Hear ye, hear ye, I have officially thrown myself into a pit. But I'm back again and HOPEFULLY will stay back until the end. Me-to-me: "I promise to the Lord up above if you don't keep posting and give these readers a good ending, I'm going to..."
The weekend following the roof incident
Cornelia holding hands with Lillian, and Gildarts are standing before Lucy's door waiting for someone to come and open the door for them. Neither of them expects to have such a turn of events after only wanting to role-play on the rooftop like wild teens. "Wow, my students have so much going on. No wonder they cause so much drama in my classroom." Gildarts sighs.
Lillian looks up at her mom and dad, "Ma, where are we?" Cornelia smiles gently, "We are visiting your big brother." Lillian looked confused, not remembering ever having a brother. She didn't know where he came from. "Brother?" She was happy nonetheless.
Lucy opens the door for them to enter, "Welcome to my humble abode." She gestures for them to enter, her eyes following Lillian. The little girl looks so precious, guilt still eats up Lucy whenever she thinks about her behavior from the other day. They see Natsu and his parents standing up from the couch ready to greet them.
"You guys live together?" Gildarts couldn't believe his eyes, so much tea being spilled before him. Natsu and Lucy nod their heads in response, then Lucy gestures for them to walk towards the living room. Grandeeney and Igneel introduce themselves to Cornelia and Lillian, they are very well acquainted with Gildart due to Natsu's past irresponsible behavior.
"I'm going to get Ezekiel, he is upstairs playing in his room." Lucy runs upstairs awkwardly, hoping this would turn out smoothly. She walks into their room and greets Ezekiel who is currently playing a game on his console, "Hey Ezekiel, there is someone I want you to meet down in the living room." Ezekiel looks up at her with an attitude, after being defeated in his game for the hundredth time. "Who?" He asked distastefully.
Lucy raises an eyebrow, "Excuse me?" she asked sternly. Her son immediately fixes his attitude and apologizes. "Sorry mommy, who am I meeting?" He asked more politely this time round. Lucy gives him a 'that's what I thought' look. "Come with me and I'll show you." It took her all to fix her attitude to a gentle one. It's been so long since he tried her, oddly enough it almost felt refreshing.
Lucy makes her way downstairs with Ezekiel following after her. He honestly doesn't know who his mom is going to introduce him too. He hopes it isn't one of those arranged marriages he read about before because if so... He really can't do anything about it but he will throw one darn good tantrum if need be. The only one Ezekiel plans to marry is Asuka.
Once they reached the living room, Ezekiel spots Lillian sitting idly by her mom, 'Sugar, this is an arrange marriage!'
He spoke up before letting anyone else speak, "Mommy, I'm going to marry Asuka. I'm sorry but I can't do this arrange marriage thing." He pats Lucy's arm trying to comfort her as he breaks the news.
Lucy loses her composure at the statement that dared to leave her son's mouth.
"What!?"
"What?"
Ezekiel was confused as to why his mother reacted that way, is this what they call 'denial', he prepared himself to go into tantrum faze. Then he notices everyone giggling at him, 'Did I just made a fool of myself?'
Lucy recomposes herself, "Honey, I am not setting you up for an arranged marriage nor am I going to let you go off and get married to Asuka. You are too young to be thinking about love." She pretends to cry, "too young..."
"Anyways, Ezekiel this is Lillian." She gestures to where Lillian is sitting. "She is..." Lucy didn't realize just how hard it is to introduce her, taking a deep breathe she finishes the sentence, "your little sister." Lucy analyzes Ezekiel's expression, his face showing no emotion at all. Her heart began to beat rapidly, not knowing if he will blow up or stay emotionless.
Lillian smile fades as she notices that Ezekiel isn't happy to see her. "Brother, you don't like me?" Tears falling, Cornelia wraps her arms around the toddler comforting her. "I was happy about seeing you. I was like wow I have a big sister, now I have a big brother. How cool!" She looks up at him, "You don't think it's cool to have me." She pouted and Ezekiel felt conflicted.
"..." Ezekiel opens his mouth but couldn't find any words to say. He looks up at his mom then looks over at Natsu, and finally looks back at Lillian. He doesn't know what to feel, happy? Sad? He isn't stupid, he knows who her dad has to be.
Natsu decides to get up, "Hey Lillian, Ezekiel has a hard time expressing himself when he meets someone new. Just like you didn't know you had a brother until now, he didn't know he had a sister. I'm going to have a small talk with him and when we come back, I'm more than sure he will come back expressing himself. Okay?" He smiles, successfully getting her to calm down and smile back. She nods her head as a response.
Lucy and Natsu made eye contact, she gave him a knowing nod which he gave in return. Natsu whispers to Ezekiel, "Let's go up to my room buddy." Ezekiel obeys and follows Natsu upstairs.
They enter the room, "Have a seat." Ezekiel obeys meekly still not able to process that he has a sister.
Natsu tries his best to think of something reassuring or helpful in any way to say to him. This talk is a lot harder than he imagined now that they are actually in his room. "Tell me, how do you feel. You got tense back there so I know it can't be anything good. You know you can open up to me, Ezekiel." Natsu sits down next to him and gives him a comforting smile.
Ezekiel stares blankly at the wall, his face still emotionless contrary to the chaoticness going on his mind. "Honestly, I thought my first time being surprised with a brother or sister would be when you and mommy get married..." He looks up at Natsu with a sad smile. Natsu sits there listening intently.
"We have the same dad... That's disgusting. The very same man that hurt mommy had another child with another lady... You guys didn't even tell me beforehand that I was going to meet her! It's like you guys forget that I know everything, that I'm not like other kids! I know how bad of a guy that monster was, I know! I saw it for myself!" Ezekiel stood up and began pacing back and forth as he kept spilling out his feelings.
Natsu continues to sit, listening to every word.
"You guys decide to surprise me by telling me I have a new sister as if I don't know who my dad is! Like this is some happy family moment. 'Oh yay, a new sister!' NO!" He shouts. "I'm not happy to see her, I'm not happy knowing that man had made another child. It makes me wonder, how many more siblings do I possibly have? How many more people did he hurt? I'm related to a monster! That little girl is also and mommy! I'm sad knowing I have a little sister! I'm sad Natsu..." Ezekiel Looks over at Natsu with sorrowful eyes.
Natsu wanted to hug him so badly but he knows that Ezekiel isn't finished yet.
"I would have smiled at her if you guys just told about her before she came to visit. I would have prepared myself, ready to meet her if only you guys would have just told me. I'm sad because of mommy, you, Gajeel, Juvia, Levy, and Grey seem to have forgotten that I know he exists. As if you guys have forgotten everything that happened after all this time. That I'm just an ignorant child. Did you guys forget? Because I haven't forgotten." Ezekiel croaked. Tears were gliding down his face as he tries his best to not lose all his composure.
Natsu felt remorseful. Treating Ezekiel like an ignorant child was spot on and it killed him to admit it. After all the disaster they all went through; he and the rest chose to act as if it hadn't happened, to leave it in the past, it was their coping method. Only to take it too far and failed to realize that Ezekiel, a child, can not do so as easily.
With a heavy sigh, "Ezekiel I am so sorry, buddy. You are right, we should've told you about Lillian before introducing you. It's a lot to take in. For some reason, we assumed you would just accept her and be glad to have a sibling. We failed to think about the fact that this isn't a normal occasion to just surprise you like that." Natsu opens his arm for Ezekiel to walk into his embrace, and he did so.
"Don't let you being related to him haunt you, monsters tend to do that. Your mommy is like an angel, right?" Ezekiel nods his head.
"You are related to a beautiful angel and did you know that the big man in the sky is stronger than everything! His angel army as well! That means your mom defeated the monster because she is stronger than him. Since you are her son that means you are related to a strong angel, isn't that amazing! " Ezekiel looks up at him with bright glistening eyes, "Yea that's amazing!"
Natsu chuckles lighthearted, "You may not know Lillian's mom but she is like an angel as well, and Lillian herself is super sweet, you saw that smile she gave you." Ezekiel looked a bit sadden thinking back to how nice she was and how he reacted. "Don't let it get to you because I'm more than sure that when we go back downstairs and you give her an amazing angelic smile passed down from your momma, she will return one right back to you." Ezekiel immediately brightens up once more.
Natsu ruffles Ezekiel's hair playfully, "Also, as I said before, you are like an angel as well. You are stronger than him and you will not go down by any other monster out there. Don't ever think being related to him will affect who you are, who your mom is, and who Lillian is. Because you guys sure don't resemble him one bit." He hugs Ezekiel once more, "Again, I am so sorry for our actions and making you feel the way you did. I promise to talk to your mom and the others. We will try our best not to make you feel that way ever again."
Ezekiel pulls away from the hug, "Thank you, Natsu. I don't know how many times I have said this but I really wish you were my dad instead... I'm ready to go meet Lillian." With that Ezekiel heads towards the door, leaving Natsu sitting there thinking to himself, 'soon buddy, soon.' He got up and followed Ezekiel out the door back downstairs where everyone was waiting for them, eating and laughing but the awkward tension was still there.
As Ezekiel and Natsu enter the living room, all eyes were on them. Natsu gave Lucy a reassuring look and in return, Lucy gave him a knowing smile.
Ezekiel walks up to Lillian and gives her an angelic smile, Lillian responded in kind. "Are you happy to see me now, brother?" Lillian asked him innocently. Ezekiel responds, "I have always been happy to see you, I was being dumb back then when I didn't show you just how happy I am that you are here." Lillian runs up and hugs Ezekiel.
Cornelia sighs in relief that this ended on a good note.
Grandeeney gets up, "Well, isn't this a reason to celebrate, Lucy honey invite your friends over, we are going to celebrate."
Natsu gave an offended look, "Why emphasize on Lucy? Mom, they are my friends too!" Grandeeney just gave him an 'uh-huh' and proceed to order pizza. Igneel laughs, "Honey, you sure do love to celebrate."
Grnadeeney chuckles, "Of course, any reason to drink my good wine." Cornelia and Gildarts look around at the festivity, happy to know that they have been introduced to a very welcoming family.
Hours passed, Gajeel and the rest showed up at Lucy's house and they began to party. After the party was over, Cornelia and Gildarts left with Lillian, Ezekiel was in his room asleep, and Grandeeny and Igneel went up to their room to finish off the wine. Natsu took the time to tell everyone about the conversation he had with Ezekiel. All their faces were a replica of his when Ezekiel poured out his feelings.
The one feeling the most guilt was Lucy, hurting her son was never her attention and neither was treating him like an ignorant child. On the contrary, she knows how smart he is and wants to always express that but failed to do so when it mattered most.
The others just failed to notice their actions around Ezekiel were only causing him to feel forgotten, that was never their intention.
After all, was said and done by Natsu, everyone agreed on trying their best to not treat Ezekiel as an ignorant child but to also not treat him as an adult. Ezekiel shouldn't be seen on the same standards as an adult because despite how smart he is or how much he has gone through, he is still a child.
They made a pact to work on that together, for Ezekiel and to better improve themselves, as young adults.
Hehehehehehe I finisheddddddddd WOO! I'm actually low-key proud of this chapter, can't put my finger on it but it feels different than my past chapters from my perspective. I don't know about yall.
Have a great day and I love you guys!
