The odd pair walked the dark streets with only dim light coming from the shop displays. The air was surprisingly warm for a fall night. "-and Lucy. She has two children, Layla and Igneel. They were named after Lucy and her husband Natsu's respective parent." Jayden nodded along, these people sounded pretty interesting and oh that was only the start of the stories Erza could tell her.
Erza brought them to a little family restaurant with some light foot traffic for this time of night. They were serving pizza and pastas. Erza ordered a pizza for them to split. Glad the two weren't with any dragon slayers she would have to feed. They sat there eating for hours, swapping stories, Erza did most of the talking but by the end Jayden was smiling right along with her.
Jayden burped and wiped her face with her arm when they were getting up to leave, well she had the manners of a dragon slayer, Erza was frankly used to it though. The pair walked together through the much less crowded streets now, all was peaceful until a wolf whistle rang out through the air. Jayden glared while Erza ignored it with a practiced grace. "Haha can you believe that's someone's mother?!" Jayden, despite herself, grabbed Erza's hand and stomped down the street at a quicker pace. She didn't like people flirting with the redhead that way, she decided. They arrived much quicker to the inn than previously planned.
Erza watched the little girl as she brooded and pulled at the redhead's hand. She felt a sort of kinship with the girl in that moment as the warm air surrounded them and the shop lights started flickering off. That's when Erza noticed the dark lines of Jayden's tattoos start to float of her skin, "Jayden- um," the little girl looked up at her, glare softening, "Your tattoos…"
That seemed to shove Jayden out of her stupor as she released Erza's hand and ran her hands up and down her shoulders as if to press the ink back into her skin. "Sorry. Still getting the hang of them," Jayden remarked with a deep sigh as they finally got back to the inn. "I'm just lucky Borj and Paprah are real tolerant with me." Erza nodded, patting Jayden's shoulder. She understood not having complete control.
Erza used her magic to change into her pajamas, she almost had to chuckle at Jayden's look of awe. "That's so pretty!" she remarked.
"Thank you, I suppose it is. I bet your magic is lovely as well." Jayden blushed under the praise Erza gave her. "I think it's time we settle down." Jayden nodded and jumped right on to the bed, burying herself under the covers. Erza cringed slightly as the dress Jayden wore almost ripped with all of the girl's squirming, not to mention the girl not brushing her teeth. But sadly (to Erza at least) she didn't have another toothbrush for the girl. So she went around her business, washing up and brushing her teeth.
Jayden was already snoring lightly by the time Erza came back into the room. Without much hassle, almost more peaceful than she had been in a long time Erza fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
It was before the first crack of sunlight Erza awoke. Her mind slowly pulling up what had happened yesterday while she slowly blinked sleep out of her eyes. She tried to move her arms to rub her eyes but one was weighed down. She looked to her left.
"Oh?" Erza blinked, cuddling her arm was Jayden. The bluenette was shaking in her sleep as she had kicked off the blankets during the night and the warm fall day from yesterday had now become a cool morning. Erza rubbed her tattooed arm to warm her. Blinking awake, Jayden store blearily at Erza only making a grunting sound as she released Erza's arm and rolled over to the edge of the bed."Jayden, I have a mission I have to complete. You need to get up."
Jayden just groaned louder and rolled off the bed and onto the floor with a distinct thud. "I don't wana Ma-" Jayden went deathly quiet all of a sudden.
"Are you alright Jayden?" The little girl made a sound of acknowledgement from the other side of the room. Still she stayed on the floor."You need to get up now. I said I wouldn't turn you in but…" Jayden suddenly jumped up little arms raised up on the defence. "Relax, I didn't mean it like that. I mean that I… don't want you to go back to the forest or wherever you go." Erza was actually feeling nervous.
"What do you mean?" Jayden looked genuinely confused as she let down her guard and lowered her fists a little bit. Something seemed to click in her mind, her dark eyes grew wide, "You… you mean?"
Erza grinned at the girl's look. "If you want to. I have no children of my own but I'd be glad to have you." Jayden choked back a sob. Her eyes began to well with tears. It's not that she didn't have a few friends that cared for her here, but it was that an adult actually wanted her. That had never happened before, adults were never that nice.
Nodding and rushing around the bed Jayden was whimpering when she crashed into Erza, making her stumble but not go anywhere near falling. "You're… you're serious right? Not joking." Erza saw Jayden's left shoulder tattoo begin the raise again, the cat one.
"Yes Jayden. I'm serious. Now you need to calm down, it's alright." Jayden sniffled and nodded, curling in on herself and into Erza's hold.
"Don' tell anyone about this, me crying." Jayden murmured, Erza could only grin and hum. This would be her life now and she couldn't complain. This little family wasn't much but, it was what they had. Together. Jayden slowly pried herself from Erza, sniffling, "You... you gotta go to work. And I gotta say goodbye…"
Erza crouched. "Yeah I do have to go. But where are you going to be?" Without realizing it Erza had already gone from her normal aunt mode to parenting mode.
"Just to the edge of the forest, promise I live, er lived there with a few other kids. I gotta say goodbye so they don't go on a man hunt for me." The little girl giggled at the idea. Her friends where extra like that. She walked towards the door and turned around, hands on her nonexistent hips, wrinkled dress and all. "Oh! Do you have any more of those clothes I can give to them? We were low on stuff with winter coming up."
It stung Erza a little to hear her new child talk like that. Living in the forest, beginning for simple things like clothes. She raised her hand, with a magic circle and a few words a small stack of clothes appeared in varying sizes from Erza's childhood. She had wanted to keep it but knew that these kids, whoever they were, needed it more. "Thank you M- Erza!" Erza noticed the slip but let the embarrassed little girl go.
The day for Erza started off by changing into the uniform she was given and walking to the festival, she got there early, even before most shops were open. So for some time she 'window' shopped through the few tents that opened early. It was mostly a surprising amount of magical items and handmade things here and there. She picked up a few new weapons and just as she was leaving a particular shop she noticed a small child-sized plain sword. It was made of a sterling metal with a dragon modeled as the hilt.
She knew she had to buy it.
When she came back the shop owner chuckled, "Have a thing for swords aye?" Erza chuckled politely.
"Yes, you could say that." The owner gave her the price and they traded bills, he pulled change out of a fanny pack on his side. "Thank you." The owner nodded back to her with a smile calling out that she should come again. Erza now with emptier pockets but in a much brighter mood, making her way to the cafe.
Jayden however was having a much different time. She zoomed through the streets on the back of the cat soul, Paprah. The sleek leopard patterned big cat had a light jingle with every wide stride, around it's neck was a thick gold collar with emeralds set into the front. The ride wasn't smooth as was to be expected. Jayden held onto the cat's collar with white knuckles as Paprah weaved through the light morning crowds. They were making their way to the edge of the forest, about a mile away from the small, overcapacity orphanage.
The cat came to a stop right in front of a tree, sending Jayden head over end off of it's back and right into the tree with a loud thud. The cat looked pleased with itself. "Damn cat!" Jayden grumbled once she got back the wind knocked out of her, rubbing her back where she had hit, the clothes she had been holding onto had fallen out of her arms, landing in the dirt and leaves, "Great," she sighed, "Thanks a lot Paprah." The two had a rocky relationship, Paprah was used to having humans worship it. Jayden didn't. But the cat was fast and useful so Jayden used it anyway.
Jayden sniffed and the cat began swirling back into ink, racing through the air and onto her arm. "Hhh damn cat." she remarked one more time as she followed a small stream into the forest that she had followed many times before. She moved through the rocky terrain with a practiced grace and knowledge. Half a mile of following the stream later she took a sharp left and began zigzagging through the trees, a habit all of the kids had developed to make sure no adults followed. Finally, Jayden came to a not-quite-clearing.
It was a field spotted with trees, not particularly pretty or large. From the trees hung hammocks made out of rope and old clothes sewn together when they had gotten too small. Also from the trees where bags of the little community's collected food, suspended in the air by a rope to keep it away from animals. All was silent save for some bird chirping in the distance.
Jayden let out a whistle, a high pitched sound that could be heard for a long distance. She made two short sounds than one long one, like morse code. Suddenly from trees and hammocks unseen on the ground came children. Easily there were twelve or thirteen grimmy children of varying ages, some no older than all yelled unruly greetings and some moved to hug her, smearing dirt and who knows what else on the pretty, wrinkled dress.
An orange haired boy at about seven spoke, "Hey Jay! Where've you been all night?! We thought you got caught or something."
Jayden's cheeks turned a light hue of pink, she tried to laugh off the worry, "haha sorry Michael, but uh… I kind of was caught…" This drew the attention of all the children, the orange haired boy, Michael, motioned for her to continue. "Well see, I was out at the fair getten' something to eat. And this lady started chasing me! I used Pap to get away. But anyway later I went to the inn to get some food and clothes for us, ya know?" The majority nodded, this was normal practice. "Well anyway, the lady from earlier it was her room! But she wasn't even mad! Well… that mad. She bought me food and- and-" this was the part Jayden wasn't sure they'd like, "She offered to adopt me…"
There was an uproar, Jayden was the youngest of the group and very much so everyone's little sister. They didn't want to give her up! This time a pinkette spoke, she was blubbering a little bit, "But! But! You're here with us! And it's an adult! You hate adults!" This was pretty true, Jayden trusted adults even less than she did Paprah.
"I know, I know. But she's the first really good adult I've ever meet," Jayden got really quiet for a second before she started sniffling, she looked up at the group with tears in her eyes, "P- Please dont make me give this up! I love you all b-but-"
Michael spoke up, "But you gotta do what's good for you…" Jayden nodded, Michael sighed. He knelt down so he was about eye level with Jayden, "You promise you won't forget us… and that you'll come visit us?" Jayden nodded, getting emotional again."Then okay, we'll let you go. Just please," he hugged her tightly, "Don't forget us Jay." Jayden wrapped her little arms around him and wordlessly nodded back before pulling away.
"I almost forgot," she began, in a much better mood with their unofficial leader's blessing, "The nice lady, Erza, she gave me these for you all!" Jayden picked back of the small variety of clothes. Most were girl's but some were unisex. The pinkette took the clothes from her as Jayden moved further into the camp. She would spend her last hours in this town here, she decided. With her little family before she went home to her new family member.
The day passed quickly and it sooned turned to darkness. Erza was worried. She hadn't seen Jayden yet, she was beginning to wonder if somehow the girl had conned her for free clothes. Or even worse. She was hurt somewhere. The fall night began to grow cold and Erza was ready to go out searching when Jayden just skipped through the door, not a care in the world. "Where have you been?" Erza asked, deathly serious.
"I told you I was in the forest saying goodbye?" It came out as more of a question, Jayden was confused. Why was Erza so worried?
Erza sighed and fell to her knees to look Jayden in the eye, grabbing her arms. "Please Jayden, don't just disappear like that for hours. You had me worried." This only seem to confuse Jayden even further, but she nodded anyway. Better not to argue, she decided.
With a yawn, Erza looked to the clock on the nightstand for the time, with a light curse she noticed they were going to be late for the train the two were supposed to take tonight, She hadn't even bought Jayden's ticket yet. She magically stored her things and grabbed Jayden's hand and began running, glad the room had automatic check out. "Where we going?" Jayden asked, not really minding being dragged as Erza ran through the streets like a mad woman.
Erza slowed for a moment, with a wide, beautiful smile she said, "To Fairy Tail of course!" Jayden looked at her with wide eyes, Well this is something out of a Fairytale! So why not!?
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