It was too early for this.
It was too early for this when he just arrived.
"Gray-sama! Did you come to see Juvia off?! Juvia is elated!"
With a sigh, he shook his head and stepped around the gushing woman. "No, I thought you were out of town, to be honest."
A gasp escaped the blue woman's lips upon hearing those words. With a whirl, she grabbed his arm with whine. "Juvia can't believe this! Gray-sama is meeting with someone behind Juvia's back! Gray-sama doesn't even have the decency to wait and do it behind Juvia's back! Who is it?! Is it Karissa-san?! It must be!"
With a scowl, the ice mage pulled his arm away from her. "Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Plus, Karissa isn't even in town." He replied. She barely showed up at the guild at all. That wasn't strange for her though. Karissa was never one to show up every day. And according to Pandora, Karissa was somewhere training her magic. That's not out of character either. She always had her moments of focus on magic. What was strange was that she wasn't training in her usual spot anymore. This hinted that, perhaps, she didn't want to be disturbed. He respected that.
"Anyway, take care on your job." He lightly waved as he turned his back and walked further inside the guild.
Taking this as a sign of his excitement for her return, Juvia beamed with a light squeal. "Juvia will come home as soon as possible so she and Gray-sama can go on a date!"
A tired sigh came out of Gray. "No thanks."
The rain woman's shoulders drooped as shock landed upon them. It made her pout sadly as she turned away and depressingly walked off. She might as well have a little rain cloud over her head.
Gray settled down at a table with a soda he grabbed from the counter and shook his head at Juvia's antics. Her imagination was really something else.
Cana came to his table with a bottle of alcohol and greeted him.
"Oh, hey Cana."
"What's up with you? You walked in looking like something's on your mind?" She remarked. Her hand became a cushion for her chin as she leaned on the table. "What, don't tell me you're too busy for your date with Juvia?"
Gray deadpanned at her jest. "Not even. I'm not dating her. And I'm fine."
"Hm," Cana searched his dark eyes that gave away nothing. It was too late. The moment she pointed it out, he had masked it away to make it seem like she simply imagined it. "Well, anyway, have you seen Karissa lately?"
"The Sinclosts went to Lamia Scale today to see if Clavis came back home." He summarized before taking a sip of his soda.
"Ah, the mysterious twin. Right." Cana took another swig of her drink and frowned a little. "Last time I saw Karissa was two days ago when Pandora passed by the dorms to give some food."
"Oh yeah? I haven't seen her in six days. I only heard from Gajeel that she took a job early in the morning yesterday and came back in the evening. She's mostly been training though."
"Gah, so that's why she wasn't around! I wanted to go on a job with her yesterday because her abilities would be useful on the job I went on. Man, what a busy bee." Cana pouted. Her fingers lightly rapped against the wooden table. Then, the reminder of Gray's words prior to the S-Class Exam made a smirk creep up on the Card Mage's lips. She leaned further on the table and held a hand next to her mouth. "Oh, I see. You miss her. You miss Karissa and you're sulking that you haven't seen your girlfriend in six days."
Gray narrowed his eyes at her. He looked around to check if anyone was listening in on them.
"I didn't confess to her."
Pure confusion appeared on Cana's face and her hand drooped with disbelief. She tilted her head as if to ask 'really?'.
"I was under the assumption that you would do it after the exam?"
And if he did, then surely, if Karissa didn't chicken out for whatever reason, they would be together by now because she knew that the two felt the same for each other!
He lifted his hand to scratch his head while he looked away from Cana. "That was then." He paused. He looked at Cana suspiciously. "Hold on, why did you just assume I would be dating her?"
Cana didn't give anything away. She had sworn secrecy after all. Instead, she simply waved her hand dismissively. "I'm getting my hopes up for you. Anyway, what's holding you back?"
What's holding him back?
An incident of course.
The incident in Novera came back to haunt him when he saw the scar he caused when they were returning home from Tenrou Island. No one was to blame for what happened. However, if by chance, she does indeed reciprocate then can he be confident that he'll be there for her when she needs it most? Everyone dear to him has always, in some form, parted from him due to his own inability. His parents died. Ur sacrificed herself. Lyon walked away and blamed him. He may not have been able to do something at that time, but that still doesn't change the fact that he couldn't do anything. That's what he detested, the idea of being able to do nothing as others dear to him suffer. He didn't want that to be the case with Karissa. He hated when he couldn't do anything during mind control.
It was certain that he became stronger after the incident.
But, what if, in the end, it was all futile?
Unwilling to reveal everything gnawing at him to one of his closest childhood friends, he just shook his head. "It's just not easy."
Cana already knew he was holding back information. Pushing him to reveal what was bugging was not on her agenda. Instead, she just stared at him and then leaned back in her seat before telling him something important.
"If you wait too long then she just might move on with that logical mindset of hers. I mean, if she did feel the same of course."
Gray lowered his eyes.
…
…
…
"Sting walks around showing off his shoulders and abdo muscles. He's attractive and strong, I guess. He carries himself as 'cool' as well. If that isn't a traditional recipe for fame amongst girls, then I don't know what is. Girls can really boost a dude's popularity, I mean, take a look at that... what's it called? Uh, that boyfriend list thing in Sorcerer Weekly."
"Attractive, huh?" Max repeated.
"Don't tell me you fell for his charms too?" Warren spoke sarcastically.
…
…
…
Karissa gave the money to the store clerk and waited for her change while taking the bag from the counter.
Currently, she was in Oshibana with Pandora and Van. They decided to eat in town while waiting for the next train for Margaret. Van was in charge of food, Pandora went off to buy some snacks to eat later, and Karissa went out to buy the beverages that the pizza place didn't have. They set up to meet near the park where the public tables were available.
With a nod and quick polite smile, Karissa exited the store with her purchased items. With how fast she was, Van wasn't going to be there just yet.
All of a sudden, someone harshly ran into her shoulder. It had her stagger to the side. Annoyed, she briefly glanced at the person who did it. It was a boy with short black hair. He was hopping on one foot away from her as he tried to regain his balance. He was dressed in a white long sleeve with blue stripes underneath a black sleeveless coat, and he wore dark brown pants and black boots. He was holding onto his gray shoulder bag tightly as if to keep it from flying away.
"I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine."
With that, she continued walking. I'm literally the slowest person walking in the area, and they couldn't see me?
As for the one who ran into her. He was rooted in spot as he thoughtfully stared at her back. He tilted his head and squinted his eyes a little. The reminder of what he had seen before had him jolt in place. Hurriedly, he ran after the woman. When he stopped in front of her, she startled and stopped to stare at him weirdly.
"U-Um…?"
Now that she was looking at him properly, she could see his face clearly.
Dark brown eyes and two distinctive moles on his face.
He held his bag strap tightly in his two hands.
"Um, excuse me. Are you Karissa Sinclost?"
His shone with anticipation. He already knew her identity because he possessed pictures of his siblings that he bought from the Souvenir Shop prior to its closure. He just wanted to make sure.
Flashes of Edolas appeared in her mind. She recalled what she had seen before she got ejected out of Edolas. That guy who fought by her sister's counterpart's side. The guy whose identity she knew was despite being from a different world. That guy had his own version in Earthland, and he was standing before her now.
At that moment, she didn't know how to feel. There was fear, surprise, confusion, but mostly curiosity.
"… C… Clavis…" she managed to say the name that usually felt so alien from its lack of utterance.
A smile beamed brightly on his face which almost made Karissa squint. He grabbed her hands excitedly, surprising her. "It is you! Oh, geez, I wasn't ready for this! I heard Fairy Tail returned from Tenrou Island so I tried to hurry back as soon as possible. But even then, I had some other business to attend to in Oshibana, and then I tried to rush to the train station just now! So I was—"
Whoa, whoa, whoa… calm down.
He was starting to ramble.
Her eyes darted around when she noticed nearby people staring at the two in confusion.
"Um," Karissa awkwardly cut him off. He blinked innocently. "My brother and sister are around the area… we're planning on eating somewhere here. Why don't we go there?"
Awkward.
That's how she felt.
She was currently sitting across from him at a table while he just kept on smiling like a little kid. Already, she knew that they were opposites. So far, he was the one talking about how Lamia Scale helped with the search for Tenrou Island. Like an idiot, Karissa barely formed conversation with her twin because of how nervous she was. This was not going unnoticed by Clavis.
His smile became awkward and he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry… this is kind of sudden and… awkward, right?" Honestly, he was doing his best to ward off the awkward air with his rambling.
Obviously, it was doing very little.
Karissa forced a little smile. "Kind of… yeah."
"I started rambling on… I'm sorry." He chuckled a little. "I don't know how to exactly handle this…"
"Same here. Also, I'm, uh, just like this. I'm not the best at making conversation. I can get shy." She tried to explain for what may have seemed rude to him.
"Oh, I see."
Pause.
Yeah. This wasn't some fairy tale book where long lost siblings tearfully hug each other and instantly get along to make up for lost years… this is real life, and it's much more complicated with feelings.
"I have a question. How did you know it was me? I knew it was you because I saw pictures… so…"
Karissa jumped a little at the sudden question. With eyes matching her own, he gazed at her with a question mark over his head.
She informed him of the other world that Fairy Tail was transported to. Surprisingly, Clavis was aware of this other world. Apparently, when Makarov reported this, the Magic Council did a thorough research about Edolas and actually found records of it. Thus, it became public knowledge.
"What was I like?"
"No idea. Never interacted with Edolas you."
"Aw…"
"But knowing that place… you must have been something completely out of here. Seriously, that place is like an assorted box of chocolate, you don't know what you're going to get."
"Haha." Clavis grinned at that. This made Karissa smiled in response. It was always nice to see someone laugh because of her words.
"What's going on here?"
Clavis turned to Karissa right where he found Van and Pandora standing there. Immediately, he felt his calmed nerves act up, causing him to get up from his seat and then stand properly. It surprised Karissa.
"Hello. My name is Clavis… Clavis Sinclost."
Once more, the tale was recounted.
Clavis personally recounted what he discovered in Bosco. The temporal stasis surrounding their apparent home in Bosco at the top of a hill was what really shocked the three siblings. Believing that the temporal stasis was purposely created for some unknown yet important reason, Clavis did his best not to disturb anything within the house. But he did take the pictures. He decided to bring one along with him as 'proof'. It was the photo of all six of them. He took it out of his bag and showed it to them.
Pandora gripped the table tightly as the picture burned in her mind. "But… this just doesn't make sense!" she almost shouted. Van had to place a hand on her shoulder to soothe her confusion that startled Clavis. Karissa was currently sitting by Clavis' side to make room for her two older siblings.
"We never lived in Bosco!" Pandora scratched her head. "I was old enough to be aware that we were moving out of Fiore. It's not possible for me not to remember any single detail of that house…"
Believing that Pandora was doubting everything and thinking that he was lying, Clavis lowered his head. Karissa could almost see his imaginary ears atop his head go down. It made her inwardly panic. Van noticed this and his response was immediate. "Ah, Clavis. No, don't worry." The older twin looked up with furrowed brows and a small frown. "This is all just weird."
Pandora, who had sensed Clavis' natural sunshine demeanor diminish, was quick to also smile and wave her hand dismissively. Feeling that cloudy aura radiating off him made her feel like crap. "Yeah, like I said, it doesn't make sense… Don't worry, Van and I know we had another brother. It's just that the existence of this house is basically confirming that our memory is tampered with."
"Tampered? But why?"
"I don't know. All we know is that we've lived in Iceberg after moving away from Fiore."
Clavis put a thoughtful hand under his chin. "But… you still remember me though…"
Van snapped his fingers and pointed at him. "Right. If we forgot everything about Bosco, then we should have forgotten you altogether. But I have some memories of you as a child…"
"That's weird." Karissa said bluntly.
"Isn't it?" Clavis looked at his twin sister and nodded.
Whoever touched their memories must have left the memory of Clavis still clear in their minds. It was either that, or that the memory of Clavis simply couldn't be erased.
"Do you think it's trauma?" Clavis guessed innocently. "I mean… that's why I couldn't remember who I was before joining Lamia Scale, after all."
"Collective dissociative amnesia?" Van quirked a brow and gave his younger brother a funny look. This made Clavis grin sheepishly. "Yeah, too far fetched."
They did not reject Clavis. They accepted him after talking things over. Pandora had long 'forgiven' him for entering their home to keep things clean. In fact, Pandora was amazed that the house was spotless when she inspected. There was nothing misplaced aside from what was inside cupboards and the fridge because of expiration dates.
The three younger siblings watched the oldest breath in aggressively after she crossed her arms. Van smiled awkwardly as he stared at her. Clavis and Karissa glanced at each other. The twins brought back their attention to Pandora when they heard her sigh heavily before dropping her head forward, hiding her face with shadows and her bangs. They didn't expect her to then suddenly lift her head a smile.
"All my life I've learned to live in the present and think of the future. I don't spend time thinking much about the past." She folded her arms on the table and placed her hand flat on the pizza box. "Today's a good day for pizza in the park. So, for now, why don't we all just enjoy today and deal with the past later?"
Clavis blinked innocently. "Enjoy today?"
Pandora flicked the box open. "Yep. Today might be all we have since the future can be uncertain."
Van grinned at her words. "Right," he grabbed himself a soda for him and then another. "We might be occupied in the future, so why don't we use today to get to know Clavis Sinclost? The past can be discussed later!" he handed the second soda to his little brother. "There is so much we don't know about."
Clavis eyed the soda for a second before reaching out to take it. "Well, if you don't mind." He smiled shyly. Pandora, who was sitting in front of him, blinked at this. For some reason, she could see this almost angelic aura surrounding him as he smiled. An arrow shot straight into her heart. What's this?
Van deadpanned with a smile as he also felt it. For some reason, I feel filthy.
Pandora grinned and took a slice of pizza. "Let's eat lunch and talk!"
Clavis was a nice person.
He was very kind.
But after hearing the story with how he confronted the doctor, they knew he wasn't no pushover just because of his kindness. He had his own limits and degree of anger. That very well may hint at the possibility that he was like Karissa; passively aggressive.
He spoke very highly of Jura who took care of him when he was washed ashore. When Jura discovered that Clavis could use magic, he offered him a place at Lamia Scale where he could call home and earn a living if he so wished. It was from that man that Clavis learned many things. Even though they practiced different magic, Jura gave him pointers that any beginner mage should know when channeling their magic power. He was a practitioner of gravity magic. In turn, this made him quite a proficient mage since he started quite young. That's what the two twins had in common: learning magic as children.
Clavis also had a naturally affinity for music. The Master at Lamia Scale would often ask Clavis to perform a music piece of their Thanksgiving Day. This obviously intrigued Van since his little sister was also in the field of an art. This made the twins the more creative ones of the family.
Also, he decided to leave behind the name Clarus in favour of Clavis, the name his parents wanted him to have. He didn't mind others still calling him Clarus though.
They had spent the entire day walking around Oshibana.
It was Van's idea to go around and have fun instead of sitting for hours. It was thanks to him that the awkward air cleared since he kept pulling everyone along and making sure Clavis was included. He even went around looking for a guitar for Clavis to play some few tunes for them. That made him feel very shy since Pandora observed him with anticipation and interest. Once, when Pandora and Van went to buy some drinks for the group, they found Clavis clapping and smiling when Karissa created small ice pinwheels that floated around them. The chill made him sneeze though.
…
…
…
Eventually, the sun was beginning to set, and it was time to part. They were going to the train station together and take different trains home.
They arranged to keep in contact via mail since Clavis offered to one day take them to the house in Bosco once things on his end got less busy. After all, they needed an Anti-Mage like Yura to find it.
Before they went to the train station, Clavis exclaimed something and stopped in his tracks. The three siblings found him staring at a small shop on his left.
"Wait just a moment please!" Clavis smiled and darted into the shop.
Pandora tipped her head. "I wonder what he's buying…"
Van put his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky. "Maybe stuff for music?"
Karissa watched him from the window as he ran straight into the corner of the shop in the back. She couldn't quite see what he was getting due to the reflection of natural light. He soon came back outside with a small plastic bag in hand, apologizing for the wait.
"I just wanted to get something." Clavis smiled as he dug into the bag to grab what he purchased. He pulled out four flat stars which the size was smaller than his palm. They each had a chain attached to it at one of the tips of the star points. "They're called Star Glass! Uh… I, um, just thought it would be nice to have this to maybe commemorate this day?" He said sheepishly. "You know… something corny like that? Is that okay?"
The little embarrassment that made his cheeks flush had Pandora sucking in a sharp breath. Van, once more, felt so filthy. Karissa stared at him quietly. Clavis blinked in face of all their reactions.
"I… Is that a 'no'?"
Immediately, Pandora cooed and wrapped her arms around his neck from the side, making him squawk in surprise. "Waah!"
"You're so soft!" Pandora all but squealed.
"I didn't think I was…"
"I'm talking about your personality!"
"Oh..."
Clavis smiled bashfully when his older sister then ruffled his hair playfully. It seemed like Clavis had all but won over Pandora with his natural charm. He was mostly concerned about not crossing certain boundaries since they were all still somewhat strangers. He didn't want to suddenly shove all his affection onto them only to be shut down coldly. He was doing his best to resist appearing so… needy? That's why Pandora's hug threw him for a loop just now.
The last thing he expected from them was to hug a stranger.
"Sure, we'll take one each, right Karissa?" Van dropped his big hand atop his little sister's head who nodded almost eagerly. He also teased her about how she must feel left out now that Pandora had another younger sibling to dote on, earning him a harsh flick on his nose.
Clavis held out his hands for them to pick. Pandora chose the pink one, Van the lavender one, and Karissa and the cyan one. Lime green was left for Clavis.
Karissa held up her star up to the light. It seemed like it was made of stained glass. She could already tell it was much sturdier than any normal one though.
The younger twin looked at the older one who had been watching her curiously. She smiled at him and held the star close to her chest. "Thank you, Clavis. I'll make sure to take good care of it."
...
...
...
The Fairy Tail mage's platform was on the opposite end, so they were going to have to leave him by himself now.
"Take care on the way home." Clavis told them with a smile. Now that it was finally time to separate, he could feel bubbles of happiness inside of him just floating about. Reunion with his family definitely turned out well. It turned out better than what he imagined. Honestly, after hearing about Pandora from the members left behind, he thought she was going to maybe give him the cold shoulder. His imagination was doing backflips.
"You too." Van nodded while keeping an arm around Karissa's shoulders. "Don't fall asleep on the train and end up somewhere else."
"I won't." Clavis chuckled softly at his jest.
"Maybe one day, you can come over and I'll cook something nice for dinner." Pandora told him with a thoughtful finger on her chin. She was already trying to figure out what could be a memorable first meal for the four of them. By then, they could probably talk more about depressing or mysterious history shit that needed to be addressed.
Van gave his older sister a side glance and then he looked to the side and leaned his head on Karissa's. "Hopefully you won't be menstruating then." Pandora stiffened from the sudden topic. Karissa felt a forehead become a little moist from the pressure Pandora immediately began emitting. "Or maybe that wouldn't be so bad since I can finally have someone to help me remember what kind of pads you want." He gave Clavis a playful smirk which only ended with him getting his neck grabbed from behind and he was all but shoved forward into a bowing position. Clavis and Karissa stared at the two older siblings with mild shock.
"Why are you talking about this?!" Pandora hissed, adding pressure to her fingertips.
"Owie… mercy my lovely sister…!"
Karissa looked at her twin brother with a smirk. "He's fine. She won't rip off his head."
Clavis laughed sheepishly while holding his bag strap in both hands just like when she first bumped into him. While Van was trying to waddle away from his older sister who kept her gorilla grip on him, Clavis came up to Karissa and held one of her hands. At first, Karissa felt the little urge to recoil her hand out of surprise, that is until she saw the way her twin was staring at her. Pure relief and joy were written across his face.
"I'm really glad I got to meet you."
Karissa blinked at him.
He really wanted to meet his family after learning about them…
She wondered if that same insecurity she felt about not being able to confidently believe that her parents did not abandon her ever took root in Clavis in the past seven years. If she were in his shoes, she'd probably wonder if she was ever loved considering that she ended up in a freaking laboratory while her siblings lived a happy life together. Seeing that small hope for love from a biological family must be something else. She couldn't possibly relate to that feeling, only imagine from her own curiosity about him.
Well, I certainly don't have a reason to reject him.
Clavis felt her hold one of his hands a bit tighter. He looked at her in surprise and saw her giving him a small smile.
"Me too."
The sky was a nice shade of pink and orange when they arrived back in Magnolia. With Pandora leading the way, Van kept his arm around Karissa as they walked, talking about how curiously pure their brother was considering what kind of traumatic shit he was in prior to joining Lamia Scale.
"Clavis is so angelic that it completely won over Pandora." Karissa snickered with Van. The oldest among the three whipped around and grinned at them.
"Have you seen him? He radiates pure sunshine! That's completely different from you two."
Van and Karissa deadpanned at her while they saw her smile happily. Sure, none of them were rays of sunshine but they certainly weren't gloomy either. But sure, having a literal ball of sunshine in addition to a timid little sister to dote on must be nice for their pseudo parent. It was completely different how she reacted when Karissa mentioned Clavis when she returned from that coalition mission.
"What's this?" Van frowned. "I'm getting the feeling that Pandora's having a favourite sibling. That's not very nice. In fact, I'm getting jealous."
Pandora scoffed with a roll of her eyes. "Psh. Okay." She turned and caught something in her peripheral vision. She stopped. "Oh. You guys wanna eat out tonight?"
"Yes." Came Karissa's almost immediate response. Van chuckled in amusement when she noticed what Pandora was looking at. It was Arkus, an all you can eat restaurant.
"I'm down." Van pulled himself off of Karissa. "Eating out for lunch and dinner. Who am I to complain? Plus, it's less work for you since we can't cook at all. Seven years really has no effect on our funds, huh?" Some members of their guild couldn't afford to just spend what they spent today.
Pandora smirks and poked her temple. "I prepared in advance in case of emergencies. You can't expect me not to store money away."
"Okay, okay, let's go eat!" Situating behind Karissa, Van placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her to follow Pandora.
"Don't make me eat a rock for dinner." Karissa gave her brother stink eye after nearly missing her step. Walking by her side, Van flashed her a smile with his hands in his pockets.
As they walked to the restaurant, the memory of her visit there came to her. At the age of fifteen, she came to Arkus with Gray after a mere suggestion after Cana told her that her boyfriend at the time brought her there. Cana rated the food ten out of ten.
…
…
…
Karissa glanced around the restaurant timidly while Gray browsed more of the menu. Between them was a grill to cook what they ordered. There were so many people that it almost felt intimidating for just the two of them to be there. She fidgeted with her sweater's sleeve to hide her hands while she waited for the order to arrive. Thankfully, they didn't have to wait long for it.
To start off, Karissa ordered a small bowl of noodles while Gray tortured himself by watching meat cook.
With a fork to eat, Gray blew on his freshly grilled beef and all but shoved it in his mouth with impatience. At the sound of him moaning, Karissa looked at him strangely.
"You good?"
"Oh my god." Gray might as well be on the verge of tears. "Here, eat this!" he poked one for her and held it closer to her face. But seeing the hot steam come off of it made him pull it back just as she moved closer. She watched him lightly blow on it for a good three seconds before bringing it back to her.
Karissa snickered. "Thanks." She ate it.
The taste was good. The cooks did a good job marinating it.
"Yummy." Gray laughed at the way she shyly put her hand in front of her mouth to hide the grin she had. "Cana's boyfriend may be weird, but he definitely knows good places."
Karissa lowered her hand. "You going to eat a lot?"
Gray scoffed. "Stupid question. I can tell all their food is too good." He then pointed his fork at her. "You better eat more since this is an all you can eat."
Karissa quirked up an eyebrow. "I'm not you or Natsu."
Gray leaned closer and pointed his fork at her. "Karissa, people will laugh at us for walking out early."
Karissa rolled her eyes. "That's not true. No one cares. But I guess I will eat what I can without going overboard."
…
…
…
Gray wasn't lying. It was no surprise that he was in somnolence after such a meal. He ended up crashing at her place, specifically on her couch, while Loke, Pandora and Van were still eating their pizza in the kitchen area. Karissa also passed out for an hour on her own bed and was rudely woken up when Loke pressed a cold water bottle on her neck.
Such a good memory.
Since she's always had a good experience at Arkus then maybe bringing Clavis there would be fun too.
"I'm hungry." Karissa uttered as they stepped into the restaurant.
"We're getting there." Van scoffed.
As the waiter pointed at a table, Karissa and Van raced to snatch the seats next to the walls. Pandora huffed at their antics and calmly followed after them.