A/N- This fic is for the 2nd round of Mrs. HopeEstheim's New Fairy Tail Writing Challenges.
Title- Family Ties
Family- Jellal and Millianna
Summary- He grinned back at her, and she could see her brother, her Jellal, in his face. "Anything for my little sister."
Words- 1482 excluding author's notes and stuff.
Millianna clenched her fist and gritted her teeth.
"Stand up!" the guard roared. "Stand up, you lazy bitch!"
She inhaled sharply and forced herself to think about something else. It didn't work.
Whoosh. The whip in the guard's hand descended. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the impact. But the pain didn't come.
Seeing Jellal in the town square had shocked her. All these years, she had held a burning hatred for him, for taking away eight years from her life, for using his friends, for killing Simon.
She looked up, wiping the tears from her eyes, afraid to let them show, because you weren't allowed to cry. You weren't allowed to laugh, either. In fact, you weren't allowed to do anything, except work.
She had been sure of her hatred, sure of her convictions, that if she should ever see Jellal, she would kill him.
And now that she had seen him, why hadn't she killed him? What had stopped her?
She saw a blue-haired boy, standing in front of her. He had a large red welt on his arm, where the whip had struck him. "Don't hurt her!" he yelled.
These stupid memories had stopped her.
"She's so young! How do expect her to lift that heavy load?"
The guard snarled. "Then who's gonna lift that thing? Yer uncle?"
"I'll lift it. I'll lift hers and mine. Let her go back to her cell and rest." His voice was defiant but it had a hint of desperation in it.
The guard grunted, "I ain't no baby-sitter, titch." But he slung her over his shoulder nonetheless. "I ain't lettin' you do that next time, 'kay? This little whore's gotta learn how to do her own work. We ain't running a five-star hotel here."
The guard turned around and began walking towards the cells. She watched the boy as he transferred his load to one arm and gripped hers in the other. The welt on his arm began to bleed, as well as several other, older wounds, and he winced, but he kept on walking.
"Onii-chan…" she whispered.
Her knees became weak and she leaned onto a lamp post. Why? Why had he turned so evil? He had been so kind and loving and caring- and sometimes a bit weird. What had happened? What had happened to Onii-chan?
She knew the answer. She knew what had happened. But she wanted to hold onto her anger. It was easier to believe in anger than in truth. She snorted. Onii-chan would have rebuked her if he had known what she was thinking, at least back then.
"I feel like giving up," she sobbed. "They've taken Er-chan away."
In the corner, Shou and Wally were crying too, and Simon was staring listlessly at the grey walls.
The salty tears stung the cuts and bruises on her face. But Er-chan was probably going through worse agony than this. She wept harder.
Suddenly she felt a cool palm on her cheek. It soothed her tender wounds and, more importantly, her soul. She opened her eyes and looked into Jellal's green ones. "You shouldn't lose hope," he said kindly. "Never that."
But she had no strength left. Seeing Er-chan being beaten up had been too much for her innocent nine-year-old eyes to bear. "What good will that do?" she asked bitterly. "Being hopeful won't bring Er-chan back."
He laughed hoarsely, "It won't bring Erza back, but it'll help you from going insane."
He had been right. Thinking about things such as revenge and retribution wouldn't help her now. It was late and she needed all the rest she could get. The Grand Magic Games hadn't ended. Who knows what she would have to fight tomorrow?
She walked along the road, in the general direction of the guest house that was allotted to Mermaid Heel. She heard someone crying and looked around curiously. It was a small girl, about nine years old. She was holding an empty ice-cream cone and there was a pink blob on the pavement at her feet. "My ice-cream!" she wailed.
Her companion, a tall boy who was around fifteen years old, lifted her up and wiped her tears. "Don't worry," he smiled at her. "Here, take mine."
Her throat constricted.
The girl smiled happily and beamed at him, "Thanks Onii-chan!"
Tears welled up in her eyes.
Hunger gnawed at her stomach painfully. The food rations had become even smaller, if that was possible. Before their dinner had consisted of a stale piece of bread, a boiled potato, a scrap of overcooked meat and, once in a blue moon- if they were lucky- a dried piece of fruit. Now it had been cut down to a boiled potato, half a carrot and an even smaller scrap of overcooked meat.
She looked across the cell. Erza was sleeping. How can she fall asleep on an empty stomach? She wondered. Shou was licking his fingers, perhaps hoping to chance across a few crumbs. Wally and Simon were still eating, nibbling at their food.
Her stomach growled. It was very much audible in the stony silence of their cell. She clutched at her tummy and rocked back and forth on her feet, trying to distract herself. Yet she couldn't stop a few tears from rolling down her cheeks. She couldn't even remember what it was like to have a full stomach. The hunger pangs were now a permanent ache in her belly, they were always with her, following her around like a shadow.
She felt someone nudge her arm. She looked up and saw a potato in front of her nose. Her first impulse was to snatch it and shove it into her mouth. But she didn't. Because then Onii-chan would go hungry, well, hungrier than usual. She shook her head at the proffered potato and said, "Onii-chan, you will be hungry."
She could almost hear the smile in his voice, "That's okay. Anything for my little sister."
And for the first time in a long while, the hunger pangs left her.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts, and the attack was so sudden that she didn't even have time to squeak. In an instant, her arms and legs were bound with a coarse rope. She immediately opened her mouth to intone a spell that would free her, but somehow she couldn't tap into her magic energy. Had someone managed to procure some cheap, fake imitations of her magic rope? Her breath hitched at the thought.
"Oh, what a beauty," purred a voice, and she jumped. A man, well-built, and rather smelly, was towering above her. " Ain't you gonna entertain me tonight, princess?"
She gritted her teeth and tried to kick the man in the shins, but her knees were fastened tightly. He laid his large, meaty hand on her cheek and she flinched. His hand began moving downwards. When his hand was just below her collarbone, and she had thought that tonight she would be stripped of her virginity and dignity, he suddenly coughed and crumpled onto the floor.
She squinted. She couldn't make out his attacker, and her saviour, in the dim light. The man, because it was so obviously a man, and a muscular one too, kicked her to-be-dignity-and-virginity-stripper and said in a low and dangerous voice, "No one hurts her. No one."
She gasped. That voice!
The word tumbled out of her mouth before she had a chance to even think: "Onii-chan!"
He didn't have his mask on, and his face was unreadable as he undid the ropes. Her own mind was in turmoil. When she was free from the cords, she looked at him. His expression was guarded but those green orbs held the same kindness that they had all those years ago. That special kind of kindness that he reserved only for her. Only for his little sister.
She couldn't bear it anymore.
She flung herself at him, tears flowing down her cheeks like small silver streams. "Onii-chan!" she wept, clutching his shirt.
He held her for a long time, as she cried her eyes out and poured out her heart to him. Through her tears she told him everything, her sadness, her anger, her thoughts, her memories, how much she had missed him, his protection, how much she had wanted to believe in the Zeref-possession theory but how it was easier to hold onto anger than happiness. He gently patted her back and listened patiently while she wept.
Jellal walked her back to the guesthouse. Kagura remained impassive when she saw her companion but Millianna was bouncing with a new kind of happiness. The kind of happiness you get when you come home.
"Thank you Onii-chan," she smiled sweetly, before closing the door. "For saving me, I mean."
He grinned back at her, and she could see her brother, her Jellal, in his face. "Anything for my little sister."
Jellal doesn't deserve to be hated.
Onii-chan means 'big brother' in Japanese.
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