Harry was suddenly excessively grateful for trains. Their job was nowhere near Magnolia and that meant Fiore's public transport system was letting him spend the first few hours of this absolutely ill-timed job sitting in a quiet train car with some of the quieter members of his guild. He would cry if he wasn't already severely dehydrated by the massive amount of alcohol he'd consumed the night before.
At some point Cana went from slumped over in casual misery to slumped over in sleep. Her soft snores filled the train cabin.
Erza seemed to take the lack of witness from the only other person on their team today as a sign to talk. Usually, Harry would've been fine with that. Today she started the conversation with the last words he wanted to hear though. "Back at the guild you went quiet when you spotted Wendy."
Harry's already dry mouth went drier.
"I assume that means you remember your words from last night then."
Erza's eyes were locked on him with her usual intensity, but the statement didn't come out unkind. If anything, she seemed contemplative and perhaps a bit sad. Harry sat on that for a moment before he offered her a small nod. He couldn't remember who was present at the time of his accidental admission, but apparently at least Wendy and Erza were there. Harry would put money on Kosmos as well.
"If you'd prefer no one talk about it I can certainly make sure that those present don't say anything." Erza offered and he glanced back up sharply, just how many people had been there? "Your past is yours to share or keep to yourself. No one wants you to feel uncomfortable."
Harry swallowed. The nausea of his hangover was thankfully receding and it made it easier to deal with the pit in his stomach that talking about this was causing. He shook his head. "Lilly isn't…" he breathed in deep, letting the air clear his head. "She's not a secret. It would be insulting to them if I hid them away like they're some sort of dirty secret from my past I'm ashamed of. It's just that…"
Erza reached forward while he was trying to find the right words. Her hand landed on his balled together fists and he stilled.
"It's hard." She said, eyes knowing in a way that only the eyes of someone who'd experienced deep loss could be. His mind flitted back to his conversation with Mira in a bathroom when she'd admitted that most Fairy Tail members had less than pleasant pasts. "It's hard to talk about the people we love when they're no longer here with us."
Harry nodded around the light headed numbness he felt.
"They don't have to be a secret." Erza said, weirdly comforting for someone who was usually so abrupt. She leaned back into her own space. He felt like he could breathe again. "You also don't have to feel pressured to share everything though. Some things are private."
He nodded, letting his head rest back on the seat. He let his mind wander for a moment before he gave a small, breathy laugh. "They look nothing alike." He said low enough that he wasn't actually sure if Erza had heard him, but when he glanced her way she was looking back with laser focus. "Lilly was blonde and she never… She was ten when she… passed."
There was no pity in Erza's brown eyes and maybe that's the only reason he kept going. He didn't want pity.
"But Wendy's shyness… that determination to always do her best even when she has no idea what she should be doing." His eyes burned. He could feel tears pressing to come out. "Lilly used to follow me and Lu… she'd follow us around and she'd insist that she needed to protect us from all the things her mom taught her about."
He let out a low laugh. The words didn't feel like acid in his chest right then.
"I was packing a bag for work once and got to the place only to find seventeen radishes in there that she'd sent along to protect me."
"Radishes?"
That wasn't Erza. He looked up and met Cana's eyes staring back into his. He nodded with another shaky laugh. "They ward off wrackspurts." He answered easily as if the sentence wouldn't have gotten him weird looks even in the distant past.
Cana mouthed the word wrackspurts to Erza who shrugged.
"You daughter sounds a lot like you." Erza said, amused.
Harry immediately shook his head and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Daughter?" Cana's confusion barely cut through the clear picture of the little girl in his mind.
"She was all…" he swallowed, sadness creeping around the edge of the cheerful memories again for a moment. He pushed it back. "She was all Luna. All she got was my eyes." Just like Harry had inherited his mother's bright green color he'd passed it down to his daughter. He'd never been more delighted than when he realized that their child had been a tiny version of Luna. He'd argued for a long time the world needed more people like her, and he'd had the honor of helping make one.
He barely held back a laugh at the idea of Luna meeting these new comrades of his. She'd love them. Chaotic, but well-meaning with good hearts, exactly Luna's kind of people.
"We'll be reaching our stop soon." Erza had shifted forward a bit to sit more straight in her seat. He thought that was all she was going to say, but after a long moment she spoke again. "Thank you for sharing. They sound like good people."
Harry nodded, eyes closed as he tried to savor these last moments of relaxation before whatever job Erza had picked for them. "The best." He agreed.
Cana was both confused and annoyed. She'd fallen asleep at some point and missed some key details about an apparently rather interesting conversation. First of all, Harry apparently had a daughter. He also, apparently, had either a wife or some sort of significant other. Lastly, it was apparent from how he had spoken about them that they were both dead. Which… shouldn't be surprising all things considered. Everyone in the guild knew about him coming out of the clock. It wasn't a secret. He'd literally announced as much in Crocus in front of half the guild.
She'd woken up with no clue how this incredibly personal conversation started, but still too curious to pretend she'd heard none of it. Harry's past, with the exception of the clock, was mostly a mystery. She couldn't think of anyone in the guild that wouldn't pay to know more about Fairy Tail's newest mystery. Laki had made an offhanded comment that they'd been overdue for a new guild mystery member since Mystogan's departure way back during the Edolas stuff. That had earned the purple haired girl a round of laughs.
Harry's secrets seemed somehow more weighted though considering his world wasn't just some alternate universe. He'd literally come from their distant past and he'd come alone. That meant that EVERYTHING from his past was gone. So, asking a question about it was a lot like stepping forward in a mine field and hoping you didn't make something explode. She'd nearly detonated one of those bombs during the trials and the way his face had dropped from joking to sullen in half a second had made her feel like world class asshole.
Needless to say, when Cana had woken to find him talking with a fond tone about his past for the first time in her memorable history, it had been shocking. It wasn't long after that they were pulling into the Hargeon station with the weight of Harry's stories weighing on each of them in their own way.
Cana felt a bit like she'd been intruding. He'd clearly been sharing those stories with Erza. She'd seen the two get fairly close since he joined the guild. She'd had drinking competitions with the guy twice. And he'd seemed fairly nice during the trials. Were they close enough that somehow this didn't count as her hearing something intended for people he was closer too? Cana wanted to drink a barrel of beer and pretend she'd heard nothing. Agh, people.
"I forgot to ask…" Harry spoke up, seeming thoughtful. "Why was Makarov so upset this morning anyway?"
Great, another thing Cana had missed. At least this one felt like less of a time bomb. Makarov was pretty neutral ground.
"Ah, apparently he came in this morning to find his office painted pink and full of toads." Erza said seriously and both Harry and Cana came to a stop at that declaration. "I told him you made an offhanded joke about pranking his office, but it couldn't possibly have been you. You were with someone the whole night until I brought you home and you were in no shape to go back on-"
A sharp, loud bark of laughter came out of Harry's mouth. He was already slapping a hand across his face before Cana had even fully turned his way in surprise. He looked caught between horrified and deeply amused. Cana knew he was guilty immediately. She pressed her lips into a thin line to keep from giving him away. He was trying to school his expression immediately and had managed a calm façade by the time Erza had turned back around to see him.
An impressive attempt at nonchalance, Cana had to admit.
"Sorry, there was a weird looking bird." Harry managed, hand pointing off the right. "Just over there."
"Weird animals are distractions right now." Erza chided, but Cana noted that she still looked around to try and find it. "We have a job to do."
"Of course." Harry agreed immediately sounding reasonably chastised but Cana caught his eye and she could still see the mirth dancing in its crazy, kind of creepy, shine.
When Erza had put an adequate amount of space between herself and them simply through her determined strides and their far more reserved pace(they were both still dealing with hangovers after all) Cana muttered over to him. "You're telling me how you got a bunch of toads in Makarov's office later."
Harry snorted the slightest bit and had bitten his lip to keep from laughing at a volume Erza might notice. "No story." His voice shook. "I'm pretty sure I just thought about it really hard."
Cana gave him a disbelieving look.
"If it helps. I was incredibly drunk."
"That always helps." She grinned.
Reservations about people in general aside, Cana rather liked this weird guy who'd joined their guild. He certainly wasn't boring. High praise for someone who dressed like a snotty noble.
"Here we are."
Erza had approached a large ship which was bobbing peacefully in the waters of Hargeon's dock.
"You're here for the job?" Someone called down to them and a man in his thirties or so slipped down onto the dock next to Erza with practiced ease, a rope dangled beside him.
"That we are." Erza nodded. "We're here from Fairy Tail."
The man looked at them with a frown. Tired eyes rolled slightly in his sallow face. "Didn't know I was hiring kids." He said bitterly, surveying them with obvious disappointment. "Go home. I'm not about to get a bunch of kids killed."
"I assure you, we are more than capable of handling your request." Erza tone was more clipped when she replied this time. He still seemed unsure.
"If we die I'm pretty sure you don't have to pay us." Harry said blandly, startling a laugh out of Cana before she could think not to. She shot him a side glance. He was giving the man an intensely unimpressed look. Oh, Cana needed to work on copying that. Her own unimpressed expression couldn't be hitting nearly that hard.
After a long moment of the man's eyes twitching between Erza and Harry the man gave in with a sigh. "Just don't go complaining I didn't give you a warning."
Cana bit back the urge to give him a snide remark of her own. The only thing stopping her was that Erza hadn't actually mentioned what they were here to do. Well, she hadn't told Cana at the very least. Maybe it had come up while she'd been asleep on the train. It wouldn't be the first time something like this had happened. Erza was notorious for leaving out details she'd told someone else. It was almost like she forgot who she'd had certain conversations with.
Lucy had told her about the first mission she'd ever gone on with the red head where she'd knocked Natsu unconscious. Natsu had missed valuable information and gotten separated from the group. When Erza heard he'd let a target escape she'd been furious.
She glanced at Harry. He would've told her what they were doing if he knew, right?
Erza followed the older man onto the boat. Harry and Cana were left to scrabble up the rope after them. Once firmly on-board Harry looked at the wood around them with distaste. It wasn't particularly unclean or anything, but he stared at it like he was personally offended by its presence. She'd have to ask him about that later. For now, she focused on catching up with the only person on their team that had any clue what they'd come to do. Harry followed after her.
The man had handed Erza some sort of spy glass and was pointing things out as they walked up.
"Most ships veer off to the North or South once they exit the harbor." He explained pointing in the appropriate directions. "We trade with a lot of little islands directly East of here between Fiore and Bosco's normal routes. Most ships haven't had to deal with the problem since they don't head out the same way we do."
Erza hummed in acknowledgement and Cana couldn't help but wonder what the hell the woman had signed them up for. It didn't sound like they would be staying in Hargeon for this one.
"I can bring you close, but I can't put my ship in danger." The man said, almost apologetically. It was the closest thing to polite he'd managed since he started talking to them.
"We'll manage." Erza assured him, not taking her eye away from surveying whatever the hell she was looking at through the lens.
"We'll manage?" Cana said, giving Erza a disbelieving look. "Are you implying we're okay with being dropped in the middle of the ocean, Erza?"
Erza lowered the spy glass and turned their way. A small frown tugged at her lips. She looked past Cana to Harry and Cana heard him sigh just the slightest bit.
"I suppose I can figure something out." He managed, sounding less than enthused with the idea. Cana let that settle for a moment. She knew he was capable of a lot of weird stuff, but what exactly was he going to do to keep them from sinking in the ocean? Particularly Erza with her two-ton armor.
Erza nodded, folding up the device and handing it back to the man. "Take us out." She instructed in that no-nonsense Erza way that people just seemed to obey without question. Cana rolled her eyes, but followed when Erza gestured for them to head to the front of the ship.
Harry disliked boats. When he'd been younger Hermione had invited him on a vacation with Viktor Krum, Ron, and a few other people. Viktor had insisted they take a smaller version of the boats that Viktor's school had arrived in for the Triwizard tournament. They'd summarily ended up stranded at sea for months when the spell that moved the boat gave out without warning.
One by one the few people who could apparate had tried to make it to help. Unfortunately, they later found out everyone who left couldn't tell anyone their location because Hermione's simple friend forgot to mention he'd put an unspeakable spell on the boat during the war. He'd been stuck with Ron and Viktor on the boat until they worked out a way to get the damned thing back to shore. Ron had been too paranoid to apparate after Hermione had gone and never come back and both Harry and Viktor hadn't learned the skill at that point in time.
Harry had never had a more poignant reason to learn a spell.
The whole disaster had left him with an absolute distaste for any sort of boat though. It was a hate that ran deep enough that when Erza had given him a look that obviously said 'I want you to make us a boat' he'd nearly said 'no thanks, I'd rather drown'. Instead, he'd taken a deep sigh and relented. There was no way they were going to get trapped at sea in a boat he'd made within sight of the Fiore coast. He'd swim. He glared at the coastline. Yeah, he could make it.
Erza pulled Cana and him toward the front of the ship as the rather rude ship captain headed where ever he needed to go to get them to their destination.
"Our request today is to kill a sea monster that has been plaguing the trade route between Hargeon and Galuna Island."
Cana groaned like she'd just heard the worst news possible. Erza gave her a reproachful look and continued as their transportation sailed easily out of the port waters and into the open ocean.
"Today I shall demonstrate what is expected of an S class Fairy Tail mage. We shall keep property damage to a minimum and complete the job with efficiency and grace."
Harry rather thought that the idea of Erza completing a job without property damage was asking a lot. He'd been on jobs with the red-head before. She was nearly as notorious as Natsu for her collateral damage. He didn't have too long to think on the hypocrisy of her statement. The ship reached the point where it was unwilling to go any further fairly quickly.
Then it was Harry's turn to get to work. He stared out at the water around them and in moments a familiar ship sat in the water next to the one they currently stood on. Harry felt a tight knot of irritation. He hadn't meant to make a replica of Krum's boat. It had just sort of been lingering at the edge of his thoughts as he pushed the magic out. Apparently, that had been enough.
"Whoa." Cana took a step next to him so she could lean against the rail and survey their new ride. "Think you could magic me up some wine?"
Harry hummed in thought but fixed her with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, probably not." That had been a limitation of magic in his time. He could recreate the alcohol but it would have none of the nutrients or effects that the liquid was supposed to have. So, it rendered it no better than foul tasting water in his book. Useless.
"Oh well, nice boat anyway."
"If you say so." He grimaced.
He eyed Cana as she made the jump between the two vessels. Maybe he could use the alcohol thing to his advantage next time the girl tried to convince him to drink though. He could just vanish the actual alcohol and replace it with a summoned version which would look and taste the same for all intents and purposes but would allow him to survive the night without filling Makarov's office with amphibians.
Erza had him turn the summoned ship in the correct direction and push them out further to sea. It took maybe ten minutes of sailing before anything of note started to happen. At first there was just a disturbance at the surface of the water similar to the start of a wave in a storm. Before Harry could even fully stop their ship though the water was erupting outward in a chaotic fountain around the most absolutely massive octopus Harry had ever seen.
He just managed to keep them from capsizing with a craftily placed shield spell.
"Now, Cana, let's see what you've got!" Erza bellowed leaping forward already to land on the things face with grace. Harry didn't argue. It kept the things attention off of their stabilizing vessel.
"What the actual fuck am I supposed to do about that!?" Cana yelled back, but she was already drawing out the cards she fought with and searching for an answer as Harry laughed at the statement.
Harry had no doubt that given enough time Erza was liable to complete the mission on her own. Monsters were sort of Erza's specialty if he'd understood the stories around the guild correctly. With every passing moment the chance of something going horrifically wrong seemed to escalate though.
Cana seemed to settle on whatever electric attack she had on hand and threw that at the octopus. It didn't do much, but the octopus did lose a tentacle to Erza's sword as it recoiled from the feeling. Bubbles seemed to surface around the thing and then deft tentacles plucked Erza and Cana up. Erza cut the tentacle that attempted to hurl her into the sea. She landed much closer to the octopus from twenty feet in the air, but at least she didn't have to contend with the speed of having been thrown.
Cana gave an indignant squeak as the thing coiled back to throw her. Harry severed the tentacle quickly and vanished it with barely a thought. He caught Cana in a cushion of air before she could hit the hard deck and hurt herself. "Ooof!" the wind blew out of her lungs forcefully, but she managed a thankful smile and chucked a card his way.
Harry caught the card, confused. But Cana's voice echoed just loud enough from it that he got the cue to pull it to his ear. He trapped it there with his shoulder as he focused on steadying the ship again. They were being rocked side to side by the disturbed water around them. Harry didn't particularly want to take a swim today. He hated the feeling of salt drying into his hair.
"Can you get us to-"
Cana's question was cut off as a tentacle snaked around the entire ship and squeezed. Wood splintered and suddenly Harry got the swim he'd been trying to avoid.
Cana plunged into the water seconds before Harry hit the icy liquid. With barely a thought a bubble head charm was in place and he breathed deeply.
Alright, so the ship was gone. No need to play defense any more, right? Cana was kicking for the surface a few yards away, and then she was out of sight.
Lightning arced above the surface. Harry barely dodged an incoming tentacle that thrashed his way completely by chance. He grit his teeth as he righted himself enough in the current to direct his attack. With a blink the left side of the octopus exploded into gore. Oops. He hadn't meant to make it that strong. The ocean was already darkening with blood when Harry pulled himself to the surface and released his bubble head charm.
He was knocked back down when a displaced wave of water and blood swept him under again. He came back up sputtering and disgusted. He summoned a small boat and pulled himself into it. He flopped face up on the bottom and took a few deep breaths before he pulled himself to his knees to find his guild mates. Erza was standing atop the octopus' corpse which was thankfully still floating. It seemed she had delivered the final blow after his spell had ripped into its body. Cana was bobbing in the slowly settling water and giving him an incredulous look while coated in gore.
Harry resized the boat to be a bit bigger and forced it in Cana's direction. Once he was close he easily levitated her onto the boat with him. They both stared at their blood and sea water soaked clothes with distaste. Erza bounced her way across the wrecked ship debris until she met them as well.
"Do you have a rope I could borrow in your pack, Harry?" she asked immediately.
Completely at a loss Harry summoned a strong rope and handed it to her without question. She hopped daintily back across the wreckage before diving beneath the waves for a moment. She resurfaced with one end of the rope in her teeth and she swam back to the boat where she pulled herself in with little problem.
"Back to the ship." She nodded at Harry.
He assented easily. He was ready to be back on dry land. He was a bit confused when there was significant extra drag as he set the boat moving, but he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he started casting cleaning spells on his clothes. Cana insisted on being next. Erza just requipped into one of her other armors.
It took them a bit longer to reach the ship they'd departed because of the inexplicable drag on their boat. As they came alongside it a rope ladder dropped for them. Cana was first up, followed by Harry. Erza came up last with that rope still between her teeth.
The few crew members Harry had spotted the first time they'd been on board had made themselves scarce now. Below deck most likely, not having expected such an abrupt end to the fight.
"I watched." The captain was joining them with a stunned look. "You took that thing down in less than five minutes."
"Of coursh." Erza said, confidence shining through even with a rope between her teeth. She removed it a moment later. "Fairy Tail was more than capable of handling something of this level."
The man nodded slowly, but he didn't argue.
"What's with the rope?" Cana asked, clearly annoyed no one else seemed to care much.
Erza tugged on it a few times, removing the slack in the rope until it went taut and she was dragging whatever she'd attached it to up the side of the ship. The deck pitched. Shouts sounded downstairs. Feet flew up to deck level. The sailors clearly thought they were under attack.
Erza was holding the severed end of a tentacle aloft proudly. Harry just blinked at the thing. It really put into perspective how massive the thing had been. The end of the tentacle alone was nearly five times as high as Erza herself. On that note, how the hell was she lifting it?
"I thought we might bring it back to the guild for a feast. Takoyaki sounds delicious."
Harry didn't know what Takoyaki was. He did know that the massive thing wasn't going to fit on a train. He announced the thought with a bland expression. She frowned minutely, looking at her spoils of war. He could see the cogs turning in Erza's brain. Cana seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Harry.
"Can you do your teleportation with it?" she asked, lowering the tentacle to the deck.
Harry stared at the massive thing. Then at Erza. "No… probably not."
Neither were surprised when Erza declared that they'd be walking home.
It took them nearly two days to walk back to the guild. It was a much faster pace than Harry would've set. He preferred to enjoy the scenery a bit more. Both Cana and Harry struggled to keep up with Erza's relentlessly fast near jog the whole way. Any time they lagged behind she would circle back and berate them to keep up the pace. He had to reluctantly admit, it was ruthlessly efficient in a way only Erza could have managed.
When they reached the guild Cana looked ready to collapse and Harry wasn't fairing much better. He did offer the girl a sympathetic shoulder to lean on though and they stumbled in after Erza red faced and just a little disheveled.
Erza had already made her way to Mira at the counter and was regaling the woman with details of the fight while Mira stared in obvious distress at the end of the giant tentacle peeking through the guild doors from where Erza had left it outside. It wouldn't fit through the doors without being cut up first.
"You guys made it back." Lucy approached looking more than a little amused.
Harry heaved a sigh and pushed his hair out of his face. "More or less."
"I need a drink." Cana moved with more determination than he'd seen in the last twelve hours.
"Hard job?" Lucy asked, obviously taking in his slightly flushed face with concern laced into her joking tone.
"Hardly. We finished the job in less than an hour once we were there." He swallowed back his urge to be irritated. "We had to walk back to the guild because Erza couldn't get the tentacle on the train."
Lucy's face flashed through several emotions in quick succession; surprise, frustration (most likely directed at her own similar experiences), and then begrudging acceptance. She nodded, looking nearly as exhausted as he felt. "Yeah, that sounds like Erza."
"I'm absolutely buying one of those cars." Harry said, frown tugging at his face. "I don't care how much it costs. I'm not walking from Hargeon to Magnolia with Erza again."
He suppressed a small shiver that ripped through him. She was an absolutely ruthless taskmaster when she wanted to be. It wasn't the first time he'd been subjected to that side of the girl, but it had certainly been the most extreme. He'd barely gotten any sleep in the last two days, and he'd started this whole ordeal with a horrific hangover to start with. All that was paired with near constant nightmares he'd been having since his kidnapping. It was like the perfect storm of insomnia. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into his bed and not move for the next thirty hours. The thought of sleep already had him swaying where he stood. Lucy noticed and steadied him with a look of worry.
"Harry!" Wendy bounced over, excitement pouring off of her. "I was hoping you'd make it back soon. I found a job I wanted to take with you."
Harry couldn't keep his face from falling at the prospect of being awake even longer. Wendy's smile slipped. Her expression seemed to war between concern and uncertainty. Harry winced internally. He opened his mouth to explain that maybe they should take it tomorrow so he could get some rest. Instead, he was interrupted.
"There's concerning news."
The last person Harry wanted to see at that moment in time was approaching. He tried not to cringe as Erza locked eyes with him. Still, he assumed she was actually serious this time. No spark of humor danced in her eyes and a small frown was working across her face.
"Natsu and Gray never returned from the job they took when we left."
Harry gave Erza a confused look. "Couldn't they just be taking a long time getting back?" his words sounded almost desperately hopeful to his own ears.
"It's a possibility." Erza agreed with a small nod, but her eyes said she didn't think it was likely.
"Those two?" Lucy asked with a scoff. "I don't think they'd spend more than a minute together unless absolutely necessary."
Erza frowned like she found this assessment odd. Wendy just nodded along though. The girl's uncertainty had melted away to be replaced with just concern.
"We should go after them and make sure that nothing has happened." Erza said with a nod to herself. "This is another duty of S class mages. It is our job to make sure that our guild mates are safe and capable of unity. Perhaps Cana can-"
Harry glanced around the room, but as if the card mage had sensed an impending request from Erza she'd magically disappeared. Erza's frown tightened a little bit. Harry wished he'd booked it for home the second Erza had turned her back. Cana had the right idea. He'd been a fool. An optimistic fool.
"Well then the four of us shall just have to go seek out Natsu and Gray." Erza decided with a nod. "It will be a valuable learning exercise in the practices of what it takes to be an S class mage. Be thankful for this experience."
Harry felt like he was going to cry. Lucy offered him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
AO3 got a heads up so here's yours I'm ten chapters out from the conclusion of this story. There will be a part 2 as well as some short stories (one shots) which I'll probably compile into chapters on its own fic for simplicity of navigation on here.
Next chapter we start the Sun Village prologue to the Tartaros arc. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. I've never had a story so positively recieved and you guys have been wonderful. There will probably be a second update this week near the weekend.
See you guys soon!
~Kanathia