WEIRDO BLABS: Let me clarify something because I think I made a mistake in the previous chapters. In this story, Lucy was seven when her mother met the plane accident. Now, it's ten years later. Just wanted to make points clearer.
Moreover, I hope you guys won't be too confused with Lucy #1 (the real Lucy) and Lucy #2 (the Layla-Lucy).
NOTE: Most of the songs in this fanfic might be just poems I whipped up. But if I do use real songs, I will make sure to give credit accordingly so please do not sue me!
-CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO-
Where your questions will finally be answered. Well, most of them, anyway.
The first thing she felt was pain; so much pain that she couldn't feel a thing. She couldn't even remember anything.
She weakly opened her eyes, the sound of clucking chickens coming in from some place close. There was a strong scent that tickled her nose and she scrunched it and drew her head away weakly from it.
"Y-You're awake," said a voice, small and shy. Moving her gaze to where the voice was coming from, she saw a little girl with pale gray hair and beautiful emerald eyes. The blush on the girl's cheeks went well with her naturally pink lips that she tugged up into a small smile.
The girl excitedly walked toward a corner in the room, which was apparently the kitchen. She grabbed a bowl and a spoon and sat beside her. "Please eat this—"
"W-Who are you?" Her voice, tired and yet very gentle, escaped her mouth. She felt her forehead sting and she touched that part; a thin piece of cloth met her touch.
"Lilly," the girl replied, "I'm seven and I live here with my grandparents… W-What's your name? How old are you?"
Unable to reply, she looked outside the window, twilight drawing near and the sky turning crimson behind the mountains. Who was she? Why can't she remember anything before the pain she felt? And what was this one word that kept repeating in her head?
"M-Miss?"
"I… I don't know… I don't know who I am," she said, tears welling in her eyes, "I can't remember…"
"My grandma says she and grandpa found you by the river with all those cuts and bruises all over you two days ago," Lilly explained, the hot porridge steaming in her hands, "We don't know how you got there but maybe you're sick or something. Do you really not remember anything at all?"
The woman looked into the pensive green eyes of the child and her heart beat in her chest, the motherly instinct in her awakening, and the same word practically screaming in her head.
"I remember one word… just one," she said.
"What is it?"
"Lucy…"
Lucy. That was the name she went with since then. She acted as mother to Lilly and daughter to her grandparents until they died. Apparently, the household lost Lilly's mother a few years before she got there. 'Lucy' now resolved to fill in that empty seat on the kitchen table. With no recollection whatever of her past, she lived a new life with a new identity; she didn't even bother to find out who she really was, where she came from or how old she was.
In her new identity, she was Lucy.
And now, Lucy was ten.
"This is really freaky, man…" Natsu exhaled as he watched the blonde woman with Jellal on the veranda from the living room of their band dorm. After the surprise their Lucy had back at the studio, she had a panic attack and fainted. Deeming it wise to give the girl some space, Levy took her home while the band, Ul, Erza and Jellal took Layla back to the dorm to sort a few things out.
"She really looks like Lucy," the Salamander added and turned around the couch to face Erza and Gray's adoptive mother, Ul. They were gathered around the living room table over a hot cup of tea, trying to hear the full story.
"No, Natsu. It's the other way around," Erza corrected, "Lucy looks like her."
"But this is seriously messed up, though," Gajeel interjected. "We thought the girl's old lady was long dead!"
"Okay, Ul…" Gray was very serious as he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back on the couch to look at his adoptive mother's eyes sternly, "Explain."
"I guess we should save the catching up for later, huh, Julius?" she said, a smile on her face.
"Julius?!" Erza, Gajeel and Natsu chorused.
"Ul!" Gray was now rapidly changing his face color from pink to red to purple. "Not now!"
"Why so?" Ul smiled ever so sinisterly, her lips ghosting over the tea cup's brim, "You don't want your friends to know that your real name is Julius Gray?"
"Julius… Gray?" Natsu and Gajeel repeated, laughs held back with their will power. The two were restraining themselves so much that they were shaking and Natsu had to grip his pants so tightly to relieve some of that bliss.
"Yeah, yeah, my full name is Julius Gray Fullbuster," Gray said and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "So can we get over that and go to the part about Lucy and her mom?"
There was a silence between them, a pause that was interrupted by the sound of Ul's tea cup being placed on the table. A snort came from Gajeel and then Natsu had to elbow him in the ribs to keep them from laughing. They did not want to mess with and angry Gray Fullbuster… or rather, Julius Gray Fullbuster.
"Okay, then," Ul started, "I'll explain but I only know so much…"
Erza coughed before she spoke; apparently, she also found 'Julius' a very intriguing name. "Anything that you know is already of great help, doctor Milkovich."
The doctor took a deep breath before starting to speak. "Lucy—"
"Layla," Gray corrected, "Her name is Layla."
"Whatever, Julius," Ul snapped, "Do you or do you not want me to tell you anything?" Defeated, Gray only grunted in resignation, his cheeks turning crimson again. "Anyway, Lucy—or Layla, whatever you want to call her—had been my assistant at my volunteer clinic in a small village abroad. I found out that she had amnesia when we were casually talking a few months after she started working for me but since she seemed happy with her new life, I really didn't bother asking about it anymore. She lived there with a girl named Lilly and her late grandparents; she stood as the girl's foster mother."
Ul pulled out a photo of Layla and Lilly from her folder and carefully laid it out on the table for everyone to see. From the looks of their faces, Ul knew exactly what was going on in their minds, as she had thought of it when she saw Julius' blond girlfriend a while ago. "She looks a lot like the blond with Julius, Lilly does. If not for her hair and eye color and the shape of her eyes, the two could pass off as twins. Maybe that's what kept Lucy in that village without trying to trace her past; she was a mother before she was her own self.
"About a week ago, I was listening to the album you sent me after a hard day's work. I asked Luc—Layla," Ul immediately corrected herself when she saw that Gray was about to react for the second time, "to bring me some hot choco. When she came in, she was fine and we even talked a bit. But suddenly, she gasped and fell to her knees. She remembered something and I just don't know what. I escorted her back to her house and talked to Lilly about finding her old family.
"Lu—Layla was against it, though. She didn't want to leave Lilly alone in the village and asked me to forget about everything that happened. But a few days later, Lilly called me up at my main clinic and asked me to take Layla to her family because she had been having dreams every night. The poor girl didn't want to see her suffering. Layla finally agreed and told me that one of your songs sounded nostalgic… That's why I came to you, Julius…"
Gray had no care anymore if his mother was calling him that god-awful name. He just wanted to help Lucy; seeing her like that, hyperventilating and eventually fainting into his arms was really frustrating… He couldn't do anything.
He looked at Jellal and Layla, speaking at the balcony outside, then turned back to Ul. "It must have been 'Queen of the Lights,'" he said. "It was a song Lucy wrote for her mother. Maybe the song came through to her memory core. Other than that, I have nothing else to say…"
"It's possible," Ul said, her eyes on Layla as well, "It's very drama-like but it's possible…"
"But will she remember anything soon, though?" Natsu asked, "I'm pretty worried about Luce…"
"As a doctor, I'd suggest therapy but…" Ul sighed and slouched on her chair, "You'd be waiting forever for an appointment with any reliable psychologist…" The woman looked into her son's eyes, "I think it's up to your friend now, Julius…"
"Yeah," he replied and hoped that Lucy was awake and knew what she needed to do, "I'll tell her that…"
"So… you're…?"
"I'm the son of your colleagues…" Jellal answered graciously. "You used to sing in broadway together with my parents…"
"I'm sorry, I really don't remember anything…" she replied. The woman knew it was going to be hard to catch up with the ghosts of her past but rather than feeling sorry for herself, she felt worse for the people who knew her. They looked so pained whenever she says that she doesn't remember them at all.
And that blonde girl from before…
"It's all very overwhelming," Layla finally said to the blue-haired man beside her. His name was Jellal and he was the son of her former co-artists who died in the plane crash which she survived at the cost of her memory. "I'm sorry if I can't remember you at all... If it means anything, though, you're very familiar to me."
"It's okay, miss Layla," Jellal said, taking Layla's hand in his large ones and smiled as if he saw an angel, "We're all very confused right now… but that aside, we're all very happy…"
"Layla..." she said, "That's my name, isn't it?"
The smile on Jellal's face faded quite a bit as pity for the woman filled his heart. It must be frustrating to be a stranger to yourself and the people who love you.
"Jellal..." said a third person from behind him. Jellal looked and stared into Erza Scarlet's smiling eyes. People who love you, huh?
"Let's have a chat sometime, Jellal," Layla offered and looked over his shoulder, smiling at the man's lover. "For now, we should all rest for the night..."
The smell of home-cooking invaded the room and, along with all the ruckus last night and the fact that he wasn't sleeping in his own room but in one of the guest rooms, it made him all the more awake.
Bacon, he thought as he tried to register the smell. The dorm maid must be cooking bacon and eggs for all of them today. However, he didn't remember calling for the house help. She was always made free on weekends.
The brunette sat up and patted his bare abdomen in the dark guest room, feeling his grumbling stomach. Without even debating whether or not he should go downstairs to the kitchen, he drew the curtains open to say hello to the sunshine. Then, he grabbed his gray sweat jacket and went to where the aroma was coming from.
Oh...? He walked absentmindedly down the stairs to the kitchen where a blond woman wearing a white dress under the green apron was cooking.
"Miss... Layla?" It took a while for the woman to acknowledge his presence. When she did, she smiled lovingly at him and greeted him a good morning.
"I'm sorry... I'm not used to being called 'Layla' just yet..." she said and placed a hot cup of coffee in front of the brunette. "Are you hungry? I just finished cooking the first batch..."
"Thank you, ma'am," Gray said and smiled sheepishly at Layla. Her resemblance to Lucy was so uncanny that he could already see what the younger would look like when she reached her mother's age. "But you didn't have to cook since those two probably won't wake up until noon..."
"You're awake, though," Layla said and put a plate of bacon, eggs and honey-kissed pancakes in front of him, "Light sleeper?"
"Just today..." he replied and gulped at the sumptuous breakfast, "I don't sleep well when I'm not in my own room..."
"Sorry about that, Julius..." the woman said in a voice like Lucy's, but much gentler with age, "You really shouldn't have given us your room..."
"No, it's okay, ma'am... The guest rooms weren't prepared so it would be embarrassing if we let you sleep there..."
Layla sat beside him, a cup of coffee in her hands. "Did I know you before I—?"
"Oh, no..!" he denied and cut her off before she could finish (and before he could swallow). "Last night was the first time we met."
"I see..." she said, "Thank goodness..."
There was a pregnant pause between the two and Gray made quick glances at the woman, her eyes so bitter and sad. He felt obliged to at least make her feel better.
"This is really good food, ma'am..." he praised.
"Thank you, Julius—"
"P-Please call me Gray..." he sweat-dropped.
"I see... Okay... Gray..." she said in the most motherly of voices that it made the brunette blush. "So, are you going anywhere today?"
"Yeah..." he said, not looking up from his plate."I'm going to visit a friend..."
"Would that friend be the girl from last night?" Layla asked. The boy's eyes shyly looked up at her and he saw that she was looking past the liquid in her mug.
"Yeah..."
"What's... her name?"
"'Lucy'..." The woman's thin lips smiled.
"Last night, she... Before she fainted, she said something that I..." Layla breathed in and her grip on the cup tightened. Guilt was undoubtedly eating her up. "Is she my...?"
"Yeah..." Gray answered, "She's your only daughter..."
Layla looked up at him; confusion, guilt, frustration, embarrassment, regret. But beyond all of that, her eyes twinkled with happiness.
"Is she okay?"
"I haven't texted or called her yet, I'm afraid," Gray answered, "I'll drop by her house later to check on her but I'm sure she's fine... She's a tough girl..."
Layla didn't answer but a smile of relief was on her lips. Despite not remembering Lucy, the woman seemed pretty attached to the girl. Mothers will be mothers, after all.
"Have you known her for long?"
"Not longer than... six months, I think?" he answered and went back to his meal.
"C-Can you tell me... what she's like?" the woman asked shyly.
Gray smiled and took a sip of coffee before he laid both his arms on the table to start talking. "Well, she's smart and tough. She never falls back. She doesn't want people to see her defenseless or weak, but as much as possible, she wants to be strong for others.
"She's a really good friend to... us," he said, trying hard to find the right pronoun. "She's scared of thunderstorms and her most private place is anywhere under a piano."
Layla looked quite surprised upon hearing this. Gray continued, "Someday, she wants to be a broadway singer... As you were ten years ago..."
"For someone who knows her for no longer than six months, you sure know a lot about her..." The brunette realized he'd been smiling; at Layla's remark, he immediately dropped his smile into a shy frown. "I... envy you, Gray..."
"Miss Layla..."
"I... don't even know how to face her because I don't know anything about her..." The smile on her face was sad and full of guilt, "...my own daughter..."
"It's not your fault, ma'am..." Gray said and leaned in a bit, "Please... Let me help you..."
"Princess..."
Virgo's voice was muffled from behind the door. Although Lucy heard it, she was too tired to go and unlock the door; too torn to get up.
The girl turned on her bed and felt her tired eyes sting from lack of sleep and from crying into the wee hours of the night. She doesn't want to leave the comfort of her dark room today. She just wanted to stay there and contemplate—think. Was she dreaming or was that really her mother? If it was, how was she supposed to react, believing her to be dead for ten long years? Excited? Scared? Confused?
"Don't you have a key or something?" a second voice said. Senpai?
"Yes, but—"
"Give it to me."
"Understood."
The blonde scrunched her forehead when there was a silence after Virgo's words. Whatever they were planning, she wouldn't leave her house. In the first place, how could she face Gray? She fainted in front of him; that was embarrassing. Even the thought of that event made her flush and so she buried her face in her soft pillows.
Soon enough, the door opened with a soft click and light from the living room flooded in. She could distinctly hear Gray dismiss Virgo before he closed the door and walked around. Lucy didn't move; only waited.
"I know you're awake," Gray said, "And I saw your new TV downstairs…"
It's not like I wanted that TV to know more about your career, idiot, she mentally noted and didn't answer. Even in the darkness of her room, she could see Gray prancing about her carpeted floor in his white jacket, black fitting top and skinny jeans. He eventually got to the curtains and drew it fully, the bright sun rays crawling into her room, her bed and burnt her eyes.
She squinted and covered her eyes; only Gray's silhouette was visible due to the intensity of the light. "Don't…!"
"C'mon…" Gray retorted and Lucy swore she saw him roll his beautiful black eyes. He went closer and sat on her bed, "Get up…"
"No!" she said and turned around, pillow on her head. "I won't!"
With a strong enough force, Gray pulled the pillow from Lucy's grasp. The force was also strong enough to pull the blonde up, one hand on the pillow and the other on Lucy's slender wrist. One look and he immediately knew that she had been crying: her eyes were red and swollen. The girl didn't look at him but looked away into the dark parts of her room.
"You know, big girls don't cry…" he said and smiled, trying to comfort his senpai.
"Shut up…" Lucy exclaimed and put a tangled mess of hair behind her ears. Her eyes drooped considerably and she blinked several times. Apparently, she was sleepy from all that crying and her chest hurt so much it was getting hard to breathe.
"You okay?" asked Gray all of a sudden, his voice inquiring with respect.
"I am…" she replied and put both her hands on her lap, "I'm just wondering why you're here… I mean, are we really in terms where we can crash into each other's homes so freely?"
Gray blushed at this remark, annoyed; not only was Lucy making a lot of sense, but she was also being very disrespectful. He heaved a long and deep sigh, putting into mind that she must be under a lot of stress with what happened. "Well, that's… Anyway, about the woman last night…"
"What?" The blonde immediately snapped her head to his direction, hopeful and yet expecting a bitter news. "What about her…?"
"That was your mother…" he immediately said without reservation, "Your mother has been alive all these years…"
Lucy grimaced, her hands shaking as they gripped her covers. All the tears must have been used up already, though, as nothing would come out of her eyes. She looked down and felt her chest tighten, her breath shorten.
"Hey, hey, hey," Gray said, cheering her on and making her look at him by cupping her smooth face in his calloused hands, "Look at me… Everything will be fine…"
"But… It's not fine now, is it?" she asked, one small hand grabbing Gray's and putting it down. She was showing him her weak side, a side so vulnerable, but she didn't even know why. Maybe it's because she had been trying to be strong all these years that she wanted someone to tell her that it was okay for her not to be strong all the time. "Tell me, senpai…"
"Uhm…" Gray coughed and removed his hand from Lucy's skin, refraining from touching her. He was so caught up in the moment that he was letting his emotions drive his actions—bad Gray! "She's forgotten everything that happened before the accident…"
"Amnesia…" Lucy breathed in defeat.
"I don't know how it's going to work out but we'll work it out together, okay?" he said, his voice encouraging and persuasive, "It's not the end. We'll all help you. We're here so… you don't need to do this by yourself…"
"Doesn't she remember anything at all?"
"No—Not yet…" Gray said firmly, "But that's what we need to work out."
"How…?"
He smiled widely and put friendly hands on her shoulders, "Fix yourself. Take a quick bath and make yourself presentable… We're going on a date…"
WEIRDO BLABS: Okay, I'm not a master of amnesia and in this story, I am sticking to general knowledge to play as my cards. If I wrote anything wrong, please forgive me as I am not a doctor… - _ - Thank you for understanding.
Anyway, how do you guys find Julius? Mehehehe! Yeah, I made that one up so if you don't like it, then that's not my fault anymore.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
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Did I forget anyone? Feel free to PM me. I'll feel bad if I didn't get to acknowledge anyone who gives me so much inspiration. : )
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