Fairy Tail Angst Week
Day Two (Spellbound)
AN: I'm just gonna try and get as many of these done as I possibly can. XD Also, damn, this got a lot angstier than I meant it too. Oh well.
Title: Spellbound
Pairings: N/A
Character(s): Kagura Mikazuchi, Millianna, Risley Law, Araña Webb, Beth Vanderwood, Jellal Fernandes
Summary: The war is over and the girls of Mermaid Heel need to settle things once and for all. Unfortunately, timing doesn't appear to be their strong suit either.
This whole thing is about closure – closure for the two of them, but also for Simon and the others imprisoned in that abysmal Tower – and they all know it, but Kagura can't help but appreciate her comrades behind her. Araña, Beth, and Risley didn't need to be here, they weren't involved, but they had stubbornly refused to let the other girls handle this situation on their own.
"We're a team," Risley had declared, "Games or no Games."
It wasn't like there would be a fight. Both Kagura and Millianna had accepted that the world was more complicated than it needed to be and that sometimes there's just no one to blame anyway. Araña is tense and ready to restrain someone just in case, mindful of her comrades' injuries. Beth carries a bouquet of peonies to show a lack of offensive intentions. Risley leads the way to the door of the man in question's room, opens it, and immediately wishes she hadn't.
"Hi the–!" she begins, but cuts herself off as she realizes what she's just done. She hears a gasp behind her, and Beth's flowers fall to the floor as the young girl covers her mouth in shock. Jellal has turned to stare at them, surprised, hands holding up torn and bloody bandages. In the back of her mind, Millianna dimly notes that he'd probably been about to change them.
But right now he's shirtless and staring at the five of them in a mix of surprise and horror. Ten eyes are fixed upon his torso and the scars etched into it (in reality, though, there appeared to be more scar tissue than unscarred flesh). They've all seen the nearly faded whip marks Millianna bears as a reminder of her enslavement, but these scars are different – far more numerous, more violent, some old, some new, some quite likely self-inflicted, some from the Tower, from the war, from that lonely year in prison – and it's Araña who first realizes that they've done far more than invade his privacy.
She grabs Beth's right hand with her left and Risley's left with her right, mumbles an apology, and turns to flee, hoping the other two have the sense to follow. But Millianna walks forward, captivated by the ruined, brutalized flesh of a man she no longer sees as a friend but doesn't quite have it in her to hate anymore.
As if in a trance, she brushes her fingers across an almost faded white mark, going from just below his right shoulder to just above his left hip.
"I remember this one," she whispers, and it's honestly impossible to tell exactly whom she's talking to. "You took a whip for me."
"Did I?" he responds, not meeting her gaze. "I don't recall. I stopped trying to remember a while ago."
"I was sick," Millianna continues, not seeming to notice the tears welling up in her eyes. "I was sick and I couldn't walk anymore. I fell, and one of the guards said he was going to kill me. You got in the way."
"You cried," Jellal murmurs, watching her hand on the scar as the memory slowly seeps its way back into his mind. "Not as much as Shô, but you cried."
"We thought you were going to die," Millianna rasps. The tears are falling freely now, from both their eyes, and Kagura silently beckons to the other three that it's time to go because this is something that none of them could ever understand. If Millianna notices them go, she doesn't show it. "I'm sorry," she sobs, burying her face in his chest.
"Me too," he says simply. It's not enough, not for either of them, and it never will be. But it's a start. They both know that much.
For now, Jellal can only wrap his arms around her to try and stop the tears and wonder what exactly went wrong, because he isn't so sure he knows anymore.
