Chapter 2
'The Comfort' orphanage was filled with concerned voices for Juvia. Some of them were constantly knocking on her door to get a response from her. "Quite everyone!" Amelia shouted from behind, "Leave her alone for some time, she will be alright." A blonde girl walked through the entrance of the orphanage amidst the chaos. She immediately caught Amelia's attention. Amelia walked to her and said "Lucy, I need you to be close to Juvia. She is in a pitiful state." "But what happened Miss Amelia?" Lucy asked. "Gray Fullbuster in back." Amelia replied. "What? I thought he would he would never be back after that incident took place. But is it not a good thing he returned? Juvia has been waiting so long to see him." Lucy said. "Well I don't know what to think of his return. Today morning I met Joey at the market, the driver who faithfully served the Fullbusters to this day. And he told me that Gray has changed completely. He now has anger issues and talks very bluntly and harshly to people. So I think something must've happened between Juvia and Gray." Amelia said with a sad expression on her face. Lucy crossed her arms and sighed, "I think she must've been rejected. I told her this long back when she was waiting for him to reply to her letters that these rich people would never want to have any sort of relationship with people like us. They just fool around and when they feel contend they move on to a better person and I am sure Gray must've found someone." Amelia looked at her and said "It's his life Lucy, we cannot do anything about it. But we have to be grateful to the Fullbuster family, they have been supporting our orphanage for a long time." "Yeah I know, we always have to put with everything these rich people do just because we are supported by them" Lucy said with a sad expression. Amelia lightly placed her hand on Lucy's shoulder and smiled said "It's ok Lucy. One day you will also be a very successful person." Amelia, now had a very determined look on her face, "It's now time to get Juvia married." Lucy looked shocked and asked "What? But do you think Gray will agree for this?" Amelia looked at her and said "It's not going to be Gray." "Then who? Any why now, suddenly? Lucy asked curiously. Amelia took Lucy to her room and closed the door behind her. They both sat down on the bed and Amelia started to narrate an incident that took place 26 years ago.
Flashback
Amelia was walking down the street of Hargeon town to visit her sister. It was late in the night that day but she still chose to pay her sister a surprise visit. She was working in America for the last 2 years so she could not find time to keep in touch with her sister properly due to her hectic work schedules. 7 months back when she contacted her sister, she was very happy to know her sister was pregnant. She was eagerly waiting to go meet her sister and her child. On reaching her sister's house she knocked on the door but the door was already open. So she pushed the door open further and walked inside. The entire house was dark so she moved around a little bit near the wall to find the switch board. Horror struck her when she saw the sight in front of her when she turned the lights on. She screamed. She saw her sister lying dead in a pool of blood on the floor. She bent down and violently jerked her sister, tears where flowing from her eyes and wouldn't stop, "Amara wake up, what happened to you. Don't you want to see me? I came to see you, talk to you, and carry your child in my arms not to see you like this. Wake up Amara, at least for me." "She is dead." She looked up see the source of this voice. Her brother in law was standing in front of her with a baby in his hand. He had a severe cut in his head and was bleeding. Amelia looked up at him and asked "What are you saying Declan? My sister cannot be dead. What happened here?" Declan looked at her with tears in his eyes, "It's true, Amara is no more. I'll explain things later to you but for now I want you to know this a dangerous place to be right now. Please take my daughter Juvia with you to your orphanage in Magnolia." "But what about…" before Amelia could finish Declan said "No questions now. Just do as I say, I will explain you later."
2 weeks later
Amelia was in her orphanage feeding Juvia milk. She was still feeling depressed about her sister's death and to make things worse Declan hasn't contacted her yet to explain what happened. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a postman call out to her from the entrance. She put Juvia in the cradle and went and collected a letter from the post man. Her hands were trembling as she saw blood stains on the letter. She opened the letter, the letter read:
Dear Amelia,
I am sorry I couldn't communicate with you post that incident. I am in a badly injured state right now and might not survive that is why I am writing to you so that even if I don't reach you, this letter will. Please take care of Juvia. The people who were after our lives are after Juvia's life as well. Please protect her. To keep her protected all her life, when she turns 26, get her married to Xavier Vastia's son Lyon Vastia. Please do this or else they will kill her also.
With regards,
Declan
After reading the letter, Amelia was trembling from head to toe and she started crying. There were so many unanswered questions here that put her in a lot of confusion. "Should I go to the police for help, no what if they might kill Juvia. And how can marriage protect her? Who is this Xavier Vastia? Oh God what am I supposed to do." She thought. Then she made a resolve that whatever happens she will protect Juvia for her sister and Declan's sake. She immediately resigned her job in America and started taking care of the needs of the orphanage full time.
End of flashback
Both Amelia and Lucy were in tears now. Lucy wiped her tears and said "Juvia never told me that you were her aunt." "She herself does not know that I am her aunt." Amelia replied. "What? Then why tell me now Miss Amelia?" Lucy asked, confused. Amelia looked at Lucy and said "It's because you are closest to Juvia among all the people here. She trusts you. I also have two favors to ask you, will you do it for me?" Lucy placed her hand on Amelia's shoulder and said "Go ahead, anything for you and Juvia." Amelia smiled a little and said "I knew I could trust you. Thanks. First you need to convince Juvia to get married and then help me find out who is Xavier Vastia and how can we reach him." "Finding Xavier should not be a problem, if he is a prominent personality he should be on the internet somewhere otherwise his son would definitely be on some social networking site, because today everybody is on some form of SNS today. If none of these work then we will think of another solution. But the bigger problem here is convincing Juvia, She is like totally devoted to Gray." Lucy said. Amelia agreed saying "I know. It's my fault, initially I was apprehensive about their growing friendship so I tried to prevent them from meeting each other but somehow their friendship bloomed and turned to love at that tender age and I foolishly put my hopes on Gray thinking he might be able to protect her somehow. But he has his own battles to face I guess. And he clearly showed his disinterest towards Juvia in these years that he was away and things became worse now that he is back. I think Juvia should move on and I hope Lyon proves to be a good match for her." "But are you sure Lyon can protect her? We don't know anything about him or his family." Lucy asked. "Right now I can only trust Declan because I don't want to lose Juvia as well." Saying this Amelia broke into tears. Lucy comforted Amelia saying "We will not lose Juvia, I will do my best to help you."
At the Fullbuster residence, Gray and Ultear were sitting in a room. Gray looked very disturbed. He sat with his face buried into his hands. Ultear was scared to say anything to him that might anger him but she mustered up courage and asked "Uhm.., Gray, are you alright?" Gray slowly lifted his face and looked at her and said "I'm fine." Ultear was still concerned and so she said "You don't look well, should I….." Before she could complete Gray looked at her and asked "Do you have my schedule ready for tomorrow? Because I want everything perfect, I will definitely not tolerate any mistakes." "Oh God, I am getting nervous now already." She thought to herself. "Yes Gray. I have all your day one schedule." "Then read it to me" he said. She pulled out her phone to read it, when suddenly they heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Gray asked. He didn't get any response but the knocking on the door continued. Gray was now getting frustrated. Ultear said "I'll go see" and went and opened the door. A spiky pink haired guy entered the room and said "Geez, why take so long to open a door?" "Natsu, you could have said it was you." Gray said. "Why were you expecting someone else? Perhaps your girlfriend?" Natsu teased. At this Gray got up and caught Natsu by his collar. "Whoa! Easy buddy, easy" Natsu said holding Gray's hands at his collar and then Gray let go. "Seriously, you definitely need to take anger management classes." Gray sat down and said "I was to go through my schedule tomorrow with Ultear and you came and disturbed it." Natsu looked at Ultear extended his hand and said "Oh, so you're the newly appointed PA for Gray. Hi, I'm Natsu Dragneel. I'm taking care of the 'Fairy Tail' project for 'The Fullbuster Constructions'." "Hi I'm Ultear. Nice to meet you." And they both greeted each other. Gray looked at Natsu and asked "How is that project faring? It's my mother's idea and it took so long to materialize so don't mess it up." Natsu looked at him and said "Hey, don't doubt my abilities like that. I'm one of the best civil engineers in town. So don't worry, your project is in the most safe and able hands." "I'm counting on you Natsu. Keep me updated on the project." Gray said. Now, Silver entered the room and asked Gray "Did you say something to Juvia? I just called Miss Amelia to ask about Juvia's whereabouts and she told me that Juvia came here and went back to the orphanage crying." "She wasn't invited formally, so I told her to go back." Gray said. Silver and Natsu looked at him in shock whereas Ultear was looking at him with concern. "Gray, she is like a part of our family. She doesn't need any formal invitation." Silver said. "I only have you as my family dad. And that's the end of discussion. My head is hurting and so I'm going to rest in my room. You guys enjoy the party. Ultear, mail me the schedule." Saying this Gray walked out of the room. Leaving a very confused Silver and Natsu behind.