A/N: surprise bitch bet you thought you saw the last of me
you get a double update for NYE because I'm in a chaotic mood. the next two chapters are - you know what fuck it just go to the bottom A/N for a big-ass explanation as to where this is all going
Disclaimer: don't own FT and do not WANT to own FT I have Standards
Future Timeline
Magnolia, Fiore
Monday, October 25nd, X797
5:42 AM
"I learned something interesting today," Rogue says as they're turning in for the night. Lucy cracks open an eye and smiles into the pillow. "Oh?"
"It seems I lost the bet to Sting. She did develop some Holder talents after all."
Lucy sits up and squeals, clapping her hands together. Rogue folds his arms behind his head and watches her cheer on with a lazy smile on his lips. It's been a long time since her eyes have shone exactly like this, and he takes a second to bask in the warm feeling blooming in his chest. One day, it'll be like this every day. That thought alone is enough to force him to wake up every morning and fight with everything he has.
"What is it? Keys? Oh, I hope it's Keys. Is it something like Erza's Requip? Oh, gosh, I can't wait to teach her everything about Holder magic!"
"I don't think you're going to like this very much, but we're going to have to get Cana or Midnight to help here."
He bursts into laughter at her put out expression. Lucy, scowling, smacks him with a pillow.
Present Day
Precht Gaebolg Hospital
Magnolia, Fiore
Friday, October 22nd, X792
7:55 PM
"Pulse 128, resps 30. Tag orange and move to the third floor overflow." Wendy drops the man's wrist and flits over to the next cot, digging her knuckles into the lady's sternum. "Ma'am? Can you hear me? Ma'am?"
The lady mumbles, her head lolling to the left. Wendy digs a little harder, and while her eyes flit open for a second, she's back under just as soon as the pressure lets up. "Tag red!"
A frazzled medical student leaps up from the corner and grabs the rails. Two nurses returning from the green room immediately latch on as well, looking at her expectantly. "GCS 8. Check glucose and then get a CT scan, one of her pupils looked larger than the other."
They speed-walk to the elevators, because they know she'll have their heads for breakfast if they run and cause a panic. Wendy sighs, leaning against a wall and watching the blood trickle across the grout. Keeping her body upright is one thing, but her eyes are so heavy with sleep that if she closes them for even a second she knows she's going to crash for a full eighteen hours.
"Who said the Q word?"
Wendy can't find the energy to do more than twitch her lips in a half smile. "No idea, but I'm sure they're regretting it now."
Mest scans the room with cool eyes, sidestepping a stretcher carrying somebody encased in preservation runes. The ER is in a state of absolute chaos the likes of which Wendy hasn't seen in all her time here, and judging by the look on Mest's face, this is extreme even for somebody used to combat medicine - not the volume of people, but rather the state of disorganization amongst the staff. He shoots her a raised brow, to which she shrugs lightly.
"We're barely recovering from the train derailment last week. Throw in today's chemical factory explosion…" Wendy kicks off the wall and heads over to the stairs, Mest hot on her heels. It would be easier for him to Direct Line them to her office but he's not here in the capacity of a friend if the robes are anything to go by. If the Council wants an update what better than a trip through the red floor?
It never gets easier listening to people in pain when Wendy knows she can help them. There's only one of her and hundreds of patients and even though Laxus beat self-preservation into her skull before she was even allowed in the hospital after the fallout, the need to ignore all that and dive headfirst into healing is dizzying. She focuses on the small things: the squeak of her shoes on the tile, the steady whoosh of air through ventilators, Mest's occasional huff of disapproval, the way her heart lurches when she sees a small body in a bed they should never have been in.
They enter her office and she immediately flops on the puffy sofa Laxus lugged over from their house for her to nap on. She's pretty sure it has a pullout feature but right now all she needs is something vaguely horizontal to collapse on. Mest slumps into his favourite chair with a sigh, rubbing his face tiredly.
"I'll tell the Council to up the budget for the hospital, this is ridiculous."
"Laxus and I have been trying for a while now, but feel free to throw your weight around." She closes her eyes, relaxing into the cushions. Nothing short of an explosion right next to her head will get her eyes open now. Or her pager, which, in her mind, is a fair equivalent.
"Council thinks these are both isolated incidents, but you know how paranoid they are after the Dragon Festival. You?"
"Makes sense."
She hears him shift in his seat. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Between the train, this, and some isolated cases here and there...I mean, I close my eyes sometimes."
"Go to sleep. I'll wake you up if you sleep past your pager going off."
Wendy, already fast asleep, snores.
Present Day
14 Strawberry Street
Magnolia, Fiore
Friday, October 22nd, X792
9:00 PM
"Tea for you, coffee for you, water for you, and a smoothie for me," Lucy sings as she hands out the drinks to the quartet. Rogue accepts his water with a brief inclination of his head, silently observing the other two. Sting smiles at her, though it's weak, and Cobra allows his fingers to linger on hers as he takes the coffee. It seems insignificant but with this being day four of their self-imposed lockdown this is massive. At this rate, they might even have their shit figured out by next month.
"We'd have this sorted out a lot sooner if you would do something other than brood," Cobra snaps.
"Hey!" Sting slams his glass down so hard the wood cracks. "You're not any better, you morose bastard. You just sit there all 'I know everything you're thinking but I'm not gonna facilitate this conversation because I'm a pissy baby'."
Cobra sneers. "Oh, because you're the king of facilitation. All you've been doing is pouting over the fact that soulmates exist and your fiance ain't it-"
Lucy sighs, slumping in her seat, defeat clear in her eyes. Rogue presses his fingers to the ridge of his eye-socket, rubbing at the building headache. The cycle is as detrimental as it is predictable. They'll start to talk, Cobra will snark about somebody's thoughts, Sting will bite back, they'll argue until Lucy jumps in, and then Sting will turn on her. Cobra will get pissed off and then the three of them are yelling at each other until Lucy stomps off to bed.
Rogue refuses to speak, mostly because he doesn't have anything to say. Not to them, anyway. He and Lucy have found a middle-ground of sorts, where they're not trying to be friends, but they've resigned themselves to being something between that and partners without the strings attached. While their respective significant others bicker, they've figured out schooling and custody arrangements and they've done it without so much as a glance at each other's faces.
"Custody arrangements?" Cobra ignores Sting's hissing to focus on him. Rogue meets the Poison Slayer's curious gaze with a blank expression.
"Yes. Cynthia requires schooling and Totomaru has offered to take over full time. As such, she will be spending a majority of her time with Lucy," Rogue pauses, adding, "And you, by proxy. The other option is for me to move to Magnolia-"
"No," Sting says firmly.
"...hence why this arrangement is more beneficial."
"I think it's for the best, Erik," Lucy murmurs, eyeing him carefully. There's been a lot of unresolved tension between the two of them that even the Celestial Spirit Mage with her human senses picks up on.
"It makes sense," Cobra says, "It would've been nice if you'd told me this earlier, but whatever."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lucy says snidely, "I just assumed you read my soul and figured it out when I did since that's your whole gimmick. Assumptions."
Well, isn't this just a new wrench in the cycle: Cobra and Lucy are fighting.
Internally, he shrugs. A break in monotony is a break in monotony.
Present Day
Wisteria Bar
Oak Town, Fiore.
Friday, October 22nd, X792
9:00 PM
"Kid, as cute as you are to see, this is day four. Are your parents not done moping?"
"I don't know," Cynthia says, sliding into her favourite barstool after Totomaru gives her a boost up. "Stir-fry, please."
"Ay, yo, Marcus! Three stir-fry's!" Ikuha shouts over her shoulder. Turning to the Fire Mage, she cocks a brow. "You know I know a good forger…"
"You're cordially invited to suck on my dick," Totomaru mutters in an undertone, eyeing his student, whose senses are keener than one would expect of a non-Slayer. He isn't entirely surprised but it's a pain in the ass when she's attached to his hip and he needs to discuss Very Adult Things with others, like Juvia, who finds this all-too adorable and does her best to encourage it.
"I'll leave that to little blue." Ikuha's red skirts flutter as she dodges the coaster he whips at her head, heading for the customers on the other end of the bar.
"Ikuha-san is...something," Juvia begins slowly. Totomaru scoffs, pointedly not looking her way on account of the burning in his cheeks. As much as he hates to admit it, Dobengal might be onto something with those masks of his…
"Ikuha's a nosy bitch."
"Bad word," Cynthia chimes in, sipping at a smoothie - where the hell did she get a smoothie from? - and eyeing him with the barest hints of amusement on her face.
"I liked you better when you were quiet," he grumbles.
"No thank you."
"Do you think they've figured everything out?" Juvia hastily changes the subject before Totomaru does something drastic, like dump water in her hair and call it 'on-the-spot training'. Yes, he has done this before, and yes, the conversation leading up to it did start the exact same way.
"I mean, it's been four days. They've probably just been working out the kinks. I'm sure they're fine."
Present Day
14 Strawberry Street
Magnolia, Fiore
Friday, October 22nd, X792
9:15 PM
"Because you're such a fucking expert on feelings!" Lucy shrieks, whipping a pillow at Cobra's head so hard when it misses and hits the lamp instead, it shatters. "You just sit there and assume and assume and assume! The rest of us can't assume what you're feeling, Erik!"
"You never fucking ask!" Cobra shouts, ducking behind a sofa just in time for a scarf to whizz past him. "When have I ever asked you to assume my feelings?!"
"Literally fifteen minutes ago!"
"She's got a point, you know," Sting says, walking headfirst into no-man's land. Morosely, Rogue says a small prayer of goodbye for his poor, dumb, idiotic fiance, who is drawn to conflict like a moth to a light. Although in this case he supposes he's the light and conflict is the moth.
"Oh, shut up," Cobra snaps, turning his venomous eye on him. "You're not involved in this."
"My fiance's future self banged your girlfriend's future self and their kid got thrown back in time for all of us to deal with. This totally involves me!"
"I meant this argument. Not the situation - Mavis, how have you made it so far in life with so few braincells?"
"How have you managed to form one stable relationship?"
Rogue sighs.
Present Day
Wisteria Bar
Oak Town, Fiore.
Friday, October 22nd, X792
9:15 PM
The thing is, no matter how many times he assures Juvia that all is well and the four are probably getting along like a house on fire, Totomaru has a horrible feeling that he might not be too far off the mark about that - the house being literally on fire, that is.
His doctorate isn't just for show and he knew the day he suggested the quartet shut up, sit down, and talk about their feelings (unsupervised!) that it would end horribly.
He taps out a senseless rhythm on the bartop, watching Juvia teach Cynthia how to draw drops of condensation off the side of a glass and form a disk with the water. Juvia doesn't have to think as she alternates the disk between her hands, while Cynthia's arms tremble with the energy required to pull the water off her glass and hold it in a ball. She's been making strides with her magical training thus far, enough to quell whatever worries he has regarding her emotional development. She seems comfortable enough with him and Juvia, though how much of that can be attributed to her being taught by Juvia in the other timeline is up for debate.
"You should really stop thinking, it makes you look ugly," Ikuha advises as she places a bowl of water under the rapidly drooping bubble in Cynthia's grasp. The water falls with a plop, splashing drops out the edges and onto the wood.
"Cynthia will be returning the water to the bowl with magic only," Juvia says sternly, waving off the tissues Ikuha procures from thin air.
"Okay," she murmurs, eyes narrowing in concentration. The barest hints of pride swell in his chest as he watches a few drops coalesce into a larger drop, all of which slowly begin to roll towards the center to form a single bubble that gradually, carefully, perfectly rises up and -
"Oh, shit, look at you go!"
Explodes right back onto the table. Juvia sighs, waving her hand over the mess and effortlessly returning it to the bowl. If Cynthia is annoyed, she hides it better than most adults do, sipping her smoothie with dead eyes.
Mest makes to pat her head before settling for an awkward thumbs up. "You were doing good, kid."
"Why are you wet?" Totomaru asks.
"Oh, it started raining so I just Direct Lined over."
"Tissues?" Ikuha offers.
"Nah, I'm good. Thanks, though. Yo, Totomaru, not to stress you but I think Lucy might be murdering the guys, so if you could go...check that out…" Mest laughs nervously as the aforementioned man slowly presses a hand to the vein throbbing in his temple.
"They're attempting to kill each other," he says evenly, "And you only thought to Direct Line when it started raining?"
Mest pauses. "I mean, to be entirely fair, it was really nice out up until then."
Present Day
14 Strawberry Street
Magnolia, Fiore
Friday, October 22nd, X792
9:30 PM
He counts one broken lamp, a dent in the wall that is suspiciously human-shaped, two permanently lopsided sofas, a section of water-warped floor that will cost more than a few paycheques to replace, and a broom permanently lodged into the dining table. All in all, all that's been lost is Lucy's security deposit and whatever remains of their collective dignity, so nothing of extreme value in the first place.
"When I said 'go and figure this out', I meant sit down and be constructive. Not...whatever this is," Totomaru says slowly, watching them freeze and face him with varying degrees of shame - except Cobra, who has the gall to raise a brow.
"We were talking," Lucy argues.
"Yelling," Sting sniffs.
"Like you're innocent in all this," she hisses, poking him in the ribs harshly. He scowls and swats at her hand. For a second, it looks like they're about to go at it for round what-the-fuck-ever, and then shadows creep up their arms, yanking them to opposite sides of the room.
"He's right, this has been vastly unproductive," Rogue says, dismissing the shadows immediately. Totomaru is surprised Lucy only rubs at the phantom shadows with mild disgust on her face. If Mest's earlier reports were any indication, even thinking about Rogue used to be able to send her into apoplectic fits. Something has changed here, whether or not they want to admit it.
"You have literally done nothing but sit there and watch us all argue. The fuck you mean unproductive?" Cobra snaps, wheeling on him with hell on his heels. This, of all things, doesn't surprise Totomaru. He wasn't all too fond of hanging out with the Seis during their Balam Alliance days but just the few interactions they had were enough for him to see that Cobra's prickly exterior and tendency to lash out at the time had less to do with hating everybody present - although that certainly didn't help - and more to do with lacking control over the situation at hand.
"I mean you've all been fighting day in and day out about irrelevant matters when we ought to be focused on resolving the situation."
"Oh, get fucked you arrogant-"
"Don't talk to him like that you shit-stirring-"
"Don't you talk to him like that when you can't keep your nose-"
"Children!" They're either shouting so loudly they can't hear him yell or they're purposefully ignoring him. He hopes, for their sake, it's the former because his patience has worn so thin that the sound of the chair squeaking as it's pushed back is enough to tear the frayed strands to shreds.
He doesn't need to steel himself to enter this particular battlefield, but he does anyway because there's always precautions to be taken when Dragon Slayers are involved that even warzones don't warrant. He goes for the easy pickings first, slamming his palm into Sting's sternum so hard he flies back, barely avoiding getting impaled by the broom. Taking advantage of Cobra's hesitation, he plants his foot firmly on the ground and rears his leg back, aiming for Lucy's face - only to pivot and catch Cobra's jaw instead.
"What the fuck," Cobra hisses, poison frothing from his mouth in lieu of blood.
"Erik-!" Lucy freezes a centimeter shy of Totomaru's burning palm at her throat. He smiles, thin as razor-wire and twice as sharp. The only sounds in the room are heavy breathing and the steady crackle of his flames, and even that is just for show. I'm in control now.
"That was cheap," Cobra mutters, standing up and reflexively sidling up to Lucy. Rogue helps Sting into a seat, keeping one hand on his shoulder to press him down.
"This is cheap because none of you deserve any better," Totomaru says, dropping his hand. Fire swirls up his arm, stopping just short of his elbow as he fights to restrain his temper. Idiot. Idiot, idiot, idiot. He should have known better than to trust anyone who shares the Fairy mentality in the slightest but he has - had - faith. It's a flickering little ember that's buried under burnt logs and ashen rocks but it's there and refuses to die out no matter how many atrocities he's seen and taken part in. He likes to believe that people are capable of change. That no matter how unwilling they are, they're able to put aside their differences and strive for good when push comes to shove.
He'd seen a bit of that conviction in Lucy and Rogue in his office, but he was wrong. Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, just like his supervisor had said all those years ago; this is the first time he's felt that little fire inside him dampen because of it.
"You all seem perfectly capable of using your mouths to communicate, but for some godforsaken reason you don't want to do it properly. What the fuck is wrong with you all? It's been four days. I expected resolution."
"They came to a resolution," Cobra says coolly. The part of Totomaru's brain that's spent the better part of a decade forcing itself to tamper down on the spaces trained to fight fire with fire explodes so blindingly he's up in Cobra's face before he can stop himself.
Well, there goes all his clinical training…
"Then why are you all fighting? This should be over and done with." Cobra's eye flits to Lucy so quickly he would've missed it had be not been close enough to get dizzy off the poison leaking from his pores. What a high this is, what a high.
"Ah, that's it, isn't it. You feel threatened. Guess what, Erik. Like it or not, Lucy and Rogue are Cynthia's parents, this timeline and the other one, and you have no right to get in between that."
"I don't need you to tell me what I do and do not have the right to do, Kaji," Cobra snarls, drawing himself as tall as he can. It's an intimidation tactic that works beautifully on everybody who isn't him.
"I can tell you exactly what to do and you know it," he whispers, all teeth. "Admit it. You're scared. You're scared because the first real relationship you've managed to keep is threatened by something you can't control. You can't kill a little girl to keep this safe, not with your newfound morals, no, that would be horrible. How could you explain yourself to Lucy? No matter what you do, you're cornered. In your mind you stand to lose her either way. So you're lashing out, because the longer you keep this going, keep Cynthia away, the more time you have to solidify yourself as a presence in her life that can't be replaced. Because that is what you're scared of the most. Being replaced."
For once, Cobra is silent. Blood thrumming through his veins, pounding in his skull so powerfully he's almost blinded by it, he wheels on Sting, who stiffens as he advances. He'd be lying if he said that little flinch of fear didn't have glee zipping up and down his spine. Yes. Yes, this is good, finally.
"And you. You're the same as him. You've grown so used to being Rogue's fucking shadow that even the slightest hint of having to share that has you balking. It's always been the two of you against the world and now there's a kid that isn't yours and a lot of baggage from a timeline you didn't think still existed until four days ago. Grow the fuck up. You're a Guild Master for heaven's sake, I would have expected you of all people to see that this involves so much more than you."
Adrenaline is adrenaline no matter if it's from a war of weapons or words, and he barely registers how much he's missed it as he's swept into its familiar tsunami. His lip curls as he eyes Rogue.
"Don't think you're getting off easy. Congratulations, you have the capacity to murder indiscriminately. I would have thought your time under Jiemma's rule would have made that clear to you, but apparently not." Equal parts confusion and anger are smothered before they make it past Rogue's mask of indifference. That brief flash is enough to spur him on, each word yanked from the bucket he knows and hopes will hurt the most. "Newsflash, though, you aren't. Not in this timeline at least. Stop lying to everyone and yourself, you're not guilty for whatever he's done. You're terrified of him. You know it won't take much to turn you into that. How many times have you looked at yourself in the mirror over the years and seen that monster looking right back at you? Told yourself that will never be you? It is, though. Those murderous instincts are you. They'll never go away. The difference between you and him is that you've taken steps to prevent that from being you, so I don't get why this is fucking with you so much. You aren't him."
"Lucy." She almost leaps out of her skin as he rounds on her, sucking in a breath as he stops a foot away. She's terrified. Probably wondering what dirt he has on her, isn't she? He has so much. He could break her in a million little pieces. It would be so easy. He wants to. He wants to break something so badly there's nothing left to look at. The guys behind him aren't enoughenoughenough.
"Why are you so scared of Rogue when you know damn well he's not Future Rogue?"
"They have the same face and he killed her, it's kinda hard to keep the two separate!"
"Cobra has tried to kill you how many times and that's not interfered with you two dating? What about Natsu? Your best friend, how many times has he come close to killing you in battle? Are you scared of him? Scared of fire?" His hand hovers near the delicate column of her throat. He's careful to ensure not a spark of fire comes close to her skin, but has it burning Natsu hot. Tears well in her eyes, and if he had the facilities to he'd feel sick knowing all it does is feed whatever demented cycle he's fallen into. Finally. Finally, a reaction.
"Are you scared of me?"
"No."
His hand drops. "Then stop being scared of him. They're not the same person. I understand that that was a terrifying situation for you but the sooner you accept that they are not the same the happier you will be. You're fixating on this and made it a part of you the same way your teammates have their own trauma and, unfortunately for you, it's not working out the way it did for them."
Dizziness that can't be fully attributed to the poison or whatever the hell possessed him just now almost takes his knees out from under him. Mouth dry, he says, "Right, so starting tomorrow each of you will get one unsupervised hour with Cynthia to get used to her. The rest of tonight is meant for you to catch up on what you were supposed to be doing these past few days. Got it? Good. I'm gonna go now."
Totomaru is out the door before they have time to register what he's said and kill him for it.
Future Timeline
Magnolia, Fiore
Monday, October 25nd, X797
3:45 PM
"I'd ask which milkman you wound up sleeping with, but to get this combination of magic I think the only options are me or Freed," Midnight says. His face may be totally passive, but his eyes are entirely too sly as he turns to face them. "I always knew you were into the long hair."
Lucy levels him with a deadpan. "Yeah, totally gets me going. You free this Friday?"
"What exactly is it we're dealing with?" Rogue interrupts before Midnight says something that lands him in the infirmary. Lucy's kicks have only become more vicious on account of the dragons, something Natsu can personally attest to.
"An extension of her water magic. If any of the others started having kids then I can see them also developing secondary magic like this. Makes sense given what's going on. This is perfect for tracking and observation, but more importantly, this is a tactical advantage if we train her up to it. She can help Cana and I."
"The name, Macbeth," Rogue says, leaning into Lucy's reassuring touch on his arm. The trace of fanaticism in his voice has him on edge. His daughter is only four years old and while that means nothing in wartime, especially not to someone who has never known peace, the thought of them priming her to fight so young coats his tongue with a bitter tang.
She's only four.
"Scrying. We start tomorrow."
A/N: COOL so this chapter is basically what I fondly refer to in my head as the 'you done fucked up bitch fix it' chapter. Like, I personally done fucked up.
I genuinely do not know what the fuck I was smoking when I tried to write this in 2016, I don't know why I made it so over the top dramatic, I don't know why I did ANY of this and I'm HAPPY I didn't finish this back then because 2020 me would've had this deleted so quick out of respect for the cringe. Hence the birth of Therapist!Totomaru. He lives to knock sense into the stupid shit I wrote all those years ago. I think I was trying too hard to make it angsty and also trying too hard to fit, like, common fandom/ship tropes from back then which, like, ew, so you know. Overdone angst for no reason. Anyway, I'm also too Done(TM) to go back and rewrite everything so I'm just gonna sit here in my happy boat and devote this chapter and the next to fixing all that garbage so I can move onto the PLOT.
And yes, I have the next checks docs like discounting the double update, the next 11 chapters written. There is plot. It is spicy.
And if you want more info on Wendy and the hospital, shameless plug, go read A Cataclysm in Three Parts, my magnum fucking opus.
r&r please happy new years eve
-eien