had attacked the church, Mirajane knew she had to do something.
She had stepped into that church, and everything changed.
Her parents told her it was likely she had the ability to use magic. After all, it had run in both their families for generations, but Mirajane never expected that her power would be this.
The whole village bore witness to her body absorbing the demon’s power, her magic tearing its soul to shreds, before forcing it to become her own. They watched as her body twisted and moulded into a demon’s, as she trapped its soul inside her for eternity.
It was grotesque, awful magic. Kill the creature, absorb the creature, become the creature.
Takeover magic, she learned it was called. Similar to transformation magic, but more absolute, more barbaric.
The village cursed her, called her a demon, a monster, even though she’d purified their church.
Lisanna and Elfman refused to turn on her, so the village refused to care for them as well. They had no money, so without the villager’s food, they went hungry, and eventually, the government took away their house, leaving them to wander the countryside.
Mirajane didn’t know how to get her old body back. She didn’t know of any takeover mages that could teach her how to control this magic, so she hid herself beneath a cloak. Hid her talons, her mutated skin, and everything else that was other about her.
But people could still tell there was something off about her. She and her siblings were driven from every town they tried to settle down in.
She’d tried to leave them a few times, but they refused to let her.
Tonight, they were curled up under a bench on a street in Magnolia. Mirajane could tell from their breathing that Lisanna and Elfman were already asleep, but her body refused to rest. Not with the demon’s soul still merged to her own, not while guilt over the harsh lives her siblings had to live destroyed her from the inside out.
Eventually the sun rose, and Elfman and Lisanna began to stir.
“What are you doing sleeping under a bench?” a girl about Mirajane’s age asked as she leaned down to peer beneath the bench. “Are you lost or something?”
Mirajane gasped, and instinctively pulled the hood of her cloak down, not wanting to let the girl catch a glimpse of her. “We’re not lost. We’re fine.”
The girl frowned. “Those are some awfully scrappy clothes…” She waved at Lisanna, as she opened her eyes. “When was the last time you ate?”
“Couple days ago?” Lisanna yawned as she stretched. Then her eyes widened as she realized someone was talking to them. “Elf! Elf, wake up! There’s a weird girl here!”
“Lisanna,” Mirajane scolded out of habit.
But the girl didn’t seem to mind. “I can take you somewhere to get some food.”
Mirajane shook her head. “We don’t have money.”
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll just give it to you.” She held her hand out. “Come on.”
Lisanna’s eyes lit up at the promise of food, and it finally got Elfman awake. “Come on, Mira!” he insisted. “What’s the harm?”
Carefully, making sure her arm was still completely covered by the cloak, Mirajane took the girl’s hand.
“I’m Erza, by the way,” she said as they followed her down the street. “Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail!”
It took Lisanna and Elfman about ten minutes to fall in love with Fairy Tail, and not just because of the free food. The members were kind, and weird, and exciting.
But Mirajane knew it wouldn’t last. As soon as someone caught a glimpse of what she hid beneath her cloak, they would be chased out again.
No, she decided, as the Master of the guild offered to let them stay for as long as they wanted. I will be chased out. Lis and Elf are going to stay. This is a good place for them.
On their fourth day at the Fairy Tail guildhall, the Master asked, “Can I ask why you wear that cloak everywhere, young lady? You can’t be getting much sun, dressing like that.”
Mirajane instinctually pulled the cloak tighter. “Because.”
Makarov hummed. “If you’re cold, we can get you some more practical warmer clothes.”
She shook her head.
He didn’t press, but he didn’t get up from his spot next to her. “Why don’t you go play with them?” he asked as he nodded towards Erza, Elfman, and Lisanna. The bossy redhead was explaining to them how her magic worked, how she could summon weapons and change her armor within the blink of an eye.
Lisanna and Elfman begged for her to teach them.
Mirajane ducked her head. “Will they be safe here?” she asked.
Makarov frowned. “I assure you, we will do our best to make sure you and your siblings are well cared for here. A twelve, eleven, and nine year old are much too young to be wandering around like that.” He gave her a hard look, almost like he knew what she was thinking.
But Mirajane wasn’t meant for a happy place like this.
That night, after everyone was asleep, she snuck out.
She almost made it down the street when someone ripped her cloak away.
“I knew it!” Erza gasped. “You have magic!”
Mirajane squeaked and jerked backwards, desperately trying to reposition her cloak again. “Please don’t tell anyone!” she begged. “I don’t want them to kick Lis and Elf out.”
Erza scowled and crossed her arms. “Why the hell would we do that?”
“Be-Because I’m… I’m…” She thrust her arms out, putting her talons and grotesquely twisted, purple skin on full display. “I’m some kind of monster!”
But Erza’s eyes lit up as she got a better look. “That’s so cool! Is it transformation magic?” She grabbed Mirajane’s hand, pulling it close to her face for a better look.
She jerked her arm away. “No! It’s evil magic! Takeover magic! I take demon’s souls and steal their power! I don’t belong in a place like this!”
Erza rolled her eyes. “No magic is evil. It just depends on what you do with it. Explains why your siblings were having such a hard time understanding my requip magic. They must have the same kind as you.”
Mirajane’s eyes widened. No! Her siblings didn’t deserve the same fate as her! She had to get out of here before her curse spread. She turned to run, but Erza grabbed her wrist.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself!” she snapped. “You just have to learn how to control it! It’s not that hard. And think about how upset Lisanna and Elfman would be if you just disappeared like that.” She drug her down the street and back towards the guildhall. “Just ask one of the older members to teach you how to control magic.”
She tried to escape Erza’s iron grip, but it was a futile struggle.
Mirajane decided that she hated Erza Scarlet.
The Strauss siblings blended into Fairy Tail as seamlessly as Erza did, and Makarov was thrilled. Not only had the guild provided a home, became a family, for three more children who desperately needed it, but now Erza had some people her own age to interact with.
Of course, he could do without the ridiculous rivalry between her and Mirajane. He didn’t know how many tables they’d broken when they fought.
It took Mirajane a while to learn how to control her abilities, but once she got the hang of it, Makarov could tell she was going to become a fiercely powerful mage. Maybe that was why she insisted on fighting Erza so much, since they were both very obviously on their way to the top of the ranks.
Lisanna and Elfman learned how to use their own takeover magic as well. Elfman learned to take in the souls of various monsters, and Lisanna learned how to take animal souls. Despite what Mirajane had insisted when she first told him of their magic, it was not ugly or wrong. Makarov thought it was beautiful.
“Mira, why do you hate Erza so much?” Elfman asked. “I think she’s nice. And kind of pretty.”
“She’s a bossy bitch and she’s sure as hell not pretty!” Mirajane snapped. “Never say that again!”
Cana had been in Magnolia for about a month, and she wasn’t entirely sure she was in the right place. She’d daydreamed about coming to Magnolia and Fairy Tail for five years now, but now that she was here… she began to wish she’d never left her hometown.
Sure, the church that took her in had been kind of boring, and she wasn’t sure how much she bought into the whole God schtick, because what kind of great God would let her mother die when she was only six, leaving her alone. But at least she’d had a home there.
She couldn’t believe she’d really left it to come to a wizard guild that her dad had been a part of. She’d been watching the guildhall for days now, and she’d not seen a single member that looked anything like her father was supposed to. Had her mother been mistaken? Surely not.
The members were starting to notice her, and a few had tried to approach her the past couple days, but she always ran and hid before they managed to catch her. She didn’t want to get shipped off to some random church or orphanage before she got to meet her dad.
But today, she hadn’t noticed the old man quick enough. “You looking to hire a wizard for some reason?” he asked as he came up behind her.
Cana squeaked and pressed against a brick wall, before regaining her composure. “Fuck off, old bastard! It’s none of your damn business what I’m doin’ out here!”
The man’s eyes widened, before he threw his head back, cackling. “You’ve got quite the mouth on you!”
Cana glared. Her mother had cussed all the time, and the stupid priests at the church tried to train her out of cussing, which only made her want to do it more. She’d cuss all she fucking wanted to! “Whatever. I’m not here to fucking hire you.”
He hummed and nodded his head. “I thought not. We don’t get a lot of business from ten year olds.”
She stomped her foot. “I turn twelve in a couple weeks!”
He held his hands up. “Sorry, my bad. You know, if you’re looking for some friends, there’s a couple kids living here that are your age.”
She frowned. She knew the kids he was talking about. That spunky redhead chick, and the three siblings with white hair. The oldest one seemed really mean, and the other two were too nice. They needed to balance each other out. “I don’t want friends.” I don’t want anybody.
“What about your parents?” he asked. “Do they know you’re out here so often?”
She scoffed. “They’re dead. I don’t think they give a shit.”
She expected pity from the old man, but surprisingly, he didn’t offer any. “Well, if you ever get hungry, or want to meet the other kids, feel free to come in for a meal.” He grinned and patted her shoulder, before leaving her alone in the alley once again.
It only took another week for Cana to decide to go inside.
Makarov had no idea what had drawn Cana towards Fairy Tail, but he wasn’t about to turn down another homeless child. Unlike the others, it wasn’t obvious what type of magic she had (if any), so it took her a while to cultivate it.
But once she figured it out, it was obvious that the girl was going to be an absolute powerhouse when she was older. She adapted to card magic like it was nothing, even though it was one of the most complex and difficult forms of magic to master.
Unfortunately, she did get easily frustrated over the fact that she wasn’t on the same level as the other kids, who had already been practicing their magic for a while now, and had it forced out under extreme circumstances.
But other than that, she seemed to like the environment, and for the most part, got along with everybody.
The next child that Fairy Tail took in was… more of an official thing.
He was in the capital, for a required meeting among guild masters, to discuss some new laws and regulations he couldn’t be bothered with, when he was approached by the master of Blue Pegasus. “Hey Makarov, you’ve taken to housing little kids now, right?”
“I don’t know if I would say that,” he replied. Sure, not counting Laxus, they were up to five kids, but it wasn’t like he actively went out searching for them. They just kind of… turned up, and he wasn’t about to turn them away.
He waved him off. “What would you say to one more? The Council found him wandering out in the mountains while they were investigating a demon attack and want us to take him in because he’s already got powerful magical abilities for someone his age, except… our guild is not really a suitable place for children.”
Makarov frowned. In all honesty, no guild was a suitable place for children, but he could understand where the man was coming from. Blue Pegasus was a much too formal and mature place for a young child. “I suppose we could take in one more.”
Gray wanted nothing to do with this stupid guild. Everyone was so damn happy here. What was there to be happy about?
“Hey, Gray!” Elfman ran up to the table he was sitting at. “Macao is taking me on a quest! Want to come?”
He shook his head.
Elfman’s smile fell, but he didn’t press. It was the fifth time the boy had tried to invite Gray to do something, and he’d turned him down every time. He didn’t want to be friends with these people. He wanted his Master back, Lyon back, his family back.
“You shouldn’t be so mean to him,” Erza said as she sat down next to him. “He’s excited because it’s only been girls here until you.”
Gray scoffed. “So what? Go away.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a bastard, you know that?”
“I don’t care.”
She whacked the back of his head.
“Hey!” He rubbed his head. “What the hell was that for?”
“You’re being mean to people for no reason,” she said. “They just want to help you, and be your friend. It’s actually really nice here.”
“I didn’t ask to be here!” he argued. “The stupid Magic Council just put me here!” He didn’t know what happened with Lyon. They’d separated as soon as they escaped from Deliora, and Lyon told Gray he wanted nothing to do with him ever again. He couldn’t help but think that Lyon was having a better time than him right now.
She whacked him again, and Gray began to think she just liked hitting people. He’d seen the way she fought with Mirajane. “Hardly anyone asks to get put anywhere. So shut up. Stop whining.” She got up, and offered to go on Elfman’s quest with him, if he wanted.
“You know, she’s had a very hard life,” Makarov said.
Gray jumped. "Gods above!” He’d been so busy staring after Erza, that he hadn’t even noticed the old man sit next to him. Then he frowned. “What do you mean?”
Makarov shook his head. “You’ll have to ask her if you want to know. It’s her story to tell. But she might understand your situation more than anyone else here.” He got up again, leaving Gray to think about what he’d just said.
A couple days later, he asked Erza what the Master meant, and she told him what all had been done to her.
He felt bad for feeling so sorry for himself. He told her as much.
“It’s fine to feel sorry for yourself, just don’t take it out on other people.” She patted his shoulder. “Especially not Elfman. He’s too nice. You can be mean to Mira all you want.”
He gave her a look. “Do you really hate Mira?”
“Of course!” Erza proclaimed. “To pick so many fights with me, she’s made herself my rival!”
Gray decided not to point out that Erza picked just as many fights with Mirajane as the other way around.
He also decided to spend time with Elfman the next time he asked.
Several months passed, and Gray adjusted to the Fairy Tail lifestyle, and even began to spend time with the other children.
Makarov could admit he was worried the boy wouldn’t fit in as well as the others. After everything he’d been through, and his confrontational personality, he wondered if he’d ever get along very well with the other kids.
But thankfully everything worked out fine.
Surprisingly, he’d become very close with Erza. Admittedly, Makarov had no expected that. They both had very controlling, loud personalities, so he’d expected them to butt heads.
Well, they did butt heads quite often, but they seemed to enjoy it, and never let it get too out of hand.
“You’re bringin’ too many damn kids home,” Laxus grumbled one day.
Makarov sighed. “They have nowhere else to go, and you know that. Besides, they’re a great foundation for a new generation of wizards.” Every single one of those kids was going to be an amazing wizard when they were older. “Besides, you’re not that much older than them.”
Laxus huffed, and didn’t reply, but Makarov knew that resentment was building in him.
He didn’t know what to do about it.
Macao brought home two kids one day, evidently having found them wandering alone out in the woods during a quest.
And they were easily the strangest children Fairy Tail had picked up by far.
Currently, the boy was hiding under one of the beds in the infirmary, guarding the very young girl he’d been brought in with. Macao had just barely convinced them to come back with him, and even that had taken the promise of food. He’d gotten next to no information out of them, not even their names.
Makarov couldn’t help but wonder if they were half feral, and how long they’d been out in the woods like that.
He kneeled down next to the bed they were hiding under. “We have some food downstairs if you’re hungry. You’ll have to come out though.”
A snarl came from beneath the bed. An actual snarl.
He jerked back. He’d been kidding about them being feral, but well… if they were going to make noises like that… “Okay, can you tell me why you don’t want to come out? Are you scared?”
“Mm mm.”
“What was that?” Makarov asked, leaning down again, not actually expecting an answer at that point.
“Not scared…” the boy muttered.
“Oh no?” Makarov asked. “Then why are you hiding?” He couldn’t think of another reason. He could be wanting to protect the girl, but if he truly wasn’t scared, he had no reason to do so.
“Too loud…” he said. “Too many smells.”
Makarov frowned, trying to figure out what that meant. He leaned down, daring to look beneath the bed.
The boy was curled around the little girl, who had her face buried in his chest and her hands covering her ears. The boy’s eyes were screwed shut, and he had one of his hands pressed against his ear. “Too much.”
A type of sensory overload? It had to be. If they really had been out in the woods for a long time, they likely hadn’t been around very many people, if any. He supposed it made sense that Magnolia and the guildhall might be overwhelming.
“I’m afraid I can’t do anything about the smells,” he said, and that was the one he really didn’t understand. “But I can try to get everyone to quiet down for a while. But in return, can you tell me your names? And what you were doing out in the woods?”
“‘M Natsu,” he said, finally cracking an eye open. “Natsu Dragneel. This is my sister, Wendy Marvell.”
Makarov nodded. “Alright then, Natsu. I’ll go quiet everyone down and get you and your sister some food. We can talk some more while you eat, okay?”
He hesitated, but nodded.
Dragons.
That was… not what he had been expecting from the two children, but he sensed nothing but sincerity from them as they recounted having been raised by the creatures, and then waking up one morning without them about a week ago.
It took quite a bit to convince the boy to stay with Fairy Tail and not run all over the country looking for the rest of his family, but he eventually agreed, for his sister’s sake.
And if Makarov thought that was difficult, trying to convince Natsu to let him take Wendy to see Porlyusica while he was introduced to the other kids was a nightmare. He’d never met a more protective child. He’d almost call it territorial.
But eventually he convinced him, and he left Natsu to have a very awkward first meeting with Erza and Gray.
“Honestly, Makarov, where do you keep finding all these kids?” Porlyusica asked. “You can’t take in every sorry brat you find.”
He sighed. “I can’t just turn them away. Especially not when they’re magic users. Most orphanages won’t take in wizards. They claim it’s too much work, so then they either end up on the street, or with the Council, and neither of those is really a good option.”
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue as she examined Wendy. “How long were you out in the woods?” she asked.
Wendy blinked, tuning back into the conversation. “A week, I think…”
Porlyusica nodded. “I think she’s fine, just a little malnourished, but a few good meals will fix that.”
“What about the sensory overload?” Makarov asked. “I eventually got Natsu to tell me it was giving them headaches. What could be causing that?”
She shrugged. “It could be a number of things, really. Being overwhelmed after being alone for so long, it could be an anxiety or trauma response, or… I suppose it could have something to do with their magic. Remember how poorly your grandson reacted to his heightened senses after we put that lacrima in him?”
Makarov grimaced. He hadn’t even considered that.
“It’s our magic,” Wendy said. “It makes us smell better. And hear better.”
Porlyusica nodded. “If that’s the case, they’ll just have to adjust over time. It shouldn’t take too long, a couple of days, a week at the most. Until then, just make sure they have somewhere quiet and dark to go.”
Wendy and Natsu took much longer to adjust than the other children, and Makarov wasn’t sure if he should blame it on their unusual magic, or their complete lack of normal human interaction. The other children didn’t quite know what to do with them either. They didn’t like how touchy they were, and weren’t very good at reading their body language, which Natsu and Wendy relied heavily on.
Well, except for Erza. She dived right in, even going so far as to ask them how she could make them more comfortable.
But eventually, the other children learned, too. And Natsu and Wendy learned how to act a little more human.
Before Makarov knew it, a year had passed, and it was like the eight children had been living with Fairy Tail since they were born.
One more girl joined the guild when she was thirteen. Thankfully, she came under much better circumstances than the others.
The McGardens lived a few towns over from Magnolia, and Fairy Tail was pretty much the only guild they’d ever heard of. They knew next to nothing about magic.
As such, they had no idea what to do when their daughter realized she could use magic, and began to cultivate her ability. They wanted to support her, but had no idea how. So they brought her to join Fairy Tail, and gave their consent for her to become a full fledged member of the guild.
Levy was a very sweet girl, and it took her a while to really get to know the other kids. She spent most of her time with them attempting to get them to be nicer to one another, but they rarely listened. Despite that, all the other kids loved her.
She was the last child to basically be adopted by Makarov and the rest of the guild.
The years ticked by, and Makarov’s predictions came true. The kids were some of the best damn mages he’d ever seen, and they technically weren’t even adults yet. Mirajane became S-Class by the time she was seventeen, and Erza wasn’t too far behind.
The scars from their pasts never completely healed, not that Makarov had expected them to, but the children seemed genuinely happy with their lives.
But then Lisanna died.
“My magic did this,” Elfman choked. “I did this! It’s all my fault!”
Gray just stared at Lisanna’s tombstone, barely registering Elfman’s breakdown. He just felt so numb.
Was it because he’d already watched so many people die?
That couldn’t be it, because Erza was on her knees sobbing, and she’d seen even more people die than him.
Was there just something wrong with him? Was he broken?
Why didn’t he feel anything?
The days after Lisanna’s death were a blur, and they all began to change, not necessarily in good ways.
Mirajane pretended not to notice the changes, because she needed it to be the same. She could pretend Lisanna was still here if everyone acted the same.
She couldn’t do that if they were all acting different.
Elfman didn’t smile as much, and he’d become obsessive with his training. Gray exaggerated his feelings, and it was glaringly obvious. She had no idea why he was doing this, but she wished he would stop. That was when Cana really began to drink. She’d drink during parties, but after Lisanna’s death, that became all she wanted to do, and she left her bitterness with the world at the forefront. Levy didn’t interact with them as much anymore, as if she wanted to distance herself, so she wouldn’t care as much when the next one died. And of course there was Natsu. His temper and eagerness to fight only got worse, and Mirajane knew from the worried looks Wendy kept giving him that something else was going on, too.
Erza was the only one who continued on as if nothing had changed.
Though she appreciated it, Mirajane had no idea how.
Another year passed, and Loke turned up.
Cana was enamored by him as soon as he joined the guild, and they were dating within a week. She’d always felt inferior to the people she grew up with, and Loke helped to alleviate some of the feelings. She was his whole world, and that was just what she needed.
Somehow she convinced herself that being a celestial spirit wouldn’t catch up with him. He could live life as a human and be just fine.
He wasn’t going to die.
“How come you don’t use your magic anymore?” Erza asked, cornering Mirajane one night after she was done with her shift at the bar. “I miss fighting you.”
Mirajane didn’t want to admit to Erza why she didn’t go on quests or use her magic anymore, not when Erza was the first one who told her how cool and pretty she thought her magic was. She didn’t want to tell gorgeous, fierce, unapologetic Erza, that after the death of her sister, her magic had become grotesque again. Something to be feared, rather than revered. “I just don’t enjoy it anymore,” she finally said, before pushing past her. “Goodnight, Erza.”
Mirajane wondered if she would ever tell her the truth.
If she would ever be able to tell Erza Scarlet that she loved her.
Two more years went by, and everyone eventually recovered from the loss of Lisanna, though some of the slight personality changes and coping mechanisms remained, unfortunately.
But they moved on, kept walking forward.
What else was there to do?
“You’re leaving to check out that lead on Igneel tomorrow, right?” Gray asked.
“Mmhm,” Natsu muttered. “Hope I actually find something this time.”
Erza had half a mind to tell him once again not to get his hopes up. She didn’t think he would, and she didn’t want him to feel even more hurt over it than necessary, but she’d stomped on this little glimmer of hope so many times since he’d discovered it a few days ago. She could let him have tonight.
“Hope you do,” Gray said.
Erza gazed up at the stars. They were beautiful tonight. She wondered why they didn’t come out to look at the stars more often. They’d done it often when they were younger, usually at urging from Natsu and Wendy, who talked about stargazing with the dragons the entire time.
She supposed it might have something to do with how busy they were nowadays. While she enjoyed quests and the hustle and bustle of her life, sometimes she missed their younger days, with less responsibilities and more time to just be together.
Just some time to lay on Natsu’s roof, and look at the stars.