Argh. This chapter. Just ... I hate editing sometimes. I really, really do. But, here it is, as edited as I can make it and ready to be read.
Review Response: Dear Squishy4953, greetings! Indeed. If only Gildarts had waited two more minutes. (blinks in direction of Sulking Corner) I would tell you to come out ... but this chapter will probably just send you back in again. Here? (offers tissues).
Dear Aoi-Natsuki-007, hello there! Sorry, I'm not in control of the plot right now. We'll just have to wait and see if Cana get's the opportunity to tell Gildarts early and Wren will certainly not give up but ... we'll see. Glad you loved the chapter though!
Dear BizzyLizzy, hi! Isn't that always how it is? If the characters would just sit down and TALK to each other, half of the problems that crop up in the series would never form. Then again, that's probably why the author never lets them do that. Hope you enjoy the newest update!
Dear Kuna Longshanks, hello! (Offers box of extra tissues) We're not done yet, dear reader, we're not done yet. Glad you liked it! I feel that the anime understates some of the characters emotional reactions sometimes, though I can understand why. Plot must continue and not wallow in angst after all, but still. Wren trains her magic with Laxus and Bickslow every day, so yeah, she's getting a very good handle on what she can do with them.
Dear powerrangerfan364, greetings! Don't blame me, blame the characters. I tried to make Cana blurt it out in time for Gildarts to hear, but she just wouldn't cooperate. She's just too shy for her own good sometimes.
Dear RunFromTheMedic, hi there! Thank you! I hope this newest update satisfies!
Dear Ori Heartlyng, hello there! I believe the term in Japanese for Gildarts would be "Sugoi Baka". Happy to hear you think so! I was kinda frustrated with it for a while there, so I'm glad to hear it was well received. Might want to shore up your heartstrings for this next one, cause I'm pretty sure they're going to get pulled again...
Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hey there! Poor Cana indeed, she's had a surprisingly rough road it you think about it. It's fine, I'm just happy you're feeling up to reading and reviewing again!
Dear Lightsbane1905, hi! Yeah, Wren shouldn't even have had to ask that. All Fairy Tail missions are doomed in some way or other. (snickers) Just wait until Erza gets here and they can combine their Fairy Tail Glares. It'll get better ... in the chapter after this one or so... (hide in box fort).
Dear Sky65, hello! You are most welcome and thank you for your review! It made me smile. I hope that you enjoy the new chapter!
Author's Note: Okay, first off, if anyone has not had their review replied too, it's probably because I can't see it. The stupid review viewer function isn't updating properly again so if you dropped a review and I haven't replied to it, I'm not ignoring you, I just can't read what you've said yet. Secondly, this chapter ... this chapter did not go as planned. It took off without me and though I tried to rewrite it a few times I'd just end up getting stuck. So here it is, and despite my earlier frustration I'm actually rather proud of it. Just ... note that this is not a happy or funny chapter. This is the aftermath of Gildarts' failure to stand still for FIVE MORE SECONDS and listen to what his long-lost-daughter has to say. It is also a chapter that expounds a bit on something I think few fan fictions ever really point out the magnitude of. Namely, future knowledge. Wren has the entire series up until about halfway through the Alvarez Empire Arc (minus the side-stories such as Blue Mistral and Ice Trail) in her head and NO WAY of telling anyone about it. Even if she could talk, she can't actually tell anyone because hello, you do not go up to your adoptive family and tell them they're fictional. Just ... just no. That kind of knowledge, knowledge of others' pasts, of their possible futures, of their darkest secrets, is a very heavy burden. Plus, she herself doesn't know how or why she ended up living in a universe she already knows the future of. I don't go too much into detail about that burden yet, but ... yeah, you see the first real signs of it in this chapter.
Next, a quick explanation on Bickslow. The only thing I can think to tell you as an excuse/explanation without giving away spoilers for the chapter is that if Natsu, Earthland's densest, most knuckle-headed person to exist or Wendy, a twelve-year-old kid, can pull off epic inspirational speeches in the middle of a warzone, than Bickslow can pull off his lines in this chapter without being OOC. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Please note that he would not, and could not, do this sort of thing for just anyone, but Wren's his beloved little sister and Fairy Tail is the first real family he's ever had. If he has to go the extra mile for them, he will do so. Finally, this chapter almost more than any of the previous chapters, marks the beginning of the story going AU. In case anyone hasn't figured it out by now, from this point on certain things will become steadily more and more AU because of Wren's influence (accidental or otherwise). (bows) Thank you, everyone who bothered to read this. Now, on to the chapter!
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs, who have run off with the Plot.
Chapter Nineteen: Of Sympathy and Secrets
(Three months, two days since joining guild)
Pain bloomed across his cheek, sharp and biting from where her hand had met his face as she screamed shrilly, "Just shut up!"
Bickslow stood there, frozen in shock in the middle of the guild hall as Cana ran away, her shoulders shaking as she fled in tears from the building. A heavy silence coated the guild hall as everyone stared uncomprehendingly at the scene that had just unfolded before them. Slowly, Bickslow raised a hand to his stinging cheek, trying to process just what had happened.
I didn't … what'd I do? He didn't understand. They'd been heckling each other, just like they always did, but then she'd just… Helplessly, he turned to look at Wren and whispered, "What did I do wrong?" His little sister, who was grounded from taking jobs after the Incident she had pulled yesterday, stared after Cana with a serious, sad expression on her face that sent a chill up Bickslow's spine.
Laxus crossed his arms over his chest, confusion wrinkles marring his forehead as he shook his head, "No idea. She has days like this, all mopey and snappy, but I've never seen her run off like that before." This has happened before? Why? Bickslow felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down at Wren, who had come up to stand by his side.
Hazel eyes bored into his for a moment despite his sunglasses and she pointed out the big doors of the guild, her message clear, "Go after her."
Bickslow frowned, "But-"
Wren just pointed out the door again and gave a low whistle, "Go."
Bickslow shot her a long look from behind his glasses, examining his little sister's colors and finding that for once, the examination only added to his confusion. Purple intertwined with the wilted, rainy blue of sadness and another color Bickslow hadn't quite grasped the meaning of yet. Blinking away Figure Eyes, he sighed and obeyed his little sister's demands, "Alright, Wren. But I'm just going to end up making things worse."
With that dire warning aired, Bickslow set out to find Cana with only his tikis to keep him company. He wondered for a moment why Wren wasn't following him, but shook it away in favor of hunting down Fairy Tail's resident Card Mage. It took a surprisingly short time to find her. His intuition pulled him along like an invisible string around the back of the guild and to the lakeshore. From there he followed the vague, shifty footprints in the sand until he came upon the girl in question.
She was curled up in the lea of a pile of rocks, her knees pulled up to her chest, shoulders shaking with her sobs as the lake water lapped at her sandaled toes. Bickslow hesitated, he had no clue what to do with crying girls except Wren. Even then, he only really knew what to do when her tears were because of her nightmares and he had no clue as to whether that method would work on Cana or not.
Still, Wren had insisted he go after Cana. Now what do I do? Slowly, with frequent pauses because of Bickslow's internal war, Pippi drifted forward until it lightly bumped into Cana's elbow. Cana recoiled with a squeak, her head snapping up to see what had touched her and her hands flailing wildly. Her eyes focused on Pippi and Bickslow's focused on mess of tears staining Cana's cheeks.
Regret and confusion flooded him. How had he caused that? He certainly hadn't meant to. For all that he and Cana fought constantly, he never would have wanted to drive her to tears. Cana's gaze shifted to Bickslow and her expression twisted into something bitter, her voice stammering under the force of her heaving breaths, "W-what do you w-want? Leave me-e al-one."
Bickslow shuffled, "I, uh," what do I say, what-do-I-say? "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, uh, to make you cry or anything…"
Cana sniffed hard and curled up again, "J-just … just…" her voice trailed off as she buried her face in her knees. Bickslow fidgeted helplessly and he wished he could just walk away and forget this had happened.
Cana was a fellow guild member though. Furthermore, he had the strong suspicion that Wren would smack him with her shadow tendrils if he left now just because he was scared of a few tears.
Mentally sending his tikis into a wide perimeter formation to ensure their privacy, Bickslow inched closer to Cana until they were almost touching and sat down on the sand. Cana stiffened at his approach, but said nothing. Her shoulders continued to shake, Bickslow continued to be baffled as to what he should do.
In a last-chance fit of desperation, Bickslow turned Figure Eyes on Cana, hoping that her aura would hold a clue as to how he should proceed. A moment later, he sucked in a sharp breath of surprise. That … there is no way I did that.
The wilted color of sadness pulled Cana's aura down like a physical weight, its edges tinged with thick frustration and a two stripes of its insides slowly rotting with a grayish color that Bickslow never wanted to see in a person's aura.
Grief.
Loneliness.
Not the colors of those things like he was used to seeing, but something deeper, more horrible. It was something he had only seen a few times, even when on the streets of Aternum.
Cana had aura scars.
Something swelled inside him and he grabbed her shoulder firmly, "Cana. What's wrong? Who hurt you?" Because someone had to have hurt her. Bickslow had never seen aura scars in people who had not suffered some kind of crushing grief or been horribly, horribly hurt by someone else.
Laxus had an aura scar, a small one that ran like a deep but narrow crack through his aura, impossible to see unless you watched hard for it. Wren had an aura scar that he rarely saw, one that only showed itself just after her nightmares, or on one of the days back when they'd first met where she would just go still and stare at the world around her like it was a foreign entity. But those scars were tiny and stable, they didn't grow any larger and were hard to see even when Laxus or Wren were very distressed.
Stable aura scars were okay, they were permanent as far as Bickslow knew, but they were not as bad as the unstable ones. Unstable aura scars grew. They grew and grew and grew until they swallowed up all the other colors of a person's aura and left nothing behind. The few people with unstable aura scars like that … Bickslow had seen what happened them eventually. Suicide was the nicest ending. Bickslow still refused to even think about the worst, about that man so rotted out on the inside that he had started taking away other people's colors forever as a way to trigger artificial pleasure colors in himself.
Aura scars were dangerous things. Horrible, dangerous things that few people got and fewer survived unless it was just a single scar and the scar was stabilized.
Cana had two, and they were still unstable.
"G-go away. I'm m-mad at y-you." Cana's voice cracked as she tried to shove his hand off of her shoulder. Bickslow refused to budge.
Grabbing both of her shoulders with his hands, he forced her to turn toward him and snarled, "No, you're not. This is about something else. This is about someone else and you're going to tell me who so I can go set their butts on fire with my tikis."
Cana shook her head, pushing half-heartedly at him, "No! Go away! I-it's not- just l-leave me alone!"
Bickslow growled in his throat and held on tighter, "Tell me!"
"N-no!"
"Tell me who hurt you like this!"
"You did!"
"Liar. I didn't say anything outside what I normally do!"
"Just go away!"
"Not until you tell me!"
"No-"
Bickslow resisted the urge to shake Cana as he growled, "I'll go get Wren if I have to, Cana! So help me I will! So tell me who-"
"It's my dad!" Cana's broken cry echoed around them, the sound bouncing around the area before it was swallowed by the soft whispers of the lake against the shore.
Bickslow slowly relaxed his grip on Cana's shoulders, something dark rising up inside him as he processed Cana's words, "What." The word escaped from between his teeth in a low hiss, a thousand things flashing through his mind, all of them hateful and enraged. First his dad, then that scum Ivan, and now this? This was too far.
Bickslow opened his mouth to demand to know who Cana's father was, why he hadn't heard of the man before, and where the scum was so Bickslow could grab the other Raijinshū and pay him a visit, when Cana took a deep breath and words began to spill out of her.
Bickslow sat back slowly, first on his heels, then shifting to sit by her side as Cana's story poured out of her in between shuddering gasps and broken sniffles. A mother who loved her. A mother that death claimed. A father who didn't even know he was one. A man who stood at the top of the magical world, but could barely be stopped long enough to say "good day". A secret that grew larger, heavier, harder with each and every memory of a turned back and an oblivious goodbye.
Bickslow sat, silent and still, through the entire tale. He never made a sound, never indicated what he felt as the girl he squabbled and sparred with all the time shared with him a secret that had been slowly breaking her into pieces with each and every time she failed to speak it aloud.
Finally, when her story was finished and the steady shush of the lake was the only sound between them, Bickslow found it in himself to move. Reaching out a hesitant arm, he wrapped it around Cana's shoulders and gently pulled her close. She squeaked faintly and stiffened, but Bickslow just continued to hold her in a one-armed hug.
Several tense minutes passed before Cana relaxed into his hold. Finally, after a while of waiting for Cana to stop crying on her own without success, Bickslow murmured, "Stop it, Cana." Cana sniffled again and made a questioning noise. Bickslow gripped her shoulders a little bit tighter, his voice soft but underlined with steel as he repeated, "Stop it, Cana. He isn't worth this."
Cana whimpered, "B-but he's my dad-"
He cut her off with a growl, "Doesn't matter. He isn't worth you tearing yourself up over his absence. He isn't worth you crying yourself sick, do you hear me? He isn't worth it."
Bickslow used his free hand to awkwardly squeeze Cana's arm as he continued, "I don't care how awesome the world says he is, or how friendly he is. If he can't even be bothered to stick around long enough to listen to you then He. Isn't. Worth. This. He hasn't trained you to use magic, Fairy Tail has. He hasn't helped you when you were in trouble, Fairy Tail has. He hasn't raised you, Fairy Tail has. You don't need a dad who spends years at a time wandering wherever he pleases and only spends a day or two at the guild! You have Makarov-jiji, you have Enno, you have Mest and Macao and Wakaba and Richardo and Catherine and Levy and Laxus and Wren and me and everyone else in Fairy Tail."
Bickslow was forcing back the blurring of his own eyes at that point as he rambled, not sure what he was saying but trying so desperately to make a point, to stop the slow spiritual demise of one of the first people in Fairy Tail that he had dared call a friend, even if it was just in his own mind, "One stranger isn't worth these tears just because he's your father, Cana. He isn't worth it. He didn't even come to your mother's funeral Cana, so stop crying over him because he isn't worth it and he never will be. He isn't worth the scars he's put on your soul!"
Bickslow panted at the end of his rant. He felt drained and agitated and wanted nothing more than to just get up and run away from the feelings Cana's story had stirred. But he couldn't. Because it was like Laxus always said, Fairy Tail stuck together, no matter what. It didn't matter how often you fought with another member, or how different you were from that member, when they needed help, you came running and you stayed until you knew they were alright. It just … it just was.
Cana's sobs had drained away to the occasional sniffle as she stared at Bickslow with wide, shocked eyes, "Scars? On … my soul?"
Bickslow stilled as he realized that while he had given the guild information on Seith Magic and had, grudgingly, given a very basic overview of what Figure Eyes was, he had never explained to them in detail what Figure Eyes was like.
He ran a hand through his hair as he murmured, "It … you know how I said that I can see … auras with Figure Eyes?" Cana nodded, "Auras are more than just little outlines of light like in the storybooks. They're all kinds of colors and patterns that all mean different things depending on how you put them together. I … I can read what makes a person, that person, through their aura. I can see if they're sad, if they're happy, I can see if they've done bad things…"
He shifted, letting go of Cana and scooting subtly away from her in nervousness, "And sometimes, when a person is hurt enough and has no one or nothing to help them heal, I see this grey … spot that eats away at the other colors. Like a some kind of scar on their soul." Bickslow glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, fists clenched, and whispered, "I've seen people die because they never got the scar to stop growing, Cana. I've seen them kill themselves all because someone or something had broken their hearts so badly they could never put the pieces back together."
Cana's breath hitched and Bickslow forced himself to face her, "You've got two Cana. Two of them all wrapped around each other and they're still growing and it's All. Gildarts. Fault. You're spending so much time obsessing and crying over him that it's hurting you and it's keeping the scars from closing."
Cana stared at him, something akin to fear in her eyes and Bickslow swallowed down the urge to run away again, his voice going from angry and firm to weak and pleading, "So … please, stop it. He isn't worth it. Just … just stop. You already have a family don't you? You have everyone in Fairy Tail, why do you need one stupid old man who isn't even around most of the time?"
Cana lowered her gaze to the sand, "Scars on my soul…? I never- I just- But- But I promised Mother I would tell him…"
Bickslow bit back a nasty reply, he knew in the back of his mind that promises were important, especially to people you loved. Shaking his head, he scrambled for an answer and blurted, "Well, you're scared to tell him because he's this really powerful, famous mage right? So, do that." At Cana's blank look, Bickslow explained, "Become a really powerful, famous mage too. Then, once he isn't that big of a deal compared to you, just walk up, look him in the eye, tell him 'I'm your daughter' and walk away. There, promise fulfilled."
Cana's mouth formed a protest, but then slid into an "o" of comprehension as she whispered, "If … if I became an S-Class mage too, then he'd have to listen to me. I … I'd even be able to follow him on his jobs and make him listen to me…"
Bickslow nodded, "There, see? But until then, just forget about him okay? Focus on the people who actually care about you."
Cana sniffled once, twice, then suddenly threw her arms around Bickslow's neck in a hug, her words muffled against his shoulder as she buried her face into it, "Thank you, Bickslow."
Bickslow's body when rigid, his heart crawling up into his throat in surprise at Cana's spontaneous motion. He'd honestly expected her to … push him or slap him or something, especially after he talked about the invasiveness of Figure Eyes. Even if he had expected a positive reaction, a hug had not been on the list of possible positive actions. A strange feeling swept through him, making his skin tingle and he impulsively pushed Cana away, "Tch. I'm just stating the obvious, Shark."
Cana allowed him to push her away, a tiny smile pulling at her lips as she huffed, "Right. Whatever, Bicksaho." On an unspoken signal, the two stood up and dusted off their clothes. Cana sniffled and ran her arm over her eyes one last time before she straightened up and they began to walk back to the guild.
Without either of their conscious decision, they didn't separate on the walk back. They moved side by side, not touching, but close enough that they could still feel the other's presence as they marched. Their feet tapped quiet, matching rhythms on the ground as they moved from sand to more solid earth and then to the cobblestones of the road. It wasn't that far of a walk back to the guild, but they walked slow enough to make it last several minutes of contemplative silence.
Bickslow's tikis drifted closer to him, Pappa giving a whispered voice in his ear to the idea that had begun to float around his head. He gave a faint scowl and gently swatted the tiki away, no way. She'd never agree to it. Even if she did, I'd have to ask the others' permission first. Pappa drifted close and whispered it again, the tiki's action spawned by his own persistent puzzling over the idea. "Wouldn't mind, wouldn't mind," whispered Pappa, "Wren was fine, Wren was fine."
The others joined in as well and Bickslow shooed them away with exaggerated flaps of his arms. Cana shot him a curious look and Bickslow felt heat spill across the tips of his ears and his cheeks as he explained without prompting, "They do that when I have an idea I'm concentrating on."
Cana wrinkled her nose, "That sounds annoying."
Bickslow shrugged and herded Pippi away from his head again, trying not to feel awkward talking to Cana after the conversation they had just had, "Kinda."
Cana eyed the tikis and then shook her head, "I'm so glad my cards can't do that."
"That's 'cause your cards are boring." The retort slipped out of Bickslow's mouth automatically and he winced a moment later. From behind his sunglasses, he shot Cana a panicked look, half-expecting her to burst into tears again.
Instead of tears, Cana just cuffed him and snarked back, "At least my magic doesn't talk back."
Bickslow rubbed the back of his head and snorted, "Yeah, yeah, whatever Shark."
They bantered and argued the rest of the way to the guild doors. Not their usual shouting and fighting, but enough that the tension between them faded away and the guild members who had been watching the doors anxiously for their return relaxed the moment the two came into earshot.
Cana and Bickslow paused in the doorway, their gazes locking for a moment and the understanding that they would not speak of what had happened on the beach passing between them. Cana gave Bickslow the tiniest smile, an act which made his stomach flop for reasons lost on him, and she made to head off to a different section of the guild hall. Bickslow walked a few steps in the direction of the waiting Laxus and Wren when he suddenly turned and loped over to Cana's side, "Hey, Shark!"
Cana stopped gave him a puzzled look, "What?"
Bickslow shot a glance at Laxus before he gathered his courage and voiced the idea that had been pestering him on the way back, "Laxus, Wren, and I hold training sessions at training area seven at five-thirty every morning."
Cana hesitated, her eyes glittering with something akin to disbelief, "Are you… inviting me to train with you? Will Laxus-kun allow that?"
Bickslow shrugged, "It was originally just him and me, but he was fine with Wren joining in, so I'm sure he won't mind one more. Warning though," he leveled a serious look at her, "Laxus doesn't train by half-measures. If you join in, you'll be expected to keep up and get stronger. No popping in whenever you feel like it either. Unless you're sick, you either show up every time or don't show up at all, got it?"
Cana's eyes had gone wide as soon as he had said "get stronger", realization flashing through her eyes as she whispered, "You … you mean you .. this is to…"
Bickslow looked away with an uncomfortable scowl and lowered his voice, "I don't care about … that guy. But there's no way I'm letting a fellow member of Fairy Tail go around with unstable aura scars. If getting strong enough to keep your promise to your mom is what it takes to stabilize those scars … then I have a duty as a fellow Fairy Tail member to help you get stronger."
Cana watched him with an unreadable expression for several long seconds and Bickslow crossed his arms uncomfortably. He had had enough soul-bearing and trying to comfort people for the day. Check that, the year. He just wanted things to go back to normal and for Cana to stop staring at him with that strange gleam in her eyes.
Finally, Cana nodded and whispered, "If you're really sure Laxus-kun and Wren-chan won't mind … I'll be there."
Bickslow gave a grunt of acknowledgement and walked away, stubbornly ignoring the way the other guild members gossiped about the unheard interaction all around him. He slid into his usual seat next to Wren and Laxus gave him a quizzical look from across the table. Bickslow hunched his shoulders and muttered, "I apologized."
"And…?" Laxus raised an eyebrow as he drew out the word. He knew that there was more to it than that, they'd been away for almost two hours after all.
Bickslow gave an uneasy shrug, "Cana's going to be joining our training regimen." He braced his shoulders, waiting for Laxus to demand a more detailed explanation and feeling thoroughly drained for the day.
Instead, Laxus just looked him up and down and then rolled his shoulders nonchalantly, "Okay then, I'll adjust the routines to fit four."
Bickslow shot Laxus a grateful look at his lack of questions and Laxus waved the look off with a lazy hand. The leader of the Raijinshū seemed to consider something for a moment before he stood up and made his way to the bar with the vague statement of, "I'm hungry, I'll grab us something to eat."
Bickslow grunted a wordless thanks and watched the blond leave, glad for once that Wren was grounded because of the stunt she'd pulled on Gildarts and that Laxus had said they wouldn't go on missions without her. Wait. Stunt on Gildarts… a flash of intuition flickered through him and Bickslow frowned. Wren made a concerned little whistle, but he waved it off and forced a smile onto his face for her benefit. It couldn't be … could it? Cana never told anyone but me about Gildarts being her … dad. So there's no way Wren knew … right?
The question plagued him for the rest of the day. Even during their extra training sessions with Laxus, it niggled at the back of his mind like an itch he couldn't reach or scratch.
Finally, when the three of them had gone back to the lighthouse for the night and Wren was crawling into the bed next to his in their room, Bickslow found his mouth opening and words spilling out before he could think better of it, "Wren?" Wren looked over at him curiously, "Did you know?"
For a moment, she just looked confused. Then realization flashed across her face, she paled, and her limbs began to shake faintly. Bickslow stared at her in growing concern and suspicion, "Imōto?" Wren's gaze dropped to the floor, unresponsive to his question.
Sliding off of his bed, Bickslow crossed the room and stood before her, "Wren. Did you know about Cana's secret?"
Wren blanched even further and refused to meet his gaze, her breath beginning to come out in gasps. Bickslow swallowed hard and lightly grabbed her hands, ignoring the hurt that flickered through him when she flinched at his touch, "Imōto, tell me the truth. Did you know about Gildarts? Is that why you ran off with his posters? To delay him long enough for Cana to talk to him?"
Wren was shaking so badly it was making his hands move up and down in time with hers and he didn't need Figure Eyes to tell she was terrified. Finally, she gave a tiny nod, her eyes squeezed tightly shut so as not to see his expression. Bickslow felt surprise steal the air from his lungs, "…how?"
Hazel eyes opened and looked at him pleadingly, desperately, and he swallowed hard at the tears he could see in them. Bickslow squeezed his little sister's hands, trying to calm her down, "I'm not going to hurt you, Wren, I promise." Guilt flashed through her eyes and she tried to pull away. Bickslow just held on more tightly and risked a quick glance at her with Figure Eyes.
Fear, guilt, confusion, remembrance, and grief rolled though her aura like a storm and Bickslow wondered distantly why today was apparently his day to be the voice of comfort to females he knew. He was tired and wanted to go to bed, frankly.
But this was his little sister, he couldn't leave things like this, not until he had answers.
"Can you tell me how you know-" Wren bolted suddenly, leaping off the bed and escaping his startled grip. She ran down the stairs to the other parts of the house, Bickslow hot on her heels, "Wren! Wren wait!"
Bickslow's shout drew Laxus out of the guest room that had officially become Laxus's room a while ago and he followed after them as Wren flew out of the house in her pajamas. Bickslow followed after her, eventually catching up as she circled the house and came to a stop on the edge of the cliff the lighthouse was built upon. For a moment, visceral terror went through Bickslow at the direction she took, but all she did was drop onto her knees and hug herself tightly with shaking shoulders.
Skidding to a stop a foot or two behind for fear of making her bolt again, Bickslow called, "Wren!"
Laxus jogged up behind him, shivering slightly in the night air as he hissed, "What's going on?"
Bickslow shook his head, "I don't know … I just asked her a question- I didn't mean to- to…" he shook his head again and took a tentative step closer to his sister, "Wren, it's okay. I promise. Whatever it is, you can tell me." Wren's shoulders continued to shake but she made no move to run as the two boys came slowly closer until they were crouched on either side of her, each laying a hand on her shoulder.
Wren wasn't crying, much to Bickslow's surprise and relief, but she was gasping and shuddering as if she was somehow drowning right there in the night air. Bickslow scanned her aura with Figure Eyes again and found his attention drawn to her aura scar. It wasn't growing, but it was … shining somehow. No, not shining, just standing out much more blatantly than normal.
Laxus rubbed her shoulder with an awkward hand and shot Bickslow a look that demanded an explanation. Bickslow dared to ignore it as he whispered to Wren, "It's okay. It's okay, Wren, whatever it is, however you know, I won't leave or make you leave or hate you or anything like that. Laxus won't either, I promise. We're Raijinshū, remember? We stick together."
Somehow, this seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Wren's gasps shifted to some kind of silent, hysterical laughter and her aura scar twitched faintly. Bickslow bit his lip as he realized the scar was close to destabilizing and he wished desperately that he had never asked his question.
Laxus shot Bickslow a wild, frightened look. He couldn't see Wren's aura, but anyone who looked at her huddled there on the ground, silently laughing as if she was about to shatter from fear, could tell that something was very wrong.
Bickslow swallowed hard, he had no idea what to do. He couldn't just tell her to forget it, that would just make things worse because one of her biggest emotions at the moment was guilt. Guilt for keeping it a secret, guilt for knowing, he wasn't sure which, but it was a deep ugly guilt that would not go away if ignored.
"Please, Wren," he whispered pleadingly, "talk to us."
Slowly, Wren stopped laughing and just sat there, staring off into the distance, watching the moonlight refract off of the lake. He recognized the look in her eyes, the way the hazel orbs glazed over with a dull detachment, like the world and everything in it wasn't real, wasn't there.
He bit his lip and was about to ask Laxus to help carry her inside, when Wren slowly lifted her hands and signed, "I saw."
Bickslow stilled as he watched her hands. When she didn't say anything else, he dared to probe, "Saw what, Imōto?"
Wren didn't look away from the lake as she signed with shaking fingers, "I saw Cana. I saw why she cries." Wren swallowed hard and took a shuddering breath. Closing her eyes, she continued to sign in broken, silent sentences, "I have pictures," she touched her temple, "In my mind. I have voices. Events. Things I shouldn't know. I knew Fairy Tail before … before Mest." She pulled her gaze away from the lake to glance briefly at Bickslow before she added, "I knew you. I knew you Before."
Bickslow inhaled sharply, knew me? Knew Fairy Tail? All before … "When did you know?"
Wren traced the scar over her throat and stared at him with sad eyes that were suddenly too old for her face and signed again, "Before."
The bluenette exhaled slowly, trying to wrap his head around it all, "How?"
Wren started to sign something, then tried to sign something else. She gave half of a whistle before cutting it off with a frustrated look. She bit her lip hard enough Bickslow was afraid it would bleed before she signed, "I don't know. I don't know why." She traced a hand over her throat again before she twitched out the words, "I should have died."
"Don't say that!" The words exploded out of Bickslow's mouth as he hovered over her protectively, fear shooting through his veins at the realization that his little sister believed she should have died from her wound.
Laxus gave a frustrated and worried sigh, "Can someone please translate. I can only catch about every other sentence of what she's saying here."
Momentarily distracted, Bickslow demanded, "What did you get?"
Laxus shrugged helplessly, "That she knows … something, about Fairy Tail maybe? Or you? But she doesn't know how and it's related to her scar." He paused and added in a low tone, "Tell me I mistranslated the part where she said she should have died."
Bickslow shook his head grimly, "That's the gist of it and no, you didn't mistranslate."
Laxus's jaw tightened and his free hand fisted, "Why? Because she knows … something?"
Bickslow glanced at Wren for confirmation and she shrugged helplessly, "Can't tell. No words." Bickslow growled in frustration, their made-up language of whistles and hand-signs was in-depth, but there were still things Wren couldn't convey simply because there was no way to guess what she was trying to say with her hands. For the hundredth time, Bickslow swore vengeance on whoever had stolen Wren's voice from her.
Laxus, thankfully, got them back on topic, "So, let me see if I have this straight. Wren here knows something that she shouldn't, or knew it before she should have, and people tried to kill her for it when she was three, but they didn't and now she's scared stiff of anyone asking her about … whatever it is. Even us?"
Both boys looked at Wren for confirmation and she stared blankly at the lake for several seconds in thought before she signed, "Yes. Sort of. I can't explain. Even if I could…" she took a shaky breath and look at them with pleading eyes, "I can't say. I … I can't tell about them. The pictures in my head. They aren't mine to tell. I want to tell you but I just-"
To Bickslow distant surprise, Laxus was the one to reach out and gently push Wren's hands down, "It's fine. You can't tell us about … whatever it is you know or how you know, right? That's fine."
Bickslow blinked, "It is?"
Laxus rubbed the back of his neck tiredly, "Sure. I trust Wren, she's one of us and she's your little sister. Whatever it is she knows, she won't use it to hurt Fairy Tail, and if she can't tell us now then we'll just have to wait until she can." He hesitated and then added, "She probably has some kind of Seer magic. Either Divination or one of the rarer variants." Wren gave a snort of disbelief and Laxus retorted lazily, "I don't see you coming up with a better explanation."
Bickslow wrinkled his nose as he and Laxus stood up to prevent leg cramps. As he absently pulled Wren to her feet as well, he asked, "But that would mean she had three magics. Can people even have three magics?"
Laxus rubbed his forehead tiredly as he tried to remember the required information, "People can learn as many different magics as they want, they just won't be able to master them all. But Eye Magic develops pretty much at random and Shadow Magic is classified as a 'learned magic'. Divination and other Seer magics are hereditary."
Wren shot Laxus an unreadable look and Bickslow blinked, "It's what now?"
Laxus propped his hands on his hips, "Passed down through family generations. Like having your father's eyes or mother's hair color. You're just … born with it." He looked down at Wren, "Sound about right?"
Wren gave a hesitant nod and Laxus's gaze darkened briefly. He exchanged a look with Bickslow, both of them thinking along similar lines. Perhaps Wren's blood family had been murdered for their hereditary magic. It would make a lot of sense, especially with Wren's terror at being discovered.
Laxus abruptly stretched his arms over his head "Well," he yawned widely, "Divination is hardly the strangest magic to join Fairy Tail and if you don't want anyone else to know, it's no ones business but yours. So how about we go to bed and talk about it more in the morning if we have to. Okay?"
Wren nodded and, after checking her yet again with Figure Eyes, Bickslow sighed faintly in relief as he saw that she had mostly calmed down. Brushing her shoulders with a hand again, Bickslow helped Laxus herd Wren back inside and up to their room. Laxus bid them a gruff goodnight before tromping back down the stairs and Bickslow hovered worriedly over his little sister's bedside as she crawled under the covers.
He hesitated for a moment then asked, "Wren?" Wren looked up at him inquiringly, the weariness and unnerving impression of a gaze much too old for her body still hovering in the back of her eyes as Bickslow swallowed and pushed on, "If you need anything, I'm right over there okay? I'm not going anywhere without you, no matter what, so just … remember that, alright?"
Wren finally, finally gave a faint smile and a nod. She mouthed an apology at him and Bickslow ruffled her hair on instinct, "It's fine, Imōto, that's what big brothers are for, ne?" Wren's smile grew a bit bigger and, satisfied that he had averted yet another emotional crisis, Bickslow bid her goodnight and turned off the light. He drifted off immediately after climbing into his own bed, too drained from dealing with so much emotion and drama in one day to put off sleep any longer.
If he had, he might have seen Wren sit up and stare at him for a very long time, the too-old gaze back in full force as she pondered things he would not have understood. He might have seen her toss and turn for an hour into the night before giving up and climbing silently up into the observation deck, where she spent the hours until midnight watching the stars and thinking about a life no longer lived.
But he did not, and so he was not troubled by any of it.
After all, if life was just a story, what would the characters know of the plot?
Japanese Translations: Imōto - Little Sister (seriously, shouldn't everyone reading this story know this one by now? Oh well.)
Bicksaho - Insulting nickname, essentially Bicks-moron.