Chapter Seven
June X795
A mere five years ago, when she was first starting out as a mage in Sabertooth, Yukino would have scoffed if someone told her that she would ever have to wait three whole days to catch the ferry to Magnolia.
Before the dragon invasion began, the small boats would leave the bustling port town of Hargeon every half hour (and every twenty minutes on Fridays). A one way ticket only cost J800 and the wait was barely long enough to browse through some of the local shops and get a cup of Skyjewels coffee. She vaguely remembered almost being late for a quest once over cute keychain and an extra dollop of whipped cream, but now that felt like that happened a lifetime ago.
The sky that day was thick with ominous gray clouds, and a light drizzle was beginning to spill from the heavens. She glanced at the clock tower that stood near the bay—fourteen more minutes until the ferry arrived. Soon she would be with Lucy and Mirajane at whatever remained of Fairy Tail.
"Mommy! Look the splash!" she laughed.
Yukino smiled fondly at her daughter who was currently stomping in the previous day's puddles with a strong sense of determination. The young mother mentally commended herself for buying her that light blue raincoat with the matching boots.
"I'm looking, honey," she assured. "But try not to get water on the other people." The ripples from her daughter's rainy day endeavors were edging precariously close to a few of the people she assumed were also waiting for the ferry. However the wife of an older couple, the people she was nearest to, shot Yukino a gentle smile. It was alright. Let her play. There were so few children around these days that everywhere they went, Em could do no wrong.
After a few more minutes of jumping in puddles and chasing her two favorite exceeds around, Emilie pranced over to Yukino with a wide grin that was all her father's. "Book?" she asked hopefully. According to what Levy said, she would be reading in no time. Perhaps before they left Magnolia.
Yukino nodded, opening her seemingly bottomless baby bag to survey the available selections. "Do you want to read Happy again?" It was her favorite bedtime story.
"Yes!"
Yukino kissed her daughter's forehead and brought out the small hardcover. "Why do you like this one so much, Em?"
"Because, he's like Frosch and Lector!"
The maroon exceed merely sighed at this. "To be compared to a love rival," he lamented. Never being able to win Carla's heart still stood among his greatest regrets.
Once Em was in her lap Yukino read the book's front cover, doing what Lucy advised and pointing to each word so Em would learn to recognize the letters. "Happy the Blue Cat. Written by Lucy Heartfilia-"
"Aunt Lucy!" Emilie called.
"Exactly. We're on our way to see her now," the celestial spirit mage informed, much to her daughter's delight, before turning back to the book. "And illustrated by Reedus Jonah."
She flipped to the first page that showed the blue exceed walking through what she knew to be the old Magnolia Town. "My name is Happy! Happy, the blue cat. But I wonder...Why do I even have this name in the first place?"
Yukino got about halfway through the children's story that she knew well enough to recite by heart before she noticed something approaching the town by sea. At first, through the fog, she assumed that it was just the ferry. But as the thing drew nearer, she could sense the insidious nature of its presence.
"Mommy, the story," Emilie prompted, confused as to why she stopped reading. "Next Happy-"
"Shh, honey." Yukino's voice came out sounding distant. Hollow. She felt around for her keys at her waist while keeping her amber eyes fixed on the horizon. "Mommy's trying to think." Even as the words left her lips, she knew that there was no time for thought.
"Yukino-kun?" Lector questioned, worried by the tension in her posture.
"Everyone! Get down!" Yukino called to the people around her, just as a dragon with swirl covered scales on its body became visible overhead. The dragon did not stop flying, but instead released a multitude of eggs over the town. The faint screams Yukino heard in the distance almost immediately meant some of them had crashed into people.
Placing her daughter on the bench behind her, Yukino rushed to kick as many of the eggs as she could into the sea. It would only be a matter of seconds before they hatched.
"Open: Gate of the Scales."A cacophony of sickening cracks sounded all across Hargeon. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted one of the hatchlings poising itself on its hind legs to pounce on the old woman from earlier. "Libra!" She directed her spirit to launch the dragonoid creature into one of its brothers, just before it would have bitten off the lady's head.
"I...I don't even have the words to thank you," she cried. Almost no one in Hargeon had any magic to speak of.
Her husband reached into his pockets. "I know money doesn't mean that much anymore, but if there's anything I can do to repay you-"
"Please." Yukino spared a quick glance their way as Libra struggled to keep the other hatchlings compressed to the ground. "Take my daughter and my cats and get to the town shelter." Every community with a population of over five hundred people had one in case of dragon attacks.
"Of course."
Emilie started to fuss when the elderly woman picked her up and Yukino knew without looking that her cheeks were red and puffed out.
"Yukino-kun," Lector said shakily. She had to know that she stood no chance against that many of them. Not all by herself. And there wasn't another wizard for miles. "We should run." He would be able to fly her and Em somewhere relatively safe.
"Fro thinks so too!"
She smiled at them gently."On my pride as a mage of Sabertooth, I have to protect this town." A frightful crash of thunder nearly drowned out her words. "If I leave everyone here to die and run away by myself, I would never be able to face him. Both of you stay with Em. I'll be back soon."
Then the sky opened up and a torrential downpour started to beat upon the port town. As though roused by the rain, the sea split and the hatchlings of the eggs Yukino cast into the water emerged with their lasers ready.
"Ophiuchus!"
"Mommy!" Emilie screamed as she was carried away. "Mommy!" She reached out her tiny hands, struggling to get back to the comfort of her mother's side.
Yukino cast one final look backward, her amber eyes quickly welling with tears. With a genuine smile, rare since the the passing of her lover, she mouthed her parting words to her only child.
I love you.
July X795
"Are you sure about this?" Lucy questioned as she folded the last of Emilie's little outfits and placed it back into her suitcase. The child in question was asleep in her bed at the hotel they were staying in. She and Mirajane rushed to Hargeon as soon as they heard what happened. One of them always stayed with the child while the other dealt with the logistics of the situation—contacting the remaining members of Sabertooth, making the funeral arrangements.
"Because I don't mind keeping her at all. Yukino was like a sister to me." Was. She mentally cringed at the way the word sounded. Natsu was the love of her life. Erza was one of her best friends. As was Gray. And Juvia. Now her fellow celestial mage had joined the ranks of those who were missing.
The shadow dragon slayer nodded, understanding precisely why her voice hitched and her eyes became downcast. The ache of having to talk about one's friends in the past tense never got any less sharp. "Sting was my brother." And he already failed him once by not being there to protect his intended. He would not make the same mistake with his best friend's only child. That was why he was going to take her to the safest place left in the world, despite his own reservations.
"You're taking her to Mermaid Heel?" Lucy asked for confirmation. While she couldn't deny the logic in bringing her there, she disliked the idea of leaving Em with strangers mere weeks after losing her mother.
Rogue nodded. "I don't mean to sound presumptuous, Lucy-san, but maybe you and your friends should head there too."
She hesitated. Dangerous as it was to stay out in the open now, Magnolia would always be her home. She wasn't quite ready to leave it behind yet. "Maybe after Levy and I finish our research on the Eclipse Gate" Their plan to use it to alter the past was still in its most rudimentary phases, but she was sure it could work. "But I'll definitely be around to visit her."
"Of course." The shadow dragon slayer looked down at his goddaughter who clutched Yukino's keys to her chest while she slept. Lector and Frosch lied on either side of her like knights to keep the tiny princess's nightmares at bay. "I suppose you need them now."
Lucy smiled sadly at the sight. "I'll leave them with her." The spirits were really all she had left of her mother. "It won't be years until we're ready to approach Crocus."
"Be safe."
"You too."
Although, at this point, the very sentiment seemed laughable.
August X795
"Kagura." Arania knocked on the door of her office which stood on the highest level of their mountain sanctuary. The dark haired mage opened the door with her gravity powers without looking up from the paperwork in front of her. "There's someone waiting to see you in the apartment."
"Tell them to come back tomorrow. I'm not seeing anyone else today." She had finally finished calculating the amount of heating lacrimas the ever growing colony would need this winter, and planned to bathe and go straight to bed after she finished placing the orders.
"Kagura, trust me. You want to see him."
She finally looked up. "Him?" As far as she knew, there was only one male acquaintance of hers who elicited this sort of giddy schoolgirl response from her guildmates, and it had been over four years since she last laid eyes on him.
"Him," the green haired haired mage finally revealed her impish grin. "Now come on. Loverboy's waiting."
As she followed her friend down at least a dozen staircases, Kagura found herself compulsively smoothing her hands over her hair and adjusting her headband. Without the consent of her pragmatic and responsible mind, her heart pounded excitedly beneath her ribcage. When they finally reached their door Kagura waited a few seconds to smooth down her frazzled nerves before strolling in, outwardly calm and collected as ever.
"Hi Kagura!" Frosch waved at her from the couch. "It's been awhile."
"Frosch!" Immediately Kagura scooped the exceed up. "How are you? I've missed you."
"Did you get the drawings?"
"I did," she said with a smile. They had been up on the refrigerator since the day she got them. "You're such a good artist."
"Fro thinks so too."
Rogue stood in a corner of the room wondering to what extent she was spitefully ignoring him as opposed to being sincerely distracted by Frosch's innocent charm. She was as beautiful as ever, and her voice still rang with power despite the gentleness with which she handled the exceed. He would have been content with just waiting, drinking in the sight and sound of her like a parched desert flower, until whenever she decided to acknowledge his presence. However, when Millianna strolled into the room with Emilie and Lector in tow, this course of action no longer seemed feasible.
"Look at this adorable little thing, Kagura-chan!" The brown haired mage had placed a pair of cat ears on Emilie's head and drew whiskers on her cheeks with eyeliner. "It's the newest member of the kitten club!"
"Kitten club! Nya!" Emilie repeated with a smile. "Look Uncle Rogue."
For the first time since her arrival Kagura glanced at Rogue, rendering him immobile with the unadulterated power in her hazel eyed stare. "Uncle Rogue, huh?" she muttered under her breath, before turning back to her guildmate. "Very nice. Millia, show the kitten club around for a little while." She placed the jumpsuit clad cat down on the floor. "And take Frosch with you."
Millianna smirked knowingly. "Come on, kitties. We have to go. It's mating season for Kagura-chan."
"Don't be absurd," she replied cooly, despite the faint blush on her cheeks. "And do not lose track of the child under any circumstances!" She locked the door behind her friend and waited a brief moment before turning her attention back to Rogue. "So, whose orphan do you intend to drop on me?"
"Sting's," he replied. "And Yukino's."
"Yukino?" Kagura's eyes widened fractionally. "Does that mean she's…"
He nodded solemnly. "It happened two months ago. The dragon Motherglare dropped its eggs on Hargeon. According to the reports, she was the only mage around."
"That's regretful." It was all she could say, really. Death had so persistently chased the members of their circle—the most courageous mages of the strongest guilds—that news of another wizard passing hardly shocked anyone anymore. "That child can't be a day over two, and she's already lost both parents." It wasn't an uncommon story, especially not in their profession, but she like everyone else had once thought that their generation would be different.
"I know it's a lot to ask of you. Too much, really, but-"
"She'll be safe here," she swordswoman confirmed. "The girls and I will look after her. They'll love it." Millianna and Risley, especially, would adore the idea of having a little sister around to pamper. "But there are conditions."
He looked her dead in the eye. "There is nothing I wouldn't do for that child."
"You're the only link she has to her parents. You are to come see her whenever you can. And you are not to die needlessly."
"Those are your terms?" He had been expecting something far more...punitive from her, especially after the years they spent apart.
"That's correct. Let's drink to it." She pushed passed him and strolled into the kitchen where she retrieved a bottle of aged wine and brought it back to the couch.
Two hours and three bottles of red wine later, Kagura was sprawled out on the couch with her head resting in Rogue's lap. She looked up at him with come-hither eyes and a permanent, girlish blush dusting her cheeks.
"What?" He leaned down to rub his nose against hers.
She put a hand on his cheek, keeping his face close to hers. Kagura studied every iota of him—from his liquid ruby eyes to the fine scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. "I missed you, stupid."
"I know. I'm sorry." Rogue pressed his forehead against hers. Whenever he blinked she felt his long eyelashes tickling her skin. "I didn't want you to worry."
A tiny scowl formed on her lips. "That's not a damn reason to avoid me. I will worry about whatever I see fit, and I'll brook no objections." She did not want to find out what was going on with him through the grapevine. She couldn't stand not being able to help him for four years, while the candle she held for him burned as brightly as it did the first time they made love.
"Understood." He kissed her. Chastely. Gently. After all the efforts he'd made to put distance between them, life decided to chase him right back to where they started.
They kissed for a few more minutes with all of themselves—her hands fisted in his longish hair and his sliding up her shirt, his lips on her neck, and her sweet nothings in his ear trying to ease the some of the world's weight off of his shoulders—until she broke the embrace.
"Rogue," she whispered. "One more thing."
"What?"
She pressed her kiss-swollen lips against his earlobe and languidly blew air over it. "I'm keeping the cats. Okay?"
"Whatever you want, Kagura," he sighed peacefully. After the meaning of the words sunk in he shot upright. "...Wait. What?"
"That's my last condition."
Author's Notes: We are officially in the Rogura part of this story. There will be significantly less tragedy from this point on. Thanks for reading, everyone! Reviews are greatly appreciated!
