WEIRDO BLABS: I'm so tired… stress really leaves you an empty shell… -_-
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-THREE-
Where a date is always more fun with more people.
That partially cloudy eleven o'clock was perfect and encouraging; encouraging the breeze to blow in the city, encouraging the birds to fly in flocks across the sky and sing their songs as they perch atop the mighty trees, encouraging the people to bask in the sunlight with their wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses.
In fact, the conditions of that day were encouraging Lucy to enter the high-class restaurant. But no matter how it urged her, she couldn't throw away the feeling of anxiety and doubt. Why was she feeling that way, though? She was just going to meet her mother.
No. There just are things that are easier said than done.
"Are you just going to stand there all day?" her companion asked, pulling a pair of expensive sunglasses from the inside pocket of his white jacket. After he properly parked his motorcycle, he put them on and stood beside Lucy, also taking a long look at the building in front of them.
The blonde held tight to the sling bag around her chest and took a deep breath. "No…"
"Don't worry..." Gray said, his tone hiding his doubt, "Ul and I will be sitting close-by so..."
"Yeah... I'll be fine," she said.
"Sure you will," Gray replied, his voice half doubtful.
He started and Lucy walked after him towards the glass doors that automatically slid open. As soon as they entered, Lucy's stomach churned when she immediately saw her mother sitting on a table on the second floor balcony. She was talking to a waiter, menu on her hands. Feet shaking in her boots, she carefully climbed the staircase. She could feel her heart pumping a million beats a second and she felt her vision spin, making her grab hold of Gray's sleeve.
"I'm suddenly so nervous," Lucy expressed and they stopped halfway up the staircase. "My knees are shaking…"
"If you're nervous, imagine how your mother must be feeling," Gray said. The blonde could see his gentle stare through his sunglasses. "She's probably more anxious than you are."
"But what are we even going to talk about?"
"You guys are family... You'll find something to talk about," he smiled, "Now, come on."
The singer's strong arm snaked around Lucy's waist and he half-carried her the rest of the steps up with ease. They walked a few steps more, some restaurant guests staring at the singer beside Lucy, until they stopped two tables away from her mother.
"Well, this is where you go solo," Gray said and stood behind Lucy. He sat down in front of a beautiful woman with purple shoulder-length hair and rested his head on his palm, "Good luck, senpai."
She nodded, and turned by her heel, cautiously walking toward her mother's figure, her back on Lucy.
"M...Mum?" she said weakly. Layla looked up at her with an awkward smile on her face; the younger Heartfilia gulped.
Trying hard not to pull her mother into a hug, she sat calmly in front of her. "My name is Lucy..." she introduced. It felt strange, even silly, to be introducing yourself to your own mother.
"So I've been told," Layla replied, the smile not leaving her face. She looked at Lucy, trying to take in every detail of the younger blonde's face; trying to remember anything.
Lucy blushed.
"Would you mind if I... call you 'mum'?" the girl asked.
"No, not at all," Layla replied, "It's only right for you to call me that, isn't it?"
Lucy smiled at looked down at the table sheepishly. "I guess..."
"Lucy, dear," the mother started, "I just want to apologize if I can't remember anything as of now..."
The girl looked up at her mother, the gentle eyes that looked at Lucy making her want to cry.
"I-It's okay," she said, "We have all the time in the world, mum..."
Layla's face lit up in recognition. "It feels... very nostalgic when you called me 'mum'..."
Lucy smiled and raised her fist to her chest, "At least you remember how it feels... That's good enough for me..."
The older blonde smiled; uncertain.
The brunette exerted effort in trying to spy on the Heartfilias from their table, about ten meters away. He painstakingly craned his neck to the side and tried to see under his tinted shades.
Only when Ul smirked did he stop and remember that his adoptive mother was there.
"What?" he asked and pretended to stretch his neck.
"Don't be such a busy-body," Ul half-reprimanded, "You're girlfriend's gonna be fine."
"She's not my girlfriend!" he hissed, keepings voice down. The tips of his ears were turning red at his foster mother's comment.
"Yet..." she added, "Anyway, you shouldn't concern yourself with their business..."
"But I—"
"But you what?"
"Nothing..." he pouted and just took a long sip on his iced mocha.
"Ah, young love..."
"I'm not in—!" Gray stopped when Ul was smirking confidently at him. "H-How can you say that I am?"
"The eyes never lie, Julius..." Ul stopped to continue reading the magazine in front of her. "You've got the same look you had with your puppy love... What's her name? Marie?"
"Mira..." he corrected.
"Right... Mira..." the doctor smiled, "Her name's Lucy, right?"
"Stop it..." the brunette flushed.
"She seems nice. Does she sing—?"
"Stop it..!"
"I'm just asking—!"
"Please, mom! Stop it!" Gray hid his head in his arms and laid his forehead on the table. He heard Ul snicker before he felt her hand patting his black strands; he remained still.
"It's been so long since you called me 'mom'..." Gray looked up and saw Ul's gentle smile, directed at him, making him flush even more.
"Sorry, I haven't been calling frequently..." he said after a while. He had always thought of himself as an independent person, but he knew he had family; and for him to take that for-granted was just unforgivable. "I just—Senpai?"
Gray didn't even finish when he stood up and hurried after Lucy; the girl was crying, no doubt. Ul, on the other hand, could only watch as her son skipped three steps on the stairs to catch up to the blonde.
She smiled. He isn't the Julius from two years ago anymore, she thought. He was slowly exploring the dimensions of his social relationships.
The doctor sighed, stood up and walked towards Layla. Seems like only yesterday when he was still dependent on her.
And now he's old enough to chase after crying girls.
"Senpai!" Gray called out and tiptoed past the remaining steps. He held tightly to the handle with one hand and to his shades with the other. He also had to stop and smile a bit at people who recognized him around the first floor.
Lucy turned on a corner with ease, the red carpet being so silent under her brown rubber-soled boots. She was covering her mouth with one hand and the other fought past the strangers in her way.
The brunette followed closely behind her, but eventually was led to a stop when she entered the females' restroom. Gray, being the gentleman that he is, stayed by the door and called out to her again.
"Sen-Senpai?" he said, "Are you okay?"
Lucy sniffed from behind one of the cubicle doors and exhaled. "Yeah..." she said, "Just a bit worried..."
"Did something happen?"
"Mum doesn't remember anything even though I've been telling her so much already..." she explained in a voice that was shaking, "She was saying that she was somehow familiar with them but..." Another sniff, "I could see it in her eyes that she only did that so I wouldn't be hurt..."
That sucks, Gray thought. Well, he sort of saw it coming anyway. What did he expect? That Layla would remember everything after just one or two minutes of chatting with her daughter? That could have worked in dramas or in movies but not necessarily in real life.
"Well... What do you want to do now?" he asked her, "Do you want to go home?"
Lucy sighed twice, then a slapping sound could be heard, before she went out of the cubicle with a handkerchief wiping her face dry. "No... I want to take her around town first..."
Gray smiled. "That's a good idea," he agreed, "Maybe there were places you used to go to... Things you used to do together... Those could help, right?"
Lucy nodded and stared up at him, smiling to the best of her abilities. "Yeah... I'm sure of it..."
They exchanged encouraging looks at one another; Lucy trying to decide whether she should thank him now or do it later, and Gray debating whether or not he should hug the girl to give her some sort of moral support.
In the end, he decided not to do anything.
"So, where do you want to go now?"
After running all around town with Gray and their mothers, Lucy and her companions were finally down to their last stop of the day; just in time, too, as it was getting cold and dark, telling them to go back to their warm and cozy homes.
Still halfway up the trail, Lucy could already see the tip of the watchtower's roof, gleaming purple in the twilight. She held tight to the motorcycle's seat and eagerly waited for them to reach the top of that hill.
"Beautiful place," Ul commented the moment she stepped out of the car and had a short look around. "It's so high up and there's nothing that blocks your view of the city…"
Lucy looked at her mother and walked beside her toward the ledge. "We used to come here a lot when I was young," she explained, "You loved this place because the city lights were very pretty to look at at night."
"I can see that they still are," Layla said, half-smiling and half-frowning. "What... What did we usually do here?"
"Well... If it's still early, we have a picnic," Lucy said, "If it's late, we just usually... sit and talk..."
Gray watched as the younger Heartfilia longingly looked at her mother. He felt really sorry for Lucy, but he couldn't do anything more than just that, right?
"Julius—No... Gray..." Gray turned to his foster mom with a surprised look; first time in her life that Ul called him 'Gray' without being sarcastic or offensive. "Here..."
Ul handed Gray his acoustic guitar by its long neck, the strings vibrating slightly at the transfer. "You... brought my guitar..?"
"Thought it would come in handy," Ul said, smiling, "I put it in the back seat so it's perfectly scratch-less... Now, go and make me proud..."
The singer looked at the instrument for a bit then turned his back at Ul. "Thanks... mom..."
Without looking back, he slung the guitar around his body and plucked the strings to check if they were fine. The mere sound of the strings made the mother and daughter look at him, puzzled.
"Senpai?" Lucy asked.
"Hey, wanna sing with me for a bit?" he asked.
"But..."
Gray strummed away and didn't wait for a positive reply. After playing two chords, Lucy immediately knew the song he was playing.
Gray sang first and smiled playfully at Lucy:
Queen of the lights had a beautiful face
She's got gold strands for hair that shone like the sun's rays
She's got baby blue eyes that stared through your soul
And her apple red lips would smile at me so
Oh… She held me so tight that night
But she's gone… The Queen of
He continued to sing the song until the blonde finally sang with him:
Nothing lasts forever
But her love for me remains so clear
And in the night I see the lights, and remember what she told me
Forever she loves me, Queen of the lights
And the earth will fall and the lights will dim
We die and live, we die again
And in this life, her words are my guide
She's Queen of the lights, she's Queen of my life
Queen of the lights had a beautiful face
She looked down on me, had a smile on her face
The sky was completely dark now and the city lights were brighter and more visible. Multi-colored orbs of light flashed and twinkled from where they were.
All of a sudden, like a surge of electricity she'd only felt once before, Layla gasped. An image flashed in her mind: a little blonde girl smiling in her arms and singing the same song being sung in the background, the orchestra of crickets as their ensemble.
The woman took a step back in discomfort; it wasn't painful but it was almost as if the memory was sad and distant.
"Miss Layla? Are you okay?" The singing stopped along with the guitar strings, but the crickets continued in the dead silence.
"I... remembered something..." she said in disbelief, looking at Lucy.
The girl gasped happily, eyes wide as plates in their sockets. "What... What did you remember?"
Layla smiled at Lucy, "A blond girl was smiling at me… with a missing front tooth..."
Lucy chuckled but a thin stream of tears escaped from her eyes, "That was me..."
"That was as far as I could remember, though," Layla said, "I don't remember anything else."
"It must have been the song," Gray interrupted and joined the conversation, "Wasn't 'Queen of the Lights' the same song that caused your first relapse?"
He looked at Ul and she nodded. "It could be that the music does more to help you than does normal recall and retrace," the doctor suggested, "We could try it and see if it works."
"I..." Lucy spoke excitedly, a suggestion, "I have old records of your broadway songs back at my house... You could... stay there for a while and..." She stopped and her excitement was replaced with shyness as she shook her head, "But if you don't want to, mum..."
Layla's eyebrows raised and her ears perked, as if she remembered something again. In a split second, her face melted into a smile.
"I want to..." Layla said and smiled gently, "I want to, Lucchan..."
"Layla-samaaa!" Loki exclaimed, his tears comically bursting out like a fountain from his eyes. He had just gotten over the initial shock of seeing his supposedly-dead mistress and was now swooning over her feet, hugging her by the legs.
"Loki! Let go!" Lucy shooed and pulled his collar, "You're gonna traumatize my mother!"
"I'm sorry, Lucy," Loki said and switched to his usual prince-like demeanor, "I was just so overwhelmed."
"Layla-sama, please come up with me to the Princess' room so you can get settled," offered Virgo and immediately took Layla's suitcase in her hand. Unlike Loki, she was calm and flat-faced as ever; only Lucy and Loki noticed the tinge of pink that kissed her pale cheeks.
"O-Okay..." Layla said and bid farewell to Ul before obediently following the maid. She had decided to live with Lucy from then on in the hope of remembering her past.
She left Lucy and Ul by the doorframe to her home, saying their final greetings for the day. Gray, on the other hand, scurried off somewhere to answer a call from a fuming Erza Scarlet.
"I guess I'll be making quick visits here every now and then while I'm here in Fiore," Ul said and smiled as she and Lucy watched Layla adore the furniture and the coziness of the living room.
"Of course, doctor. Please come any time you want," Lucy agreed. "Thank you, doctor Milkovich."
"Don't worry about it. Anybody with the proper resources would probably do the same things," Ul said and smiled at her, "And please call me 'Ul'."
The girl smiled before repeating, "Thank you, doctor Ul…"
"And thank you, Lucy."
"For what?" she asked, puzzled.
"For taking care of my mischievous son," the doctor answered.
"But I didn't really do anything for him," Lucy said and chuckled, "Senpai actually does more for me…"
"Yes but simply for being his friend, I'm thankful," Ul explained, "I know how much of a handful Julius can be…"
"I beg your pardon? Julius?" the blonde clarified, thinking she heard wrong, and leaned in closer to the older woman.
"Yes!" the doctor exclaimed excitedly, "His real name is Julius Gray… Didn't he tell you about it?"
"No, I—" Lucy stopped halfway to fight back a laughter, only to have a snort come from her instead, "I'm sorry, he just doesn't look like a 'Julius' to me…"
"I know, right?" Ul said and smiled at her. "Oh, speak of the devil..."
Gray was now half-running toward his mother, apparently frustrated from the call he'd gotten. "We need to go. Erza's furious and is threatening to kill me again if I don't get back in thirty minutes…"
"I see," his mother nodded and smiled at Lucy, "I'll leave you two to talk first while I get my car." She turned to Gray now, "I'll be waiting at the parking lot."
"Yeah, I'll be right there," he answered and watched his mother's retreating figure walk away from them. "So, uhm…. Guess I'll have to wish you luck?" He looked sideways to the blonde beside him and smirked.
"Thanks," she said, "I owe you…"
"Don't mention it…" he said, "Your mother called you 'Lucchan' back there… Was that a pet name she gave you?"
Lucy blushed, "Yeah… I'm glad she at least remembered that…" She looked up at him and smiled even wider, "So glad…"
The singer couldn't help but smile back at her when she was being so honest with him about the most trivial of things; it was a first. But the bliss had to stop as he remembered a woman with hair like the flames of hell waiting for him at the dorm.
"Yikes… I'd love to chat with you more, senpai, but I really got to get going!" he said.
"Oh… Of course…" Lucy said, "Don't worry about it…"
"Thanks," he said and hurriedly walked away.
"Thanks to you, too—" Lucy said aloud in a good-bye, "—Julius!"
Ul, the brunette thought in remorse and humiliation. He didn't even bother to look back and watch as Lucy finally let out the laugh she'd been holding in for a while now.
WEIRDO BLABS: I tried my best to make this chapter as short as possible since it's the end of the Lucy-Layla Arc. I hope the story flowed smoothly and didn't confuse you guys. Are you guys confused? Sorry about that… Anyway, I have a special chapter-epilogue something so scroll down to the end of this chapter for it! Go! Go! Go!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
*The song I used at the chapter-epilogue is 'Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)' as sung by the All Angels. I do not own it.
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Lucy walked up to the stairs, every now and then snickering at the thought of Gray's pet name.
Julius, she said, a wide smile etched on her face, Really? That's so— She now let out a small laugh as she opened the door to her room. At the foot of her bed was her mother in her pink night gown, staring into thin space and crying silently.
Lucy immediately forgot about Julius and ran to her mother's side. "Mum, are you okay? Why are you crying?"
Her mother jerked and looked at her, only realizing she was there at that moment. "I'm okay," she said and smiled, sniffing and wiping her tired eyes, "I just… suddenly remembered something again…"
"Huh?" the daughter asked and sat beside her mother, worried.
Layla smiled wider and caressed Lucy's left cheek with one hand, "I remembered a song…"
"You did?" Lucy asked and blushed as she smiled.
"Yeah… It was a lullaby…" she said, "Do you… want me to sing it to you?"
The girl nodded and fought back fat teardrops that threatened to flow from her eyes. "Y-Yeah… I do…"
Good night, my angel
Time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say
I promise I will never leave you
And you should always know
Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away
Goodnight my angel
Now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullaby
There in your heart, there will always be a part
Of me
Someday, we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on
They never die
That's how you and I will be