The temperatures dropped on the coast that evening, low enough that as they sat around a fire pit in front of Kai's house, Haven found herself rifling through her pack a bit.

"Locke," she griped to Marin, maybe, but seemed to pose it to all those about then as she pulled a dark hoodie from the bag, "tried to take this with him. To a freaking island. Idiot. So I stole it from his bag. He's so selfish." Haven hardly cared that no one was really paying attention to her as, along with the hoodie, something else tumbled out of the bag causing her to make a face. "He also didn't need his sunglasses."

Everyone was seemed to be in a rather down mood other than her. Ravan because, well, he only existed to be brooding, Marin because she was upset over being duped, and Kai because he just couldn't stand it, when the other teen was upset with him. There was a weird energy, mostly due to Marin acting somewhat like a human being for once, rather than a smiley, bubbly fake moron and, though she didn't plan on hanging around long, Haven was definitely into it.

"He didn't need," Ravan finally spoke when it was clear no one else was going to call the blonde out on her bullshit, "sunglasses. On the island."

"I," Haven remarked as she moved to slide them to the top of her head, "need them. I mean, not right now, but tomorrow morning-"

"I can't believe you lied to me, Kai." Marin was stewing still, as she glared into the fire. The other teen had tried to sit close to her, but Marin shifted away from him, immediately. Now, as he turned to look at her with round eyes, she still refused to give him her gaze. "Haven lies all the time. But you made me come all the way out here, Kai, skip work-"

"Old Haven," the blonde in question complained then with a frown, "lied. I've told nothing, but the truth since coming back."

Ravan, once more, waited for Kai or Marin to jump in, to call her on this, but once again, they were too caught up in their own drama.

"You lied," the man griped as Haven was busy tugging on the hoodie then, "to get here."

"You don't know that, Ravan. You don't know anything about me."

"So Locke knows that you're here for-"

"Locke," she told him as her head poked through the hole and she was glaring over at him, "knows what he needs to know. He's busy with the trials; I'm not going to fill his head with things right before. But when I get back-"

"I don't like when you're mad at me." Kai couldn't take the silence anymore. Still staring over at Marin, he said, "I'm sorry I lied. But I owed Haven and she knew that I could get in contact with Ravan and-"

"Why did you even drag me into it then?"

"I didn't!" Kai continued to insist. "Haven did. I don't know why she-"

"If Locke gets back before me," Haven told them then with a shrug, "I don't want him coming after me. If he thinks I'm here dealing with you guys dumb drama shit, then he won't."

Marin was still just glaring then, into the fire, but did manage to ask, "What are you trying to hide from him?"

Kai looked to his brother then, who glared at him for it, but Haven only shook her head.

"I'm not hiding anything from him, Marin," her older sister insisted. "And I'm not asking you to keep any of this a secret. When we get back to Magnolia, I'm going to tell him everything. But this is just something that I have to do without him. But if he knew what I was doing, there's no way he'd let me. Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

Marin didn't like this and was going to say something, but Ravan cut her off then, as he laughed heavily into the night, jumping up from around the fire.

"You ask permission now? From your little boyfriend?" He was finishing a cigarette out of his pocket while turning his back on them and walking off. "Bullshit."

But instead of arguing, she only seemed to glare after him now as she said, "Don't fucking wander off. We're leaving before dawn."

She got no response, but it didn't matter much. He hadn't come all this way to get left behind.

Lance came around not soon after that, carrying some fresh fish for them to roast over the fire. He felt the tension between Kai and Marin easily enough and could only make a face at his boyfriend, who he'd more than assured this would not go over well.

At all.

But Haven felt no regard for the seeds she'd sown, and spoke amicably enough to Lance, who seemed to be trying to interact with the one person that wasn't being super awkward. He didn't know Haven too well, had only met her once, and she never seemed to be too big a fan of Kai, but between her sister, who he never rightly liked to begin with, and Kai, who was trying to look as pitiful as possible, the blonde felt like the easiest choice.

That didn't mean it was strange though. Lance knew everything about the situation that Kai did, which was next to nothing. He'd been contacted by Haven originally, only a week or so ago, with a list of tasks. When Lance questioned why he'd ever help out Haven in the first place, his boyfriend only tossed a head behind his head and muttered something about it being a favor for his older brother as well. Sort of.

"Plus," Kai had insisted at the time, "I really do wanna see Marin. And Haven's right; she won't leave while Erza isn't around if she doesn't feel like it's important. She deserves a break. And I miss her..."

But his ploy was biting him in the ass rather early. Like most of Kai's schemes, honestly.

Still, Lance didn't know enough about Haven to fear her (or, at least, what he did know to fear about her, he didn't quite believe) and felt the only one brave enough over dinner that night, around the fire pit, to question her openly.

"What are you even doing with Kai's brother?" Lance asked her as they stared at one another through the flames. "Where are you guys going?"

Neither Kai nor Marin expected much a response, honestly, given she was prone to mind games, but surprisingly, around practically licking her plate clean, Haven gave the teen a rather solid answer.

"I have a demon inside of me," she told them all simply and, though both Kai and Marin (as well as Lance, to a certain extent) were aware of this, something about her tone felt rather chilling in the late hour. "And I've spent long enough trying to coax it out. After Locke gets back, we're going to Bosco whether I'm ready or not. I want my magic to be under my control. My complete control. So I'm going to find it."

As Kai and Lance exchanged looks, Marin seemed to snap out of her funk, if only momentarily, to look over at her sister in horror as she questioned, "You're not going to try and go back on the gauntlet...are you? Haven? Because I won't let you."

She smiled then, Haven did, but it looked almost haunting in the fire light as she assured her younger sister, "I'm not. But believe me, Marin; you couldn't if you wanted to."

Marin felt challenged then, if not somewhat uneasy, before saying, "I'd get Dad."

"Didn't you last time?"

"H-Haven-"

"It has nothing to do with the dumb gauntlet anyways. Not really." Haven even shook her head some. "Locke's going to prove himself as S-Class and I'm going to prove I'm ready to go with him. This is my trial; I'm not going to fuck it up."

Kai and Lance didn't have much in their tiny, one bedroom house, but they did offer what they could. Haven let Marin take the couch, while after claiming she'd take a sleeping bag on the floor, but it wasn't lost on Marin when she got up less than an hour after settling out, heading back to the front porch.

Marin thought she was going to take off or something, but as she laid on the couch fighting sleep, she eventually heard Ravan arrive back and though she couldn't make out everything, they were talking in rather hushed tones.

The air felt damp that evening, and, along with making her thankful for her stolen hoodie, it also almost made Haven venture back inside so many times. Almost. But for some reason, she remained, waiting. On him.

And everyone knew how much she hated that act.

She saw Ravan's cigarette, dangling from his lips like usual, long before she saw him. Just a glowing red dot in the distance that eventually, as he drew closer, began to illuminate his facial features. His slow pace, however, slouched and unhurried, gave Haven plenty of time to rack her brain for the perfect opening sentence, the first words truly spoken between the two of them since her birthday over the winter, and even then, perhaps the first without the tense understanding of who they were being spoken around.

Their only interactions following their ill-fated attempt at the Monster Gauntlet had been done within the confines of Magnolia, if not the Fairy Tail grounds, which put them both on edge, even months removed from the demon incident.

This felt neutral, finally. Not them being forced together, either by circumstance or her well-meaning sister's planning, but rather because they chose to be. Haven had reached out to him (not directly, but through Kai) and that meant to Ravan that, you know, it was finally time.

For them to talk.

About everything.

"Do you ever worry that that dumb bandanna aorund your neck is going to catch on fire and burn you up? Or do your ugly lacrima scars make you think, you know, fuck it? What's a few burn marks too?"

Or nothing.

Yeah, they were probably going to talk about nothing.

Ravan held in a sigh though as he joined Haven on the porch. She'd risen to her feet as the sight of him, meaning they stood together now, him smoking and her on edge, waiting for him to volley back at her with something. But he didn't. He wasn't in that sort of mood. Which, considering he had all of two, meant he was in his other one; quiet and sulky. Both had their benefits (and their downfalls), but this one benefited Haven in the moment as she wanted to be able to speak without interruption.

"I don't know what Kai told you," she began finally while Ravan only looked off, despondent, "about what I wanted you for, but… I didn't want to do this alone. But everyone else fucking sucks and you owe me too, don't you, Ravan? Just like your dumb brother. So you're going to go with me, I'm going to get what I need, and then we're going to go our separate ways. Forever probably. I'm going to go do something important, like helping free people in Bosco, while you follow your fake mom's dumb boyfriend around pretending to save the world. Alright?"

He took in a long drag then, Ravan did, before moving to pluck the cigarette from his mouth just to ask, "Thought you were playing nice now?"

"I've always been nice," Haven countered. "To people who deserve it. Now I'm just pandering to you morons who don't."

"Don't sound too nice right now."

"Waiting will do that to someone."

Ravan conceded then, sticking the cigarette back into his mouth, but he only had another few drags left before he dropped it between the two of them and stamped it out.

"I asked you to go somewhere with me. To get stronger. Once." He looked at her then with his blank gaze. "Didn't turn out so well for you."

"I prove that I'm stronger than death," she retorted before holding up her dominate hand, allowing a soft purple glow to ooze from her finger tips. "The gauntlet did what I needed it to. I am fucking stronger."

He nodded then, Ravan did, before asking, "Now you're asking me to go with you. To get stronger. Should I be worried? About what happens to me at the end of the trip?"

"We already know what happens, Ravan," she assured him then. "I go to Bosco and you go back to sulking around the country, accomplishing nothing. And hopefully? We never have to see one another again."

This sounded nice. Or at least it would have, were there not a bit of something else, twinging her voice, marring her words. Haven didn't mean it, even as she said it, but that was fine with Ravan, who wouldn't have bought it either way.

"You know," he told her then with a bit of a shrug, "some people just call up their best friend for one last road trip. But you-"

"Locke's," Haven told him bluntly, "my best friend."

"Locke's your boyfriend." And this felt no better on his tongue, even removed from all the teenage angsty lust shit that used to hang between them, than it ever had. "And you know that makes it different. Considering I'm the only other person in the entire world that will talk to you who's not somehow related to you-"

"Don't you have a cigarette to get back to choking on?" She was cross now, knowing she should have ended the conversation a few backhanded replies ago, when she was more in power, only turned back to towards the house. "Asshole."

Ravan wanted her retreat, but gave it to her without contest, kicking around a pebble out on the porch for a good minute or so, in order to not give any appearance of following her in.

Haven was already back in her sleeping bag, on the floor, and Ravan spotted Marin trying very hard to pretend like she was still sleeping, on the couch. There was another sleeping bag, wedged in the tiny living room, no doubt meant for him, and Ravan only fell into it with a long exhale.

It would be a...difficult next few days, he was sure, but some that he'd agreed to. Because whether Haven wanted to admit it or not, whether he was only mentioning it to get under her skin or not, this very much so would be the last that they saw of one another. For a good while. No matter what happened in Bosco, Ravan didn't expect her to return to Magnolia, or perhaps even Fiore, for at least a year after leaving. If not more. And though Jellal was placating his absences a bit considering he had no hold over him, Ravan really did want to prove him commitment to the cause.

This...could be the last time that he and Haven saw one another before one or the other made a massive life change.

He'd spent what felt like forever regretting every single decisions he'd made, every step of the way, on their last journey together. Even with this erased, practically, it felt like at times now, a meaningless, regrettable keynote in something broader, Ravan still found the gauntlet difficult to let go of.

For a lot of reasons.

It was about a year and a half ago now, but it felt like so much longer. Until it got to be late at night. And he could reply all of their conversations, all their actions, they night they… And it all felt so stupid now, so childish, and they'd both changed a lot. Death changed a lot. But the idea that Haven was opening herself back up to it again, traveling with him, even just being around him, felt like she was still stuck on it too.

At least somewhat.

There wasn't closure in death. And a lot less in resurrection.

Before, they'd both been forced into accepting what was given to them, that day they spoken while the guild was being reconstructed and that last night they saw one another, back in the early days of winter, but something was blocking them. Each time. Separating them.

Now, truly now, they were going to have a chance to be alone, to get it all out. If this was the last time they were going to see one another for awhile, if not forever, then…

Fuck.

Fuck.

It was morning.

Or at least those bleary hours where Kai made a massive amount of noise, usually just bothering poor Lance, who didn't have to be at his own job in the city marketplace until a bit later in the day, but now everyone in the house as he moaned and groaned through getting ready to head down to the shore.

He succeeded in his childish gamble this time, waking the entire house to suffer with him through the pains of an early morning duty, but this worked in the favor of Haven who wanted to be out of there around that time anyways. While Kai gobbled down an apple in the couch, she went to kick Ravan awake, about the same way she would when they were children, before going over to where Marin still laid on the couch.

"Me and him are heading out," she told her younger sister softly who only blinked up at her tiredly, but silently. "I'll be back soon. Don't go home until I come for you, alright? I'm sure you can find something to occupy your days here-"

"Haven-"

"Try making up with your friend," she offered then, hearing the teen in question arguing a bit, in the kitchen, with his older brother. Ravan had gone in there to get some breakfast of his own, as well as gripe to Kai about how noisy and rude he was being, which started some bickering between the two. Haven made a face at the sound, but only insisted, "I didn't try you to hurt you, Marin. And neither did Kai."

"No." She was tired, but still hurting from the night before, and told her sister simply, "You did it for your own selfish reasons."

This had become a problem of sorts for Haven. Marin was finding herself and that was great and everything, but she no longer caved as easily. Worst of all, she was prone to even fighting back some. A really sticky situation that Haven once wouldn't have minded much, instead just crushing her sister's spirits back down into nothing. Now though, Haven felt at least somewhat responsible for giving Marin such courage and, though she might find it easier to dismiss it, she was also struggling to just outright ignore pain in others these days. Even when she saw it as frivolous (though this clearly could be labeled as such, Haven had a tendency as labeling everything the same way and conceded her blindness on the subject), post-death Haven struggled with seeing pain in others after having to relive how much she handed down over the years.

Especially when it was in the eyes of her long-suffering baby sister.

"Locke and I are going to go away, Marin," she told her sister then who only rolled her eyes. "And Navi lives in another city. Ravan's gone. And Kai's here. Not there anymore, with you. When Locke and I leave, I… I have to know that you're going to be okay. And part of being okay is doing something other than working yourself to death. I don't want to get back from Bosco and find out that you spent every single day there, in that bar, working. I've trained hard every day of my life, but part of the reason I can continue doing it is because I play hard too. So, yeah, I tricked you into getting away from your daily toiling and catering towards the drunks of the guildhall. I'm sorry. But I could have gotten here without you. I could have tricked Locke without you. But I didn't. Because I wanted you to get away too. So at least enjoy the beach for a day, alright? Then you can get back to hating me when we go home."

Deflating some, Marin looked off before saying, "I don't hate you, Haven. I never have."

"I know." Standing once more, Haven went to sling her pack over her shoulder. "I'll see you when I get back."

It was as Haven left the house though that Ravan exited the kitchen, leaving his younger brother behind to finish getting ready for work. Noting the oldest Dreyar daughter's absense, he was quick to grab his own bag and head after her, but it was then that Marin found her feet.

"Ravan." She rushed to grab his arm before he was out the door. "Wait."

He did so, for her, watching from behind the bandanna he'd tugged around his face, hiding it once more, while Marin's hands only slowly released their hold on his arm, trailing down it until she reached his hand, sheathed in some of his fingerless gloves.

"I… I don't know what Haven's going to do," she admitted to him softly, knowing her sister was just outside. "But I know that when the two of you are together, sometimes you… Please don't let anything happen to her. Haven. There's a reason she's doing this with you and not Locke and I know that probably means it's not good, but… Please?"

Ravan shook his hand free of hers before reaching out to tentatively, but affectionately patting at the top of her head. She smiled at this, but he didn't, she could tell, even from behind his bandanna, and then he was disappearing into the early morning fog, just like he always did. Just like they always did, even when not together.

Haven and Ravan.

She was right, anyways, Haven was. Marin was rare to take days just for herself and, still acting rather icily to poor Kai, she went to actually find sleep finally, on the couch, while he left in dismay to head down to the dock.

Somehow, even Lance leaving didn't awaken Marin, as it wouldn't be until after noon, when Kai arrived back from work that she awoke. Oh, she was embarrassed by this, heavily, still rubbing sleep from her eyes as he trudged into the house to go shower off.

When he got out, Marin had managed to wake herself up some and only asked him softly, "Do you want me to make you something to eat?"

And Kai grinned madly at this, nodding his head, before remembering something of his manners and remarking, "You're the guest. I'll make you something."

Marin had to put little power into remembering that Kai was an awful cook and shooting this down rather quickly.

Still, it was nice, when they went to sit on the front porch together and eat the quick meal she'd tossed together. They spoke nearly nightly sometimes, on the lacrima, detailing their days together, but both were silent now as they sat beside one another, an edge taken off now perhaps, but neither lost in what they'd had a hand in.

"I sure have missed you," Kai admitted eventually and Marin wanted to roll her eyes and remind him of all the things mentioned before, of just how frequently they were in touch, but for some reason she found herself frowning and nodding as well.

The winter had been long and he'd used up his break on Haven's birthday. When it was Festival time, they mailed one another gifts and opened them together on the lacrima, and Erza obliged into doing the same, but they were all still adjusting to this new life they were forging. Marin feared a day, a week, where they would forget to write a letter or set up their lacrimas and for routine to set in once again, before they could rectify this action, and then…

So she had missed it, even if she didn't realize it until then, being in person with one another. Together. Really, truly together.

"I missed you too," she assured Kai and he snickered then while she blushed in return.

"And I know that it hurt your feelings," he went on, "how I lied to you and everything, and I'm sorry. Really. But Haven said I had to and-"

"What do you even owe Haven for exactly?" she asked then with a frown, glancing up from her plate to stare rather pointedly at him. "Kai?"

"W-Well, uh, I..." He was the one blushing then, looking off as he tossed a hand behind his head. "It's kinda...um… Well-"

"Kai-"

"I was sworn to secrecy and-"

"From me? I tell you everything. How long have you been keeping something from me?"

"Marin-"

"And with Haven? Why are you keeping secrets with-"

"It's not about me."

"Then it's about her?"

"Marin, it's...really personal."

He thought she'd have a response then. But she didn't. She just looked back at her plate and somehow that was worse. Knowing that she was giving in.

Plus, well, he had sat on this knowledge for so freaking long and…

"Ravan and Haven slept together, on the gauntlet thing they went on. Before she died."

Marin frowned then before looking up at him and making a face. "Kai...that's gross. Why did you just tell me that?"

"You asked!"

"Yeah, but- What does that even have to do with you?"

"He told me," Kai muttered then with a frown. "And then maybe, somehow, Locke found out while she was, you know, uh, dead and it could have been my fault and-"

"Wait." Marin nearly dropped her plate from her lap then as she glared at the older teen. "Ravan and Haven had...sex," she whispered that last part with a blush, "and then then you let me let them go off together while Locke's trying really hard to become S-Class, just to do something nice for Haven? If I knew that, I wouldn't have let them go."

"Well, uh, you did hear your sister," he offered then. "You couldn't stop her."

"You have no idea," she told him simply and there was a steel then, in her voice, that he'd never heard before, "how hard I've been training."

Sighing some, Kai said, "I think it was just a one time thing, you know? And it's really none of our business. At all. And you heard Haven; she's going to tell Locke everything when she gets back."

But somehow, even the two of them weren't naive enough to believe that.

"I know that Haven and Ravan are our siblings," Marin went on with a frown, "but Locke's our friend too. And why would you ever even tell him about it in the first place, Kai? That's really-"

"I have a dark side, Marin," he told her simply then. "Do you know that, out in the nets, those fish suffocate to death? It's haunting."

"Kai-"

"I'm a changed person."

"You told Locke before you came here," she pointed out.

"I've always felt this darkness inside me."

"Kai-"

"Haven and Ravan are just going to go out on one last adventure together, okay?" He was tired of talking about it. "There's nothing you or I could do to stop it."

"You helped facilitate it, Kai."

"...There were only a few things we could have done to stop it."

Letting out a long breath, Marin found her gaze fixed instead then, out at the sky before them before asking, "Why does Haven to have make everything so complicated? All the time?"

"I dunno," Kai admitted softly. "But at least me and you get to hang out now, huh? Just for a day or two. So… Let's not think about it. About then. Whatever they're doing. Lance has to work until late tonight, so you and I can do anything you want. Anything. C'mon, Marin. There's gotta be somethin' that you wanna do?" When she gave no answer, he suggested, "I's thinkin' that we could go down to the pier tonight and just have fun. I have some jewels saved up and, I mean, it probably won't be until the summer until I either get a break to come see you so… Can't we just have some fun now?"

She didn't feel good about any of it, Marin didn't, but she'd spent most of her life sucking down the horrible things that Haven brought about, dealing with the fallout and burying any feelings towards her sister's acts. While have saw Marin as frequently being forced to keep sweet and innocent, it was far closer to ambivalence masked with insouciance that the youngest Dreyar daughter had to fake.

"Yeah, Kai," she finally agreed and he grinned, hopeful of getting away from their unpleasant past few hours. "We'll go have fun and forget about it all for awhile."

This would serve them well, as neither of their siblings gave any mind to their younger counterparts as they ventured out that day.

Haven, even, felt that it was rather serendipitous how it all worked out. Kai's dumb new town wasn't too far off from where she was headed. One train and some light hiking later and already she was closing in on her destination.

Ravan had been rather sullen the entire morning, smoking off and on, hardly responding to any of her quips. Which was for the better. Haven knew that their time together would be short, but instead of worry about not having enough time to cram in all she needed to say and do, she feared coming up short before the end.

"What is this place?" he did ask however, when late in the afternoon, both sticky with sweat and perhaps both a bit exhausted, less from their physical exertion and more from skating around topics with one another, they neared in on their destination.

It looked like a castle of some sort, in the distance. They still had quite the ways to go on foot, but he could see it now, between the tree tops, some sort of imposing fortress, and felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach.

"Don't worry," Haven assured him, picking up on his tone easily enough. "It's abandoned." Then she paused and glanced over her shoulder at him. "I mean, hopefully."

"But what," he insisted, slightly annoyed at the run around, "is it, Haven?"

"Isn't it obvious?" That time when she looked back at him, she took to pushing her (Locke's) sunglasses away from over her eyes, nestling them into her tangled blonde hair as she grinned rather openly over at the man. Blue eyes alight and shimmering regardless of the rather unpleasant forestry surrounding them, Haven told him in a rather sanguine tone, "That's where it all began. Or restarted, I guess."

"Haven-"

"It," she began, turning around once more as she dropped the red tinted shades over her eyes once more, "was my grandfather's liar. One of them. The one I was resurrected in. And you're going to help me raid it."

"For what?" Ravan asked quietly, but Haven was done talking then, it seemed.

Frowning at the looming building in the distance, Ravan only hoped that they found whatever she was looking for.

And nothing else.