Shining brightly as it framed the sky above them, the sun beat down on those gathered about the front of the guildhall as, with some of excitement, they watched what was turning into a nearly weekly (if not more) spectacle. Though many of her days were still spent inside, away from the blistering heat of the never-ending summer, Marin Dreyar finally found a good use for the lunch breaks she would skip, many times, in the years prior.

"Come on!" Kai yelled, as he frequently did, no matter how many times he witnessed it. Whether she had the upper hand or was falling behind. At the top of his lungs, until his throat bled, he always stood near by, cheering (screaming) her on. "Marin! You can do it this time!"

But she couldn't.

It wasn't that she lacked confidence or underestimated herself, either, as she stood there, in the center of the haphazard circle of guild mates gathered about, staring at the man across from her. No, Marin knew her power. She knew her advantages. But she also was aware of her weaknesses. Shortcomings. Erza told her that it was an important part of things as well; knowing what you couldn't do. If you went around believing you could do anything, often times, you would be reminded why exactly you couldn't.

Erza.

The woman was around that day, rather than out on a job, standing beside Kai. But she was silent as she observed, arms crossed tightly over her chest, lips a thin line, and there was no way that she thought Marin was ready. Any of the other times she tried.

But, as the woman told her many times as well, there was something to be had in defeat; you could never improve to victory if you didn't taste it's adversary.

"You can do it!" Kai knew no such thing, however. No. It didn't matter who his best friend was going up against; he was certain that she was going to come out on top. One of them had to believe it, anyways, he felt. "You're water. Like literally water."

He really felt like the concept was being under used in her current match-up.

But Kai didn't understand a lot of things, Marin found, about battles and magic. Which made sense, considering he rejected those things wholeheartedly. In his mind, Marin should just be able to douse the man before her in some torrential level water and bam!

Problem solved.

He wasn't on fire though, in need of putting out. No. The man before her was fire itself and his flames didn't die in her waves, but rather fizzled them entirely, making steam of her attacks and flinging boiling water on anyone who got too close.

"You're gonna have to do better than that, Marin," he snickered, like he always did, should an attack of hers actually connect. He'd only run a flaming hand over where some water splashed, perhaps, on his cheek, drying it immediately. "If ya wanna get one up on me!"

The first time Marin found herself challenging the Salamander, she was timid and fearful and an easy take down for the man. Most left disappointed, given Kai had called all their attention to it, and it was quite disheartening.

"You alright?" Natsu stood over her in concern that first day as Kai tried to head over, but Erza only held his arm, not allowing this. "Didn't go too hard on ya, did it?"

But Marin only blinked away her pain, shook her head, and excused herself back inside the guildhall, to hide out further embarrassment. She hoped she could figure a way to avoid the man for the rest of, oh, her life, but he was in the hall of course, later that day, looking over jobs with his wife.

They ate a meal first, before heading out, and Natsu only smiled at her when, the only one on duty and Kai nowhere around to save her, she had to bring their food over to them.

"Hey, Marin." She'd never heard the man say her name before, honestly, she didn't think, but he smiled warmly at her all the same. "When do you think you'll be ready, huh? To go again?"

"Leave her alone, Natsu." Happy frowned from around the fish head he was engulfing. "You big bully!"

"Hey, I'm no bully!"

"I dunno," Lucy hummed, in agreement, at least for the moment, with the feline. "Picking on a little girl-"

"Little? Ha! Marin wanted to fight." Natsu looked to her then, eyes alight. "Didn't you? And we'll do it again, whenever you're up for it."

She only shook her head though, the teen did. It wasn't as if she were in shock that day, to fall to the man. Of course that would happen. Of course. It would be her first real battle that wasn't just Erza during training. And against such a man? Loss was acceptable.

It was just…

Well…

She hadn't asked Natsu to fight her.

Erza had.

She asked for him to and Natsu did it because Erza was one of his closest friends and Marin just didn't want it to be that way. For people to have to do that. For Erza to guilt her very busy, powerful friends into playing pretend with her. That's what it was, wasn't it? She spent the whole winter training, harder than she ever had before, and what did she have to show for it?

It had taken years for….Haven to get to where she was. To become what she was. And Marin thought that she could ever get close? How? Huh? No. After her first battle, she was starting to doubt her ability to be more than an overly qualified meditation expert.

"We don't have to," she told the other slayer softly that day, bowing her head some. "I'm sorry I wasted your time. I'll ask Erza not to put you up to-"

"How'd you waste my time?" Natsu tossed up a flaming fist, nearly knocking Happy out in the process. As his Exceed only glared, the Salamander insisted, "That was the most fun I've had in a long time! And who cares what Erza says? If it was up to her, I wouldn't fight anyone."

That was true enough. Still, Marin was sure to say, "I just don't think I'm ready. You just hit me once and I-"

"That's a battle, Marin." He was focused in on his food then though she felt Lucy's sympathetic eyes stay on her. "You're not gonna get nay tougher, you know? If you don't push yourself."

She felt like going up against a man so much more powerful than her wasn't pushing herself at all; it was needlessly throwing yourself in front of a train to improve your endurance. There was only one thing that resulted in and, well, Marin wasn't looking for that outcome.

Still, when he returned from his job, Natsu came around asking about a rematch and she tried to warn him off, but the man insisted. So they battled it out again and, though the result was the same, both that time and all upcoming, she found his flames seared slightly less with each bout and it took slightly more to knock the wind completely out of her.

"It takes another Dragon Slayer," Erza remarked to her one day as they sat on the woman's back porch, watching Kai tend to his garden and it almost felt like another time, speaking with another student, but no, every word the swordswoman spoke reminded her this was not the case, "to sharpen a Dragon Slayer."

Marin found Wendy to be a far more forgiving route for this and, though she did train and battle with the older woman sometimes, with Natsu, it was so much different. Fierce and serious. She knew, each time it happened, where she'd end up, how much her agony she'd be putting her body through, just for a win less record against the man, but only needed to feel it there. Resting coolly against her chest. The gem that reminded her sister, every single day, of where she came from, how far she'd gotten.

For Marin, it just reminded her how far she had to go, how much ground she still had to cover, if she was every going to pick up where her sister left off.

So no matter how much it hurt, how many doubts sprouted their heads, how often she just felt like she was hopelessly chasing after nothing, Marin had to go on. Had to believe. Perceive.

She had to get stronger.

She just had to.

Regardless of how hot the sun bleated down on her that specific day, as she battled through her lunch break, Kai screamed his throat raw, and Erza watched in rapt silence, the sweat that formed on Marin's brow came far more from the heat of each fiery blast that enveloped her being and turned her magic to steam. And as she ran a hand over her own cheek, chest jumping as she pushed herself to go on. To continue.

But she wouldn't for much longer.

It would be a swift blast as he ran at her, striking her sorely in the abdomen, that did Marin in, and as she crumpled to the feet of the man, Natsu only held both hands up in the air in victory.

"Hey," he griped, as he always did, when only his sons seemed impressed with his victory. "I won fair and square! You can't boo me! I'm the winner!"

A sound observation, sure.

Getting the air back in her lungs, Marin rolled onto her stomach, first to blink up at the sky, and then at Kai's concerned face as he reached down to pull her quickly to her feet. Err, well, he was just reaching for her and then she got to her feet, really, but he felt as if he was being helpful, all the same.

"Are you alright?"

She could have asked the same for him as he seemed pained, just from speaking. He really did tear up his vocal cords each and every time, just for her benefit. The thought alone brought a grin back to her otherwise grim posture.

Marin nodded at Kai then, to give him some reassurance, and as the other teen just smiled, glad to hear this, she noted the thinning of the crowd and was thankful for the lack of anyone else of interest being around.

All her aunts and uncles were out on jobs and her parents, well…

It wasn't like they'd be pleased, if they were around to see it. Her mother, even, had asked her before not to get too carried away, when she heard about her bouts with the Salamander. And Marin would nod because she knew what her mother meant, but couldn't say.

And her father was livid, at first, when Marin began to take her fate as a slayer into her own hands, but the man was hardly around at all anymore.

There were benefits, she was finding out, to being the last Dreyar standing in Fairy Tail.

It wasn't her family that she should have been focused on though, in that moment, as she found out. Instead, while she was busy fighting, someone else had returned and, with the thinning of the crowd, he approached the pair of them then, Kai tensing just from the sight of him as Marin only frowned some.

"I have to go," Kai said as Locke came towards them, the younger man hugging her before he did so, reminding, "I have to meet Lance. We're going fishing. You could go, but-"

"I have," she sighed some as he breath returned to her fully, "work."

Always.

Kai left though, quickly, without saying anything to Locke. The older guy didn't even glance after him though as he stared curiously at Marin. He didn't smile though.

Locke didn't do that very often, in those days.

"You're really starting to hold your own," he offered all the same as Marin did smile though, easily. "But you need to work on your defense."

"Yeah, I- Locke-"

"Let me help you." He'd reached out then, with little thought, a magic circle spread beneath his finger tips, to deal with the burn she had on her cheek.

"It's okay," she insisted though, turning from him with her own bemused look. "It doesn't hurt."

His hand fell then, Locke's did, as he said simply, "Can't feel good though."

"Erza says you have to hurt. Feel it. All of it." And Marin could help it. Even though her body ached, she laughed, just a bit. "It's the only way you'll grow. And besides, Locke, you won't always be there to heal me, will you?"

"Guess not."

"Did you finish your job? I think I remember getting word from the town, but there's just been so much work, recently, I can't really keep up."

He nodded, but offered nothing else as far as conversation went. Just told her he'd be around, for a few days, if she decided she wanted him to look over any of her injuries, before slinking off for the hall. With him gone, Erza, finally, made her way over, arms still folded over her chest.

"I suppose," the woman began as the teen merely bowed her head, "you should be washing up, yes? And rushing back to work now?" When Marin nodded, Erza did smile, though only softly, as she said, "Come by the house tonight, for dinner, if you find the time. We will discuss things then."

Erza watched Marin scamper off to get this done quickly, as to get back to work, with something of a sigh on her lips. Kai was now long gone as well and, considering she had no intentions of leaving town nay time soon, the woman found herself taking a long walk back to her own home to relish in the momentary solitude she found there.

Months had passed since she was forced to send the oldest of her two boys away and yet she still felt a bit odd, taking no note of his presence as he moodily sat about, sulking, usually, in years passed, perhaps jut recuperating, in the one prior. The recollections felt as fresh as they did distant and when she didn't find herself tripping over the random assortment of things both boys seemed to collect, ranging from comics to action figures, she wasn't reminded of their age, but rather who filled the place of the one currently absent.

Marin did not live at the Scarlet household by technicality, but the already frequently over girl found herself there far more than home, and Erza welcomed the idea all the same. Marin kept house far better than either boy and, with Kai alone so often in those days, she couldn't begin to imagine what he did to the place.

Not to mention…

It softened the blow, quite a bit, that Ravan's absence presented. Though he was frequently gone on jobs before the whole debacle began, Erza could expect him home in a week or two. Three at most. It wasn't like he was the most personable or open person in the world, but there was something to it. The long silences he provided. When Kai was out with the Dreyars and it was just the two of them at home, she and Ravan, there was a certain...peace that would befall them both. She was certain he felt it too.

So much of the early years of their introduction had been a bit of an awkward dance between him first rejecting and then resenting the stability and guidance she brought to his life, but that was slowly dissolved into something more closely resembling gratitude before love.

Because Erza did love Ravan. And Kai. She never rightly felt the need to express this often and was sure the older, at least, was thankful for this, but an entire decade of her life had been given over to them both. Half of Ravan's and more than that for his younger brother.

It was a loss, for certain, him leaving. A sudden one, but one she'd expected, of course, eventually. Had her injury not accord, she was sure Ravan would have moved on, at least out of her home, by the point she was forced to send him away. It was becoming time, honestly.

He was a man.

But…

Had that been the scenario, it wouldn't have hurt so much. Leaving him, when he was at his most vulnerable, had been devastating to her as well, but also the lack of communication that they had currently did little to help dissway her uncertainty over this.

As far as she knew, he was as she left him, headed off with Jellal on whatever misadventures redemption and interest in Zeref brought them. There was always a chance, of course, that this was not the case and Ravan had taken off on his own, but she was not only certain that Jellal would have informed her by that point of such a development, but also that Ravan himself would have bene back in contact with her.

No.

He was safe with Jellal.

Well, as safe as the job description could supply.

But away from the scrutiny and shame that Magnolia would now offer him. There was nothing left for him in Fairy Tail. Regardless of his culpability or innocence in his friend's death, the Dreyars still ruled the guild. There was no way Laxus would ever forgive him for what had gone on. With the bad blood Ravan already held with so many others around, it was just for the best that he put Fairy Tail behind him.

Erza just wished, for the first time in her life, that she wasn't so entrenched in its enigma. The entity was a part of her, fully and wholly, and there would never be an escape from that. Separation from her was just as important for his future as from the guildhall.

So it helped. It helped a lot. Having Marin there, int hose days, around now more than to just shadow Kai, but to also take the place of student in Erza's eyes. Given their difference in magic, Erza knew eventually, perhaps even soon, Marin would out pace her and no long need such close tillage, but focusing on the inevitable had never been a strong suit for the swordswoman. It was much better to bask in the momentary than dread what loomed on the horizon.

There was nothing to bask in, however, in the Dreyar home in those days. While it had been splintering for years by that point, Haven's death had been the final nail in the marriage coffin for Laxus and Mirajane. His drinking had been at high levels for the majority of their oldest's teenage years, but he made no show of it being otherwise anymore. Guild work felt beneath him and even when he did manage to make it down to the hall, it was to stew in his office for hours or make everyone around him miserable out in the bar area.

It was not as if sympathy was lacking from those under his direct command. Freed sat around with him, most days, at the bar, and Bickslow and Evergreen seemed even more ready to do any of his bidding. Truly. Anything he asked for.

But it wasn't as if anyone could give him what he wanted. The only thing he would ask for. Even if he could ask for it, if they could bring it to him, if they could take him back in time, to stop his daughter from going out on her ill-fated job, or even just to get there in time, to stop what was destined to be…

It was always going to be the way it was. Not Haven's death, not necessarily, but he was just never going to get it right. Between him and his wife. Him and his guild. Him and life in general, honestly. Laxus had been miserable in his decisions from the beginning and even though there were moments, glimpses of happiness that kept him carrying on the straight and narrow, all the holes had been boarded up now; no light was going to get back through.

There was just nothing there anymore.

He'd gotten everything one could want and bemoaned it, so life had ripped it away from him, to show him what true misery was. You didn't get to sneer in the face of karma and complain that your share wasn't good enough; it was a surefire way to lose everything.

Mirajane wasn't much better off. Worse, even, if it was possible.

Laxus felt a loss in Haven because he was Haven, when he was young. So much of what she'd been going through were things that he'd either passed down to her or taught to her through sheer lack of true parental skills. Haven was everything he would have been, if he hadn't had Gramps around to eventually haul him back to center.

Mirajane, however, found none of herself in her daughter, not from the day she was born to the days she died. The recognition of this had always been present to the woman, it was hard for it not to be noticed, but it hurt so much more. When Haven was… Somewhere inside of her, Mira always thouhgt that it would eventually turn back around. The tides. That Haven would eventually step back from her aggression and power quests and, well, settle down some. It was then that she would need Mirajane. Need her mother. It wouldn't be any time soon, the woman knew, but it had to come eventually. And then…

But it didn't come.

There wasn't a chance for it too.

If Laxus wanted to go back and stop her from going on the gauntlet, to get to her before...before…then Mirajane wanted to go back much further. All the way if she could. Haven would have been so different, so completely different, if she didn't just immediately throw herself into the idea of having Marin. Because that's what Mirajane did. The second Laxus was back in their lives, safe and (somewhat) healthy, she started on the next baby in her bid to replicate her own childhood. And while that in itself wasn't the problem, the ideals that went along with this certain were the root. Mirajane was just never content. In anything. She always wanted more. If she had just been content and focused on her more, Haven, given her more attention, stopped just letting Laxus insist that he had it, he would deal with it, that Mirajane didn't understand their daughter, but he did, oh, man, he did, and it was probably right.

Laxus was right.

He did understand Haven.

But that didn't mean he could help her.

Mirajane felt as if, were she given a second chance, she would be able to. Drop her off at any point in the timeline and she would have been able to stop the steady progression that Haven took in her descent. Instead of getting frustrated or dismissive towards Haven's typical mood shifts and frequent outburst, she would try talking to her. Actually talking to her.

That's all she really wanted, truthfully, then, in those days, as she ghosted about and hardly seemed to care about much. To talk to Haven. It didn't matter at one point. If it had to be literally that last day, in the house, then she would take it. She would have insisted on it. Instead of letting it slip through her fingers. That lunch.

That time.

To be alone.

Just the two of them.

She'd never been alone with Haven in that way. Not really. There was that once, when Haven was nearing twelve or thirteen, when they went out to dinner together, just the two of them and had a talk but Haven gagged out on that and it wasn't at all what Mira meant now. No. She wanted a real conversation, and honest conversation.

Not just her talking at her daughter either. She felt like they'd done a lot of that over the years, but it had never worked. It never would. Haven felt disconnected from the guildhall. Her family. Mirajane always thought if she just gave her space, if she gave her time, eventually she'd realize this wasn't true, but now…

If she had just listened, just once, and accepted and spoke openly, with Haven, about all the different things she was feeling and thinking and experiencing then….

Maybe it wouldn't make any difference. At all. If they'd gone to lunch that day. If Mira listened that day. Maybe Haven still would have gone off with him, Ravan, and marched to her death the same she had every other second of every other day prior, but there was just that ounce, that little ounce of Mirajane that had to believe…

"What are you doing?"

This question was posed by her other daughter, Marin, as she stood in the doorway of her bedroom. Her mother was in there, rather than her own, which wouldn't have bothered the girl too much, honestly, but Mira was doing far more than just sitting around. Or even snooping. No. Either of those would have been perfectly okay.

Rather, her mother had taken it upon herself to pull out all the boxes from beneath the extra bed in the room. At one time, it belonged to Haven and, after she ran away, Kai frequently used it as well, but in recent months, it went unused, housing only a few of Haven's things that they'd recovered from her bag. Letters and clothes. Just sitting there. No one wanted to throw them away, nor the stuff that laid beneath the bed, and it bothered Marin, at first, sleeping in a bed across from it, but the feeling went away as time went on.

She found this to be true about most things.

Her parents were wallowing, to put it lightly, in their grief, and Marin didn't know what to do for them other than to continue on the best she could. There was no option for her, to just lay over and die along with her sister, and if that was the only one they found for themselves, there was little she could do to save them from it.

Still, a sick feeling crept up in her stomach that early evening as she stood in the doorway of the room, seeing her mother there, surrounded by all the things she'd pulled out from the boxes. Every single box. There were toys and stuffed animals ranging all the way up to comics and other trinkets Haven at one time needed, but left behind, when she started her new life. Over the three years her sister did this, Marin had slowly filled the boxes and shoved them, one by one, under the bed, to await the possible return of the girl.

But Haven returned a woman and only briefly before disappearing again, for good.

No one had ever opened the boxes, taken anything from them, or even thought about them, Marin thought, other than her on the nights when she slept in her own bed again and had to face the wall, to avoid looking at the empty void that was still unfilled in her life.

Because she did still miss her sister.

She didn't talk about her. Didn't cry over her. Didn't spend her days numbly going through the motions in a hopeless form, praying for an end.

No.

It caught her at moments, when she'd be tending baring and would catch a glimpse of it. Her sister's necklace, danging now, from her own neck. Or late at night, when she'd be walking home from the guild, usually with Kai, and they'd lapse into silence and they'd pass that corner the kids raced down so often in their youth, all together, but with her sister always ahead of her, always, leaving her behind. She'd see blonde hair in a glimpse at the market and her heart would catch and she'd think that…

It always hurt worst, not the thoughts, but the realization that they were just that now and always would be.

Marin wasn't given the option to dwell though. Not repress either. Haven was more a part of her now, internally, than she'd ever been at any other point. She felt closer to her big sister in death than she ever had in life. They shared a commonality more than just a namesake and every single time she bled, ever time tears welled in her eyes, she thought of just how much of each Haven had given through the years, to get as far as she did.

And how much more Marin would have to give to surpass it.

But her parents couldn't surpass and couldn't move forwards and it was different for them, Marin knew. Of course she knew. A daughter was different than a sister and the loss of one had nearly killed her mother, she knew, decades prior. It was going to take much longer for them to...not get over it. Because Marin wasn't over it. But to come to terms with it. Accept what had happened to Haven for what it was.

Move on.

They were both trapped for the time being and Marin was willing to accept that, but that day, as she left the guildhall and planned to just stop off at home for a bit, before heading over to speak with Erza, it was just too much.

She was too much.

Her mother.

After dragging all the boxes out and dumping them all about, Mirajane had begun looking at things, flipping through notebooks and random photographs that had been stored away too and it had just come to her suddenly. To Mirajane. She was going to go down to the hall that day, at least to see some people, but something drew her to that room, to Haven's things, and as she spread them all about the room, it just felt like…

"I was just," Mira sighed some and hardly even seemed to see her there, Marin, standing before her, "looking."

"For something?" Carefully, Marin stepped closer into the room. "Because you could have asked me to get it for you. I-"

"Just at everything, Marin."

"Yeah, but, why?"

Mira had no answer and this was more annoying, for some reason, to her youngest than anything else. The idea that her mother had touched Haven's things, drug Haven's things out, thrown them all about the room just because the idea came to her, out of nowhere, was so aggravating.

There was a time when Marin didn't feel these things. Anger. The seething, boiling type of emotions that just slithered into your bloodstream and clouded your thoughts, but something in the recent months had drawn it out more and more.

It felt like a violation, honestly, in some ways. Not because Marin felt possessive over the boxes nor their contents. Rather, Mirajane had once more thrown Haven's things all over the room they once shared, together, and drug up all these memories and feelings and…

Remembering Haven was fine, in small bursts. In little moments. But this was dragging out all these unnecessary notions and Haven had always overshadowed her.

Always.

Haven was stronger, faster, louder, and just over all had more of a presence that Marin ever had. Marin was reminded by her sister every day growing up that the room had been hers first and Haven was being kind, letting her stay in it. The lacrima had been hers first and it was only because Haven took pity on her that she allowed it to be placed inside of her. It was her guildhall, Locke and Navi were her friends, Mom and Dad belonged to her, their aunts and uncles became that through her, not Marin, and most importantly, Haven herself was just overall more important. Than Marin.

She could see her sister's face, snide and sneering, hear her sister's voice, loud and filled with this...kinetic rage that could never be quenched. Haven had an unmatched personality. Maybe it wasn't a good one, maybe she was a bad person for it, but you knew it, just from spending seconds with her. Immediately.

It zapped everything out of her younger sister, however.

To overcome her sister, Marin would have had to come out of the womb being just as vivacious and vicious, but instead she was sickly and weak. Haven capitalized on this easily and she didn't hate her sister for this. Didn't fault her for it. At all. Sometimes, when she was younger, she'd cry without provocation, just from the thought of Haven coming home, later, to torment her or taunt her, and Marin was so weak back then.

She probably would have been, with or without Haven.

Now, in the current age, she knew that she needed that. Every ounce of that. She had to weep in those days, get it all out, feel at her lowest, so she could stand as tall as she did currently. Haven in no way intended to aid her sister, in those early days, but Marin realized she had.

It didn't mean she didn't regret it. That her sister was missing...whatever she was missing or had whatever it was that she had that caused her to be so…

But you couldn't dwell.

If you did, you wound up like her parents.

Not to mention, the room had been Marin's and solely Marin's for so long before Haven's death. Even before she left Fairy Tail, Haven wasn't home much, if at all. From fourteen on, she seemed to either be on jobs or sleeping at the clubhouse, out in the woods. Then, when she started dating Locke, no one ever saw her at home, as it was a rather easy jump to just start staying over with him.

So it had been much, much longer since that bed belonged to her sister, since that room belonged to her sister, and Marin really just wished her mother hadn't reminded her that it ever had.

"I think," Marin whispered as the anger first swelled and then swayed, slowly away, when her mother raised her eyes, from down there on the floor, to meet her daughter's similar ones, "that it's time for me to… I don't wanna be here, in this house, anymore. I'm sorry. I...wanna move out."

It wasn't as if it was the first time she thought about it. She was old enough now, for the most part, and had a steady stream of income. More so, even, than any of the others. Marin had few expenses and saved much better than Kai and the others. It would be easy for her to afford. Just a little apartment. In town. It didn't have to be anywhere nice.

Just…

Not where she was currently.

Mirajane looked confused though, at her words, and Marin only shook her head some, when her mother asked if she was being serious.

"Where?" Mira asked, just that word, no more, but Marin knew it was meant more as an accusation.

She wanted to know if she was trying to officially leave for the Scarlet house.

But again, Marin only shook her head as she whispered, "Just alone. An apartment."

"You can't do that, Marin."

"Why?"

Well...Mirajane didn't have an answer, but she knew Laxus would. She called out for him then, his name, but Marin shrugged some at her mother.

"He's not here," Marin told her flatly and Mira looked so hurt and Marin wanted to feel bad for her, but the residuals from it, the anger, were still there.

It wasn't her room. Marin's. It never was. They weren't her parents, they weren't her friends, they weren't her family, and she just didn't belong.

Erza and Kai were in something of a disagreement themselves when Marin arrived for dinner that night. He'd brought a bunch of stinky fish over to be cleaned, by the swordswoman, who argued that he was more than old enough to clean what he caught, but then Kai complained that if he was the one who caught it, he shouldn't have to clean it.

"Like how if you cook something, the other person has to clean up," he reasoned.

"I would love, Kai, if that was how things worked around here."

"We could start," he offered Erza with a grin. "If you clean my fish."

They shelved the argument though, when it was clear that Marin had something more pressing to discuss. It was rather obvious. She had nothing close to a poker face and looked rather stricken, almost, as she arrived at their door.

"Are you hurt?" Kai asked immediately, thinking of her match earlier in the day, but Marin merely shook her head as the pair joined Erza into the kitchen. To them both, she took a deep breath before speaking.

"I want to move out," she told them simply. "Into my own apartment."

Kai frowned some, at first, but Erza merely took to immediately beaming at the idea, eyes alight.

"Yes," she said before Marin could go on to explain her mother's hesitance, if not downright insistence that this was a bad idea. "A solid idea. I will provide you with any assistance you need. When would you like to begin looking?"

"Well, I don't really know anything about-"

"Neither," Erza told her, "do I. I've only ever stayed here and the dormitories. However, we all must learn some day, yes? Cannot be too hard. We will find you a suitable-"

"Marin, are you sure?" Kai still didn't grin as Marin nodded her head. "I mean, why though? What's wrong with living here?"

"I don't live here, Kai," she reminded softly and, oh, yeah, she didn't.

"But you'll still stay over a lot, right?" He seemed rather worried. "You know...to be with Erza?"

"Be with me where?" The swordswoman did not enjoy the implications. "You are no better than your brother was. I have been taking jobs again for months. I have no need for-"

"I'll still come over, Kai. I'm not moving to somewhere far away or anything. Still Magnolia."

"But… What if I wanted to leave? Huh? And move? Then who would stay here with Erza?"

"I have already said-" the swordswoman tried again, but Marin cut her off (unintentionally, of course).

"You've been thinking about it too?" Marin reached out then, to touch his arm, and she was grinning happily at the idea. "Moving out?"

Sort of. Not exactly. But he choked on his words because Marin seemed so pleased that they could have reached a similar thought, both at the same time.

As she hugged him and questioned, "Then do you think that you would wanna….move out together?", Kai could only stare over her shoulder, at where Erza stood, looking right back at him. There wasn't a concern in her eyes, over the idea of it. Him leaving home.

He knew there would be. Or he hoped, anyways. That she would be bothered by this. At least a little. But no, as Erza raised an eyebrow at him, he knew she could see it plain as day on his face.

Kai was just as piss poor at masking his emotions.

She knew that there was something else. And there was. Something he'd been. working up the courage to bring up to the two women for only a few weeks by that point, but it felt heavy on his heart. It came about when he was hanging around Lance, fishing, like always, and the other guy wasn't as into it, but he could pretend, for Kai's sake.

Most people pretended things, for Kai's sake.

And he got to talking again, Lance did, about the fishing guild that his uncle was in. It was halfway across Fiore and Lance wanted to be there. Not necessarily there, where the guild was, but halfway across Fiore and they'd laugh sometimes about how they'd run away, to it, and start their new lives there and recently Kai just…

"I always wanted to be a fisherman," he could recall himself saying so often in his life. Because it was true. It was his one dream. His only dream. All he ever wanted. They had boats with nets and it was serious shit, Lance would say and laugh, when he said it, remarking to Kai wouldn't be able to keep up, but oh, man, would he. It was in his blood. It was what he was born to do. Before he came to Magnolia.

Before he met Erza and Marin.

There was a pit in his stomach, as there always was when he was faced with the impossible, and as Marin hugged him tighter, when he agreed that, yeah, they could finally find a place together, and they could be adults now. Roommates with jobs and a dog, Marin reminded, because she'd always wanted a dog, and this was what they'd always wanted. Because that had been a dream too, at one time. The two of them, living it up, all on their own.

But was it still?

Dreams die. Sometimes. Replaced. Reworked and remodeled and changed. Into something different. Morphed.

But there was no way, no avenue, no reasoning Kai could ever find, no persuading or way he could ever see it. Not outside of chuckles and whispers with his boyfriend. Leaving them behind. Marin and Erza.

Especially now.

No.

Never.

He couldn't leave the two of them, ever, at all, because they needed him and he needed them and that was just how things had to be.

"Yeah," he told Marin and he hugged her back, just as tightly, as Erza still studied him from afar. "Let's do it."


Ten and an epilogue. Let's close it out.