"So, what you're telling me is that no one's seen her since Friday?"
All heads in the vicinity were shaking. Everyone's eyes echoed confusion to one another as their principal pinched the bridge of his nose with a frustrated expression.
Natsu stepped forward, being brave enough to voice everyone's resonating thought. "Makarov, what's going on?"
The shorter man removed his hand and looked up at his students. "I think I'll let Juvia's adopted mother explain it to you. Come with me."
When the gang arrived to school that Monday morning, they all trickled into their homeroom as usual, unready to face the new school week, when sometime during registration Makarov appeared in front of their door, grim faced, asking Ms. Gray if the five of them could step outside the class.
He was asking about Juvia.
"Ms. Foster?" Makarov said gingerly, as he opened the door to his office, revealing an older, darker skinned woman sitting in one of the chairs. Her hair was nearly buzzcut short and in shiny ringlet curls, her eyes seemed droopy from stress and late nights and she clutched the handles of her handbag for dear life. She wore a white blouse and jean capris with medium-sized gold hoops. "These are the kids who were with Juvia last on Friday night. If you'd be so kind as to explain the current situation to them."
They gathered around, forming a semicircle around the woman.
"She never came home Friday night... I didn't hear from her all weekend and she hasn't been answering her calls – her phone's off." The guardian of their missing friend started to labor in her breathing, seemingly on the verge of hyperventilating. Makarov rested his hand on her shoulder for comfort.
"Ms. Foster, I am so sorry," he started. "I gave the kids the tickets to go to the bowling alley that night. I encouraged them to go. I take this responsibility."
"Gramps you didn't do anything wrong though," Gray chimed in, taking up for him. "It was us. We should've been more careful. I could've walked her home or something."
Lisanna casted him a quick side glance, but quickly controlled her simmering envy.
"Kids. Principal Dreyar, this isn't your fault. It's mine. I should've told her to come straight home." "I knew… I knew and yet I still told her to go…"
Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence. Everyone watched somberly in the room as the woman broke down into tears.
"Ms. Foster," Natsu said, after her sobs died down. "Don't worry," he said staring her dead in the eyes. His gaze was convicted and burning. "I'm sure you'll be seeing Juvia again real soon, safe and sound."
And he meant it too. He was going to make it his personal mission to see Juvia reunited with her adopted mother.
Brenda managed a smile while wiping the tears away from her cheeks. "Thank you."
"So what will you do now?" Makarov questioned, genuinely concerned about Juvia's wellbeing.
"Well, I already have a Private Investigator looking in on this. I think he already has an idea of where she may be."
"Really, where?!" Lisanna spouted.
"Well, uh… its all just speculation for now. But I know he's doing his best."
[HORIZONTAL LINE]
"Lucy, you sensed it too didn't you? Juvia's mom is hiding something." Natsu said to Lucy after they were back in homeroom.
"Yeah, I did…" Lucy said, staring at her notebook blankly with all her doodles of cats. "She said something that sounded like she almost knew this was about to happen."
"She seemed pretty aware of it at least. When Lis asked her what leads she had, she avoided eye contact and then stuttered before she said she wasn't sure. She definitely knows something."
After he said that, there was silence.
"So, what are we going to do now Natsu?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He said turning to her and looking at her like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. "We're going to do everything within our power to bring her back."
"Should we tell the others? I mean, since they already know about our powers."
There was another silence.
"Hey! What are you guys still doing in there?"
The pinkette and the blonde drew their attention to their homeroom door where Loke was peaking inside with Gray peering from behind him. Homeroom was dismissed and the room was empty. The supernatural duo were sitting in the classroom by themselves so consumed in their topic of conversation. Quickly they scrambled up and out the room before the class occupying it came to kick them out.
Gone
For the rest of the day, Natsu could barely focus. Juvia was gone, and for what seemed as if it was out of nowhere. He wondered if she was okay. He could've only imagined what Ms. Foster was going through.
Flashback
"Mommy?"
Natsuki's green eyes shined down at her son from the kitchen sink. Her faded blonde hair was in a messy braid trailing along her back to her waist. She wore a green apron and yellow gloves to protect her dress and hands as she washed the dishes in the church's kitchen. To top it all off, she wore a floral print handkerchief tied around her head.
"All the other kids here say that they don't have their mommies anymore," Natsu started, tugging on her yellow housedress. His onyx eyes were piercing into hers curiously. His slightly jutting canine hung over his innocent frown. The picture of goodness. "Why is that mommy?"
The woman froze in the middle of scrubbing a pot with the buff side of a sponge. She swallowed a dry gulp as she put the pot back in the water. She was afraid of this.
Well no, Natsuki knew she was going to have to explain this to Natsu when she brought him to this church. Truth be told, Natsu was truly a strong-minded kid. He could've probably handled the truth better than she could. She herself just wasn't ready to talk to him about it, especially given what recently happened to his father.
She took off her gloves and bent down, coming eye to eye with him. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she offered him a gentle smile before talking.
"Natsu… I think its time I tell you the truth behind St. Mary's… and about your friends living here."
As Natsuki Dragneel told him the truth about the church housing orphans as a part of their ministry, and how all of these kids were never going to see their parents again, Natsu's eyes became as wide as saucers. When she was done, Natsu's frown deepened. His body stiffened.
"Natsu…?" His mother probed.
The small pinkette took to trembling. And without warning, two tears streaked down his face. Natsuki's eyes widened when she saw her son crying. His trembling turned into full on sobs as he jumped into his mother's arms, wailing, and tears leaking out of his eyes.
It was in that moment, Natsu gained a newfound respect for his childhood friends. The fact that they were always so lively, so energetic, so happy, even without the love of parents, even without having a family they could call their own was so sad to him… but also so awe-inspiring.
End of Flashback
Natsu felt a pang hit his chest as the ghost of the feeling from that moment hit him.
"Mr. Dragneel!" a teacher called, snapping him from his reverie.
"Ah fuck, what now?!"
After nearly a full day of classes and after lunch, Natsu found himself back in afternoon homeroom. The kids all piled in excitedly, talking, laughing, as they usually did. Those kids probably didn't even care that Juvia was gone, Natsu thought.
Well to be fair, it was only one day of her being absent, for all they knew she could've just been sick or something.
But then the bigger question was, did they even notice?
The blonde beside him could tell that his mind was elsewhere, and that most importantly he was very much still dwelling on the Juvia situation. She felt bad. She was his guardian angel. Just what could she do to help alleviate his worry?
Just then, their homeroom teacher walked in.
"Larry Adams?" She called.
"Here!"
As the woman went down the list of names in her register book, Lucy suddenly got struck with a brilliant idea. When the woman was finished, the bell rang dismissing them and the kids of 10c began gathering their things. As Mrs. Smith collected her bag and the register book, Lucy chirpily approached her desk.
"Mrs. Smith! Do you need any help with your things?" Lucy sang sweetly.
An unabashed smile immediately overtook the older woman's face. "Why, how sweet of you Lucy! Well you can carry-"
"I can take your register book!" She accidently cut her off. The blonde silently chastised herself. She was too eager.
"Oh… well okay, you can take my register book to the office for me before your last class."
"Sure thing!"
Natsu watched the whole scene play out suspiciously from his desk, paranoid as to what the airheaded blonde could be up to this time. Seemingly sensing his suspicions, Lucy turned around and gave him a not-so-subtle wink, and then followed that with a big thumbs up. Natsu wanted to slam his face against the wall.
Looking up from her things, Ms. Smith followed Lucy's line of sight to Natsu, and began to usher him out of the class to his next one along with Lucy.
Finally, after Lucy acquired the register book from her homeroom teacher, she flashed the blue book in Natsu's face. It ended up tickling his nose which annoyed him to no end.
"Get that thing out of my face," he shooed with his hands.
"Well…?" She started, smiling at him expectantly.
"Well…? What?!" He snarked right back.
"I have our homeroom register!"
"Yeah, I can… see that."
"No, no, no! You're not seeing the vision Natsu." She said, staring off into the distance with a starry-eyed expression. Genuinely curious as to what she was looking at, Natsu bent down next to her face and looked in the same direction that she was looking at. All he saw were lockers.
"The vision? Are you sure you're not hallucinating?"
She retaliated by hitting him hard in his side, causing him to yelp him pain as he leaned over nursing the ache. "No, you jerk!"
She took a breath and continued.
"With this, we can look through our homeroom's files and find Juvia's address. If you go there, all you have to do is find something of hers that she uses often and then you can use your powerful dragon nose," she tapped on his nose affectionately, "and track her down. It's a brilliant idea right?!"
"Lucy, all of that's illegal…"
"Oh…"
"…but I am so fudging in!"
Her face immediately brightened again, her doe brown eyes sparkling. He grinned back at her and held out his fist for a fist bump. Lucy only looked at it confusedly. Natsu groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Nevermind."
It was a long hard Monday for Brenda Foster. She spent a good chunk of it driving around to different venues ranging from the police station, to Fairy Tail, to Marcus' Entertainment Palace. Her phone had been ringing off the hook nonstop, from concerned friends and family, to nosy coworkers and everything in between. They forced her to tell and retell her situation to all of these people as well as what the police were saying about their search. She also had to sit and suffer through the callous and in some cases, downright insensitive opinions of all of these different groups of people. She also had to ask for a leave of absence from the hospital for the week. They only sanctioned her three days. It was exhausting to say the least, and all she wanted to do was find her adopted daughter.
Brenda kicked off her shoes and sighed, slumping against the wall.
"I'm so tired…" She took a few moments to just lean there, still as a statue, as she just basked in the nothingness of it all. Her eyes wandered over to a framed picture of her and Juvia sitting on her coffee table. Brenda was all smiles as usual, with one arm wrapped around Juvia's soldiers as the blunette shot the camera the most awkward smile. Brenda chuckled under her breath. It was a miracle they got her to smile at all.
That was the day the adoption was finalized.
Brenda's smile faded. That took her back to the time when she first met Juvia which was roughly two years ago. Juvia was in such a dark place then…
Flashback
"Alright, see you tomorrow!"
"See ya B!"
It was about half past midnight in front of Magnolia's Public Hospital when Brenda finally clocked out of a twelve-hour shift. She traversed the parking lot in her nursing scrubs, clutching tightly onto her purse. As much as Brenda loved her job, she was always paranoid of working in this area. It was very often ravaged with criminal activity, petty theft, robbery at gun point, not to mention the occasional drive-by because of turf wars from rival gangs. Let's just say that there was never a shortage of patients in Jubilee Lane. That night, around the block at the house of a known gang member, colorful strobe lights and music blared. No doubt it was a block party.
Brenda adjusted her wig when she caught sight of herself in her car's rearview mirror. From her peripheral vision, she saw someone stumbling slowly down the street. Step after step, the person's pace slowed down more and more, until finally, they tripped over their feet and fell flat on their face.
Brenda's nurse instincts kicked in, and immediately she rushed down the lane to help, all previous inhibition abandoned. If there was someone in need of help and she could help them, she would.
The closer she got to them however, the smaller the person was. And when she finally reached them she was astonished by how young they were.
"Hey… hey, are you okay?!"
Brenda's jaw dropped. Sprawled on the ground in front of her, was a pale girl no older than 13 or 14, wearing a black body suit and black pullover on top that were both haphazardly put on. She had a blunt blue bob that looked completely matted and frazzled, and her delicate looking face was covered in bruises.
Singlehandedly, Brenda helped carry the girl back to the hospital and took her straight to the ER. Even though she asked her coworkers to tend to her immediately, the majority of the nurses were working on an influx of patients who came from a line of ambulances, so she took it upon herself to clock back in to tend to her wounds.
After a while, the girl came to.
"Hello my dear." She said sweetly. "What's your name?"
Juvia stared lifelessly at the ground, ignoring her.
"Where are your parents?"
Again, more silence.
"How did you get these wounds?"
The silvers of her bangs covered her eyes. It became apparent to Brenda that Juvia was in her own world and whatever was on her mind didn't leave room for anything else.
When she was done patching up Juvia's wounds, she backed off of Juvia to give her some space. Brenda smiled at her, taking off her face mask. "Hey, my name is Brenda. I know you may not be ready to talk now, but whenever you are, I'm here. And I'm willing to help."
When she finished, she emphasized her point by resting her hand on Juvia's shoulders. There was silence. Two drops fell into her lap and the blunette's face turned completely red as her face tightly scrunched up. Her breathing was shattered, and she let a bitter whine slip past her lips. Her body started trembling.
Brenda, despite not knowing her, enveloped the girl in her motherly arms. Brenda couldn't help but smile as she stroked her hair. She could sense that the blunette needed to let this out.
"I… I… I can't," she said as a river of tears flowed forth. "I can't go back there..." She grit out almost ineligibly.
"My dear, I don't know what it is that's making you cry so much, but why don't you just ask for help?"
Juvia wiped her tears and separated herself from Brenda. She shook her head.
"I have to go," she said getting up. "If I told you anything, they'd kill the both of us."
"What are you talking about?" Brenda questioned alarmed, but Juvia was already halfway out the entrance by then. Her cold, lifeless eyes softened for a moment and she looked like she wanted to say something to Brenda but decided against it.
She turned away and disappeared into the night, leaving the nurse perplexed.
End of Flashback
That was the first time, the two of them met.
She finally picked herself off the wall and made her way over to the kitchen, suddenly in the mood for some ginger tea. "Maybe some tea will help."
Bup bup bup!
Brenda's hazel eyes darted toward the door.
Bup bup bup!
Just great. Who could that be this time?
Bup bup bup!
After putting the water in the kettle and turning it on, Brenda silently stalked towards her curtains to see who was at her door. Depending on who it was, she could always pretend like she wasn't home, or asleep.
She certainly wasn't expecting who she saw.
"Oh, I really have to pee!"
"And you seriously thought it was a good idea to hold it in until now?!"
"I'm sorry Natsu!"
Click Clack!
The door slowly creaked open and Natsu and Lucy paused their bickering.
"Come in kids."
After Lucy emptied her bladder, Brenda poured out three steaming cups of Oolong ginger tea for her and her guests. Natsu took every bit of the scenery. The curtains covering the windows were tan and symbols sewn into the perimeter before the fridge. And the coffee table also had a bunch of fixtures and factures to it. Lastly, the couch that had an older looking fabric to it was covered in clear plastic wrap.
"You like my decor?" Brenda said, noting Natsu's wandering eyes. "I picked everything out myself. This carpet for example, is genuine handstitched Egyptian tapestry. This coffee table is something hand carved from an indigenous people too." She paused.
"I'm rambling on, aren't I?"
"Oh no!" Lucy quickly chimed in.
Brenda held her tea mug in her lap, looking at it shyly. She shook her head, feeling heat rush to her face in embarrassment.
"You know, research says that if a missing person isn't found in the first forty-eight hours, they're most likely dead?"
Natsu frowned.
"I'm so scared…" she whispered.
Lucy looked on worriedly as Brenda held back tears again. Natsu's bangs covered his eyes. The room was heavy with tension for a few moments. Then…
Slam!
"I'm sick of this!"
Lucy and Brenda looked up at him astonished. He was on his feet, staring Brenda so intensely in her eyes that it was impossible for her to look away.
"Ms. Foster, you may not know me or anything about me, but mark my words. I'm going to bring her back to you no matter what! Even if it kills me!"
Lucy was shocked by his sudden explosive burst. But looking on at him, a warm feeling enveloped her chest. This was the Natsu that she knew. The human boy that she was so proud to call her charge.
Brenda gasped.
Was it a coincidence that she was just reminiscing about how she said similar words to Juvia almost two years ago? And now, here was Natsu staring bravely at her, speaking the exact words she once told Juvia. His words were reckless, and definitely improbable to her not knowing the true capacity of Natsu's abilities, but the passion behind his words convinced her.
Brenda had to mentally slap herself. Of course, she wasn't alone in this. And these came all the way here just to remind her of that. Tears began to well in her eyes. Not necessarily because of herself, but because of how happy she was that Juvia made an impact on these kids' lives.
She… she managed to make friends.
"So quit your worrying about this alright? Cause you're not alone." He turned and shared a look with Lucy. "You've got us! And we are Fairy Tail!"
Another silence.
Then, Brenda began to chuckle. Natsu was dumbfounded. Lucy too. He was prepared for a lot of reactions… just not this.
"Of course!" She responded cheerfully. "My Juvia is apart of Fairy Tail! And Fairy Tail, never gives up right?!"
The pinkette cheesed at the woman and nodded. Part of him couldn't believe he was actually showing school pride though. He supposed this would be the one exception.
After a bit more conversation, Natsu and Lucy thanked the woman for her hospitality and went on their way.
Lucy was so preoccupied just staring at him. This was the same Natsu whom some many unfortunate things have happened to. The same one And yet, no matter the coldness of the world towards him, nothing could ever truly destroy his golden heart.
"Hey. Luce?" He started quietly. Lucy snapped out of her obvious daydreaming about him. "You know we never got anything of Juvia's for me to track."
Oh no! She totally screwed this up!
"But it's okay though."
She turned to look at him in confusion. "Huh?"
Natsu didn't seem to be pressed. Lucy could tell he was thinking about something as his voice his low, his breathing was hard and his bangs were shading his eyes. When he finally looked up, his eyebrows were furrowed, a vein was popping out of his forehead and fire burned in his eyes.
"Her house reeked of a certain metal faced bastard… and I'm 100 percent sure that nice woman didn't invite him in for tea."
I promise I'm going to write a full on flashback chapter on the kids' time at St. Mary's because there's so much good stuff to unpack there. Soon though, but not right now.
Tell me your thoughts?
