The date is September 10, 2016. This story was first uploaded June 5, 2013. In those 3 years, I have probably rewritten this story 3 times. When will I be stopped lmfao
(the answer is never, I will never get a version of this hellfic that I like)
I was only going to upload this after I've written 8 chapters but hell I haven't even planned 14 chapters yet so let's be real ahahha
If any of yall stuck around during the first draft days, you'll know that this was inspired by a manga by Takano Ichigo called Orange- which was actually also made into an anime this year and I recommend spending your time over there than over here 👍👍👍
Cover image is of May that I commissioned from gaiaonline user L3 W4FFLZ.
May is barely even a day past her tenth birthday when a woman holding the strongest resemblance to her mother stops her on her way to the lake.
The woman's voice, she remembers, sends chills down her spine. Her head ringing with such clarity that tears began to bubble not even a word into the woman's question of whether or not she was the Collier's daughter. The layers of thick furs her neighbor had sent her off in couldn't even begin to mask how her whole body trembled in fear in this woman's presence.
May remembers like it was just yesterday that that was the day she finally understood what it meant to fear for one's self.
The woman didn't say anything about the younger girl's evident discomfort. The woman, so alike her mother yet so remarkably terrifying all the same, didn't even bat an eye as she leaned down to her level.
Thin fingers gently fixed her skirt, the gloves embracing her fingers wrapped in discolored leather and stains. She leaned down but she didn't move forward, leaning down all in one movement like a practised dancer or there was something keeping her back. She smiled her mother's smile, "keep an eye out for the younger kids, ok?"
At the time, May didn't care for the fact that it was a casual statement- she thought it was downright terrifying.
The woman lifted a hand, only stopping when the young May took a step back. Her bottom lip already trembling in preparation for the waterworks that was sure to follow.
Winter was only just beginning its bitter turn. Ten years and a day was barely enough to inspire confidence in the girl. May didn't care if the woman was remarkably familiar. She just wanted to go to the lake where her friends and parents were.
The woman tried once again to encroach out of her imaginary space and May let out a loud cry. Dashing off before she even had a chance to grab her arm.
In the distance, she could still hear the woman screaming after her.
"Stay clear of the ice!" Her voice echoed through the silence. Fuelling her fear. "Don't go too far from the edge of the lake!"
May ran, tears burning down her eyes. Discounting everything this woman said in favor of grasping onto every lesson infused upon her by her parents about strangers.
The moment the woman approached her, she was already feeling mildly disturbed. She didn't like the idea of being approached so randomly on her way to meet her friends. The woman's familiarity with her was far from welcome and her mother's smile had no place on her lips as she mirrored what was a traditional practice between the two.
She might've been only ten years old and a day but she knew what it felt for your own magic to warn you away from danger and this woman was it.
She was almost breathless when she finally reached the lake. Rubbing away the tears as she approached her friends and the crowd of adults floating around the lake's edge with skates.
Spotting her mother in the mass of faces, she quickly bolted through the crowd and tackled the elderly woman.
Her mom had chuckled at May's sudden show of childishness.
"This woman approached me earlier at the marketplace," she grumbled against her mother's coat. Digging her face deep into her neck and catching a whiff of her perfume, "I didn't like it."
"So what did you do?"
"I ran back to Mama and Papa."
"Good girl." Her mom laid a kiss on her forehead and May felt a bubble of warmth blossom through her. Her mother's grip only tightening around her just slightly.
By the time her father returned with her pair of skates and was starting to lead the younger kids onto the ice, May had calmed down enough to join in the festivities.
With a wide smile, her mother watched as her only daughter jetted after the kids. Dancing onto the ice and easily joining the mob like a baby duckling swimming back to its flock.
It really was a long time ago, now that she thought about it. That day had signified an end to many things for one May Collier. An end to her easy days. An end to being a carefree young child who was gifted with magic but chose to do nothing about it. The small fishbowl town girl who chose instead to start school with all the other non-magical children. It was an end to a niche that hadn't even had the chance to form.
Like any other tale just as bittersweet, it starts with flailing arms and kicking feet.
Just like any other scene from a movie; May had dashed and gave a mighty shove. Watching as the younger kids slid off into a thicker section of ice as it all gave away. A deafening splinter ran through the air and no one dared to even move as the Colliers' daughter was plunged down into a darkening frozen abyss.
She was sinking faster than she was able to swim up. Her coats acting like a dead weight that was destining her to anchor onto the bottom. Her lungs burnt. Her heart pounded. The shock stifling her senseless as she tried desperately to resurface.
She could see where she fell. The single beam of light almost mocked her as shadows danced over the crack. The gasp of air she took before she plunged was beginning to yearn for release.
That was when a separate body pierced down into the water.
And suddenly it felt like the darkness was yanking her up through the window, treating her like a feather and curling around her as it tugged her up and into a warmer solid body. She remembers breaking the surface. The shock that came from floating underwater and then bouncing out into cold December air almost paralyzed her.
She took a huge breath.
One.
Two.
She couldn't even see a thing as more hands curled around her frame. A burst of noise erupting from all around them and the window between the two wet bodies. A blanket- or maybe it was a cape was being passed and wrapped around her body. Calm welcoming voices guiding her back to solid ground and to safety. Her eyes just beginning to acclimate to the bright scene around her.
The words didn't register in May's head right away. The cold had shocked her nerves. She didn't know if it was a hand grasping her fingers or a pair of mittens.
Instead, the first thing May grabs ahold of are the colors she's welcomed to. Amidst the explosion of activity, it's the worried pair of crimson eyes that grab her attention first.
A half-formed sentence was already slipping out as she watched the adults fret over the crimson-eyed child that pulled her out of the lake. She looked down and let the sight of his hand clenching onto her be the second thing her mind made sense of. A pair of mittens clenched tightly in his other one was the third.
May blinked back spots.
"May," whispered red-eyes, uncertainty straining his nice voice. She blinked out a big spot-
And when she opened her eyes, she found herself in bed back at home with the same boy entering the room with two cups of hot tea.
"How are you feeling?" He almost dropped both of the cups in his mad shuffle to reach her from across the room. His relieved sigh when he realized that she was awake almost escaped her attention if it weren't for the way he had entered.
Ryos had stood in the doorway. Not moving and not saying a word. Just stood there and watched as she slowly regained consciousness and met his gaze while her eyes readjusted.
The moment was a long one. Only breaking when the realization that she must've lost consciousness after he pulled her out came to her. She blinked once and there he was, by her side.
She muttered, accepting the drink graciously after the older boy helped her sit up. The croaky sound contradicting her previous affirmation that she was fine. Ryos sent her an unimpressed look. May drank the beverage faster.
Around them, a hum of noise continued to sing from outside the window. Shadows danced as they accompanied voices dropping in and out of the house. They listened silently as children and adults came and went, hoping that the Collier daughter and their temporary ward were in good health. The children May had pushed out of the way earlier had made quite an event; their cries and apologies bounced off the walls. An embarrassed look ran through her face and she was tempted to go and comfort them. A quick look from Ryos kept her in bed.
"Ryos got up this morning but May is still in bed. You can visit them tomorrow." Her mother's voice echoed down the halls. They both tensed up. Up until that moment, they hadn't been addressed beforehand by the woman. The notion itself made the sentiment feel something far from themselves. "They need their rest now and they certainly won't be happy if you come to them crying, would they?"
The tone was lighthearted. She had a vision of the older woman leaning down and capturing a nose and giving it a little squeeze. Her dad had dismissed himself earlier, leaving just the older woman to tend to the random guests worried about the children who fell in the lake.
She heard her mother take a huge breath and her fingers clenched tighter around the cup still in her hands.
Suddenly, she didn't feel like drinking the rest of her tea.
"Thank you," she whispered silently. Moving her hand slowly over the blankets and gropping for his.
She didn't meet his eyes this time.
Instead, she was hearing her mother's words over and over again. The sound of the door closing and a loud heartwrenching choking noise was the only thing that hung over the two children in the moments following.
May didn't look at Ryos in those moments but the feeling of his hand squeezing hers was enough to placate her before he left the room.
As the weeks past, May and Ryos grew closer. If that was even possible. They had hit it off the moment May found out she was no longer the only child in the village with magic. They did what any other child would do after meeting someone just like them for the first time. The weeks following the lake incident proceeded like any other except now they were just inseparable.
On the days May shied away from going outside where a new coat of snow blanketed the pathways leading to town, Ryos would sit with her by the fireplace. Fetching blankets and exchanging secrets as she practised her own magic to imitate his carefully crafted mastery of the shadows.
Nothing could be said about the change in their relationship. In a way it was almost like nothing did change.
At first, when Ryos was still new to the village, they had stuck together because May was the one constant among the new faces and Ryos was the one person who was just like her.
Despite everything her parents and the other adults saw, they hadn't ran past anything closer than just that. They were close, yes, but until that day, it was hard for May to call Ryos a friend.
Now, she felt very differently.
They acted like balances to one another. When the world swirled below her feet, Ryos anchored her in. When the night grew too dark, she was there turning the light back on. When she couldn't stand to be near the lake, he'd pull her down a different trail.
They practiced magic together. Now more than ever. Each showing the other new nuances of their ability and each jokingly teaching the other despite the fact that they had different affinities.
Ryos grew stronger and more knowledgeable.
May grew apart from her peers at school, wanting to spend more time with Ryos and learn the extent of her abilities.
By the time winter ended, the two children took to tracking down passing merchants. The traders that visited their small town always had something to say about the Magician Guilds that littered Fiore. Whether or not it was a complaint about Fairy Tail or a critique on the Magic Council's latest policy, they never failed to listen, entranced by all of it.
For May, it was just a learning experience. A look-see into the lives of people who were just like her doing something great with their lives.
For Ryos, it was something entirely different.
As a young adult today, she liked to ignore all the more complicated parts of her childhood. All the details she glimpsed over in order to live something close to normal for a girl like her came back to her in the dead of night and haunted her dreams.
When she was ten, she was guilty of many things.
Her biggest fault was that she had a habit of gleaming over Ryos' personal sorrows.
While she acknowledged them, she never took those concerns to heart. Never took action to make sure he was ok.
and because she was just like him- she was the only one privy to the information about his prior whereabouts despite her parents being the ones who found him first.
It was something that haunted her for years following her departure from her village.
Ryos left only short of a year following his stay with them; his excuse when he was saying his goodbyes was that he couldn't take advantage of their hospitality any longer. Promising he'd always write, the older boy left with a sack full of food and not once did he look back.
The letters stopped coming a few months into his departure. Having already grown less enthusiastic the more the weeks rolled by. May didn't exactly know how to feel when merchants spun more and more tales of Phantom Lord's newest tagalong and the words Ryos sent her decreased by the dozen until suddenly it was no more.
To her parents, it was a heartbreaking affair as May went on to try to assimilate back to the days before she met Ryos.
When her parents finally let her travel the country to hopefully join the perfect guild, rumors of the rise of Sabertooth had began to become promenint among the merchants that visited their small town. It was only shortly after Fairy Tail was confirmed to have lost many of its member on Tenma Island, a moment she remembered starkly because it was the first time in years she received a letter from Ryos asking if she was well.
Her parents had begged her to join a guild close to home.
"If you join Sabertooth then we'll only be a few days away from each other," her dad had nagged goodheartedly. Swinging into her room as she skimmed through the latest issue of Sorceror's Weekly that she had snagged off the last merchant. "Only two to three hours if we scale the mountain."
May only laughed at that.
Now she wished she was a little bit more serious.
"Ryos?" The sound barely sounded like her own voice. She wasnt even sure if she was actually awake as it was.
The sight before her and the boasting blond teenager slinging his arm around the now taller boy was unrecognizable.
But she was absolutely certain that the black haired teen proudly sporting the Sabertooth guild mark was her childhood friend Ryos.
There can only be one Shadow Dragon Slayer after all.
The boy stiffened, nose in the air as his friend continued to preen. When his eyes finally fell on her, she felt like the entire world was being sucked into his gravitation. She watched as his own red eyes widened in shock, mouth ready to say something but nothing came out. Then his eyes traveled down her person, falling on the travel bag slung around her shoulder.
If it was possible, Ryos turned paler than snow.
"That's right!" His friend shouted in admonishment, addressing the growing crowd. A wide smirk across his face as he stomped down on the man laying under his feet. "We are the real Dragon Slayers of this generation. And to all you weaklings- this is what you get for belittling the power of Sabertooth!"
Ryos- Rogue as she'd learn later, tore his eyes away from their staredown. His attention now focused back on the fight May had only caught the tailend of.
His shadows began to rise and swirl all around him, fists clenched, eyes now entrenched with a look that was completely foreign to the young teenaged girl.
She quickly left after that, heading towards the train station with a pace fast enough to knock some people off their feet but not fast enough to escape the screams of the man the shadows tore into.
May Collier's encounters with Rogue Cheney following her joining Lamia Scale is limited the years after her discovery.
Its nonexistant at best during those rare moments they find each other during the month the Grand Magic Games roll around. She doesn't say a word whenever she's asked why her interest is always peaked whenever Rogue Cheney was concerned and he doesnt say a word whenever they pass each other on the streets.
She doesn't need to ask whether or not he remembers her. She's smart enough to figure that he obviously does if it's in anything his guild acts whenever she's sent to act as an ambassador from Lamia Scale by the Magic Council about joint missions or the like. None of the members act in the ways her guildmates constantly accuse them of. For the most part, they leave her alone. Sometimes, helping her out in small and very obscure almost accidental ways. Not once since her first trip as ambassador had they tried to provoke her into a fight or belittle her guild's status as 'second place' losers.
She knows that Rogue and his partner Sting watch carefully whenever she comes in and out of the building.
Their presence only being tipped off whenever their Exceeds come flying down from whatever direction and greet her like she was their own.
But the Twin Dragon Slayers never speak to her.
And she never speaks to them.
Honestly, she probably would've left it as just that it weren't for the letter that arrives a few days before the Great Magic Games of x791.
