Hello my lovelies! So nice to see you again! I hope you've been well since I've last seen you! Here's a chapter just for you!
NOTE!: I'm going out of town for a week for my brother's wedding, so I won't be able to update as I'll be busy with that. Sorry lovelies, but at least you get this before I leave in about seven hours haha.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own ideas and my original characters. Anything recognizable to the FairyTail franchise is not mine.
Enjoy!~
A.~
Previously on Warm My Heart
"Is that him?"
"Does he look like the picture?"
"He's not a princess!"
"No, I meant the picture I gave you." She laughed, finally looking up to see where she was pointing. Gray was standing outside looking in through the window and he staring directly at them. Sera's smile froze on her face.
"Mommy! Mommy, mommy, is it him?! It looks like him mommy! Is it him?" Amelia demanded, tugging on her sleeve again. She looked down and took her hand.
"Yes, Sunflower. That's him." She nodded.
Now…
Amelia jumped out of the booth Sera and her had been sitting in and ran to the door of the café. She threw it open and dashed outside before Sera could even process what happened.
"Amelia!" Sera exclaimed, panicked. What if someone takes her?! She scrambled out of the booth and raced after her. She caught the door just before it closed and thrust it open, shoving past a poor innocent couple in her haste to reach her daughter who was standing before Gray and tugging on his pant leg. She skid to a halt before them and dropped to her knees, taking Amelia's hand in hers and spinning her around to face her. "Don't you ever do that again! You scared me to death just running off like that! What if someone had grabbed you?" She demanded.
"Sorry mommy." Amelia mumbled. Sera huffed out a breath and pulled her into a hug, pressing a kiss to her head.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean you get upset with you…. I just love you so much… I don't want anything to happen to you." She mumbled.
"Sorry mommy… I just… I wanted to meet him." Amelia turned her head up to Gray who was staring down at them, dumbstruck. Sera looked up at him and cleared her throat, letting Amelia go all but for her hand as she stood up.
"Hi." She greeted.
"H-hi." Gray stammered, still staring down at Amelia.
"Amelia… Introduce yourself." Sera said, wiggling her arm a bit.
"Yeah! I'm Amelia!" She smiled up at him.
"Hi… I'm Gr—"
"I know who you are." Amelia cut him off.
"You do?" He glanced up to Sera in confusion.
"Yeah." Amelia nodded, digging around in her pockets.
"You left it at the table sweetie." Sera reminded her. She looked up to Gray. "Care to join us for hot cocoa and cookies?" She asked. "My treat." He stared for a moment and Sera rose an eyebrow at him.
"Y-yes, I'd love to." He said quickly. Sera nodded and turned to head inside with Amelia's hand securely in hers. Gray moved to follow after them and paused in shock when he felt a small hand slip into his. He looked down and found Amelia looking up at him. She stared for a second before smiling.
"What's the hold u—…?" Sera stopped when she saw why Amelia had stopped walking. She looked up and found Gray looking at her. "Well? C'mon you two. We can't block the door." She insisted. With a lot of anxiety, she let go of Amelia's hand and let her lead Gray inside. She followed along behind them to the booth and watched as Amelia pulled him into the side that she had previously sat on. She snorted and grabbed her drink and cookies to move them over to the other side but Gray abruptly stood up.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean to take your seat—"
"Gray?"
"Yeah?"
"Sit down before I burn your hair off." She rolled her eyes and sat down across from Amelia, clearing away the coloring book for the moment.
"See! I told you I know you!" Amelia shoved the picture at Gray and he leaned back so he could actually see it. His eyes widened marginally and he plucked it from her fingers.
"I remember this. You took this in Hargeon right before—" He stopped.
"Before our mission." Sera nodded.
"That's when I was put in mommy's tummy right?" Amelia asked.
"Yes, Sunflower." She agreed, smiling. Amelia smiled and looked down happily. Then her smile melted and she looked panicked.
"Mommy where is he? Where's Archie?" She exclaimed.
"Calm down, it's okay, I've got him right here for you. I didn't want you spilling cocoa on him remember?" Sera lifted her tote bag onto her lap and dug around inside as Amelia relaxed and drank her cocoa. "Gray, help her with that, it's a heavy cup." She instructed without looking up. He turned to her instinctively and helped her hold it even though she insisted she had it.
"Who's…. Archie?" Gray asked.
"My bear." Amelia piped up.
"Huh?"
"The polar bear stuffed animal you bought before she was born. I…. Took it with me." Sera mumbled, finally pulling the bear out. It was dingy and worn in places. Completely falling apart in other places. "I think Archie needs to be restored again, don't you, Sunflower?" She looked him over.
"Yeah, he looks sick." Amelia mumbled.
"It's okay, I'm sure there's a restoration shop around here." Sera assured her quickly.
"You… Kept it all this time?" Gray asked, looking at the bear.
"Yeah, of course. Amelia can't sleep without him. She loves Archie." Sera smiled and handed him to her across the table when Gray put her cup back up. "Of course I had to get him restored a couple times by a mage in town when she was younger. She kept taking him into the bathtub…" She gave her a withering look and Amelia just beamed at her mother, prompting her to roll her eyes. But she couldn't fight the smile that crept onto her lips. "So he kept falling apart." She snorted. "But…" She shrugged. "What're you gonna do? I can't exactly let him just stay in pieces when she loves him so much." She muttered, watching her hug the bear tightly.
"Why that bear?" Gray asked. "I'm sure you have tons of stuffed animals." Amelia looked up at him and frowned like the answer was obvious.
"Cause you bought it for me daddy. So it's special." She hugged the bear tighter. Gray looked over at Sera who abruptly looked away and drank her own hot chocolate. "Do you like coloring?" Amelia asked, bringing his attention back to her.
"Are you kidding? I love coloring, how'd you know?" He asked, smiling when her eyes lit up. She reached across the table and Sera effortlessly lifted up Amelia's cup before she could spill it as her daughter grappled for the coloring book and crayons.
"You gotta color a page with me daddy!" She demanded.
"Amelia, use your manners." Sera chided.
"Please color a page with me daddy?" She asked sweetly, looking up at him. He swallowed thickly and blinked back tears.
"Yeah…. Yeah of course I will." He agreed. She smiled and flipped the book open to the outlined picture of a prince standing at the base of a tower which held a princess trapped at the top with long hair. She handed him a crayon and slid the coloring book to sit between them on the table. "You can color his hair." She told him before she grabbed a crayon out of the box for herself.
"Okay. Are you sure you want his hair to be this dark?" Gray asked, looking at the black crayon.
"Yeah cause you're the prince in the story. Your hair is that color so you gotta color it like that." Amelia reasoned. He stared at her for a moment but she started coloring the tower a dark gray color so she wasn't exactly paying attention.
"Okay then." He said after a minute. He began coloring the prince's hair carefully and they were quiet for a second.
"My favorite color is gray." Amelia announced, making both parents look at her.
"Why's that?" Gray asked.
"Cause it's a good color." She shrugged. Gray looked up at Sera, wondering if she had a better explanation but she held her hands up in surrender.
"Don't look at me. She switches her favorite color weekly." She laughed. "Last week her favorite color was chartreuse, simply because she liked the sound of the name." That made Gray chuckle but Amelia pouted and her little cheeks went pink.
"It sounds cool!" She defended.
"That it does, Sunflower, that it does." Sera agreed. "Do you have any cool sounding colors or words?" She asked Gray.
"Uh…. I have one. And it's pretty cool, to me anyway, because it was also the last name of the first guild master. Ya know, the one who started FairyTail." He explained. She nodded and waved for him to continue. "Right. Um, vermillion." He shrugged. Amelia stopped coloring and looked up at him.
"Ver…. Mill…. Ion…. Vvveeerrrrmmmiiiillllllllliiioooonnnn…" She drew it out as she tried to get used to saying it. "Vermillion." She smiled. "It sounds cool. It'll be my favorite next week." She decided. Gray laughed, slightly in disbelief.
"Okay." He agreed.
"What's it look like?" She asked.
"It's um…. Well it's a bright red color." He described. He reached for the crayon box and pulled one out. "Kind of like this." He showed her.
"Oh." She nodded. "Okay. It's kinda pretty." She agreed. She took the crayon and examined it more closely. "It's is the color of the prince's shirt." She decided.
"Oh, okay." Gray chuckled.
"Amelia, why don't you let Gray decide what to color his part of the picture?" Sera asked gently. Amelia pouted and put the crayon down.
"No, no! It works out because I him wanted to have a red shirt anyways!" Gray said quickly. "So we were thinking the same thing!" He smiled. Amelia beamed and handed him the crayon. He took it and began to color the prince's shirt while she turned back to the box and put the other two crayons away. She pulled out a pink crayon and put it to the princess in the tower's hair.
"Shouldn't that go on her dress, Sunflower?" Sera frowned.
"No." Amelia frowned in concentration and her tongue poked out of her lips while she colored.
"Why are you coloring her hair pink?" Her mother asked.
"Because you're the princess, duh."
"You know I don't like that word." Sera warned.
"Sorry mommy."
"Forgiven. And why am I the princess?"
"Cause, daddy's the prince." She said like that made everything make sense.
"I still don't…" Amelia sighed.
"Princes and princesses fall in love, live happily ever after, become kings and queens, and then get little princes and princesses of their own." She explained.
"Like you, little princess?" Gray chuckled, resting his hand on her head affectionately.
"… Yeah." Amelia blushed at receiving a nickname from her father. She was quiet for a little bit and colored her part of the picture in silence. He looked up at Sera, wondering if he'd done something wrong and she shook her head to reassure him.
"Gray—"
"Mommy—" She and Amelia started at the same time. Sera stopped immediately and looked to her in question.
"What is it, Sunflower?" She asked. Amelia shook her head.
"You were gonna talk to daddy." She mumbled.
"No, no, it's okay sweetie. Tell me." She encouraged.
"Well…. We're gonna go the park with Iggy and auntie Kaia soon right?" She asked.
"Yeah?" Sera prompted.
"Well… I want daddy to come too." She mumbled. Gray looked between the two girls quickly.
"I-I should—" He broke off when Sera leaned across the table to Amelia.
"Gray can come along if he wants but we can't make him, so how about you ask really nice and see if he will." She stage whispered before sitting back and taking a bite of her cookie. Amelia put on her most sweet and innocent smile and turned to Gray, who gulped upon seeing it aimed at him.
"Daddy….?" She asked.
"Y-yes?"
"Will you pretty please with cherries on top go to the park with us?" She asked, her brown eyes sparkling.
"Oooh…. Puppy dog eyes too, dang Sunflower, you're not taking any chances." Sera snorted into her cup. She was having so much fun watching the exchange. Gray frantically looked between Sera and Amelia, wondering if it was really okay for him to go. Sera put her cup down and rose an eyebrow at him. "Well? Are you gonna go with us?" She asked.
"Can I?" He whispered, looking at Sera. A small frown formed between her brows and she nodded minutely. He turned back to Amelia with a smile. "I'd love to." He agreed. Amelia squealed happily and quickly started putting her crayons away.
"Whoa whoa, what's the hurry?" Sera laughed.
"We're going to the park mommy!" She huffed. Sera rolled her eyes affectionately and quickly finished off her hot chocolate and ate the rest of her cookie. She took the coloring book and box of crayons when Amelia handed them to her and put them away in her bag. "Move, move, move! We gotta go! We're going to the park!" Amelia said, pushing at Gray's arm.
"Amelia! Manners!"
"Please move!" She corrected. Sera snorted and Gray chuckled as he scooted out of the booth to let her out. Amelia was holding her teddy bear in one arm and the second she was out of the booth her other hand found Gray's and held it. Sera shouldered her bag and moved to accept Amelia's hand but saw it in Gray's and let her hand drop to her side.
"S-sorry, she grabbed my hand when—" Sera shook her head and offered up a miniscule smile. He could see the tension in the corners of her mouth showing it was more forced than natural.
"It's fine, just don't let her go, okay?" She asked before turning to head out the café.
"Never." He promised.
Short chapter, sorry not sorry. I was feeling a little blocked towards the end. Anyways, REVIEW my lovelies, tell me what you thought! You should know that I love hearing from you guys!
UNTIL NEXT TIME MY LOVELIES!
A.~