I back already! You AUW readers are really getting a treat this December, because you're getting THREE, count 'em, THREE chapters this month. Retribution was the first one, then there's this one Fallout and the next one (and the sole reason I'm updating so quickly in a row) my Christmas special chapter (named so because the thing is insanely long. Like, genuinely the length of a novella). After that, this story will probably be quiet for a while, because I will be out of pre-written chapters. But oh well. I'm going to have my Christmas chapter be on time for Christmas darn it! (ahem) Moving on.

Review Response: Dear Dragon Lord Draco, greetings! (grins) Now THAT is the kind of response I was hoping for. He and Evergreen were both alerted by Freed's flash of light and then the racket of the alley chase. Mest told Evergreen to go get help literal seconds before he teleported in and punched out the bad guys who were about to grab Freed, Wren, and Bickslow. Evergreen hoofed it back to the guild for backup and Mest managed to hold Ivan off until the guild all stampeded to the alley for payback. Glad you think so, they are members of Fairy Tail after all, for all they aren't part of the anime Main Cast.

Dear , hello there! Team Natsu will start trickling (slowly) in after the Christmas chapter that comes after this newest chapter. I'm not sure about what the dynamic with the AU Raijinshū will be yet, other than Erza will come to consider Wren her senpai (as hinted at in chapter one of my one-shot collection Amongst Untrodden Ways: Detours). I'm glad you're eager to see Team Natsu show up, but willing to wait while I meander over at my own pace. I'll try not to take too long (no promises though).

Dear RedWolf Lover, hi there! Why would I stop doing something I'm so good at? But if it bugs you for some reason, then introspection/philosophy chapter alert, cause this newest one is going to be a doozy! Was it? Huh. Well, it isn't like I can tell when people are in the middle of rereading my story. Heh, I'll take that as a compliment! Might want to hold off rereading this story until you've read this chapter (or the Christmas one that comes after) though.

Dear Guest, hey there! Yes! You had to take ten on behalf of the bad guy, my work here is done! Well, not really, because I have to reach the anime series and stuff, but still, I'm thrilled to hear it had such an impact! I'm actually pretty pleased with how the Ivan confrontation went down, but I was worried that my readers would want more ... flashy violence in it than it did. Good to know that isn't the case here. Aw, don't worry, I have no plans for killing poor Mest, he's grown on me a lot. You're welcome, I hope you continue to enjoy this and my other stories!

Dear Sweets and Tarts, hi! It's okay, just don't do that again please. The review thing can't handle one that long. Enjoy the newest chapter!

Dear YumiKnowsBest, hello! Oh I have PLANS for Ivan. Long-reaching plans... (rubs hands together and cackles). Not sure who other than the Raijinshū will be caught up in them, but knowing Fairy Tail and Team Natsu, they'll probably end up involved somehow. Won't be for a while though.

Dear Kuna Longshanks, hi! (tips hat) I do my best! Also, thank's again for drawing Wren's picture! I can hardly wait to see how it turns out!

Dear Ori Heartlyng, greetings! He is very bad-aft. And the entirety of Fairy Tail isn't anything to sniff at either! It's fine, I'm just happy to see you're back and that you enjoyed the chapter! Yes, that is blatant foreshadowing, but it will take a while to come to fruition. In the meantime, enjoy the wrap-up to the Ivan Exile arc!

Dear Arthanos, hey there! He became one of my favorites after that arc too actually! Though he and Jellal tend to tie for me because of their stories/development. Ivan got lots of scars, he deserved every one of them. Well, you didn't have to wait long! This time around anyway... I hope you enjoy it!

Dear Guest, hello there! Why thank you. And no, Ivan is not a good guy. He is one of those self-righteous people who refuse to think that they are anything but right and anyone with a differing opinion/facts is wrong/is an obstacle to be removed. Ivan is very morally corrupt, he doesn't truly care about other people aside from how he can use them. He did believe he was doing what was best for Fairy Tail, but only Fairy Tail as HE sees it/can make use of it. He doesn't actually care about the guild (though he admittedly thinks he did), just the resources that it provided him. That's why he called Makarov by name rather than "father" until the very last, they had a very distant relationship starting from Ivan's teen years, though Makarov tried not to show it around the rest of Fairy Tail. For instance, Laxus in the Fantasia Arc is more of what you're thinking about good guy doing the wrong things for the right reasons. Laxus honestly cared about the guild and wanted to make it stronger, but A. didn't understand what true strength was (thanks to Ivan), B. had massive personal issues with his grandfather (again, thanks to Ivan), and C. really lost his temper toward the end of the Arc there. Ivan was just doing it because the Raijinshū's existence threatened his power plans. Wren wondered briefly if he had really cared, but honestly, he doesn't. Not in the way Wren thinks of a 'care'. Does that make sense?

Dear EmberFlame03, greetings! Happy to hear it! Enjoy the next one!

Dear Nof, heya! Well, thank you for your compliment! Even if Wren is technically not an SI ... though she does share my sense of sarcasm and a few other traits... Wren is never going to ask Makarov for her voice back because it is impossible. If Porlyusica (the woman who can regrow EYEBALLS) declared her vocal cords unsalvageable, then not even Makarov can fix her voice. Wren never going to speak with her vocal cords in the story. Ever. However, that does not mean she cannot 'talk'. As demonstrated in previous chapters (and especially in this newest one), Wren has developed an entire unique sign language all her own that the Raijinshū and most of Fairy Tail can understand. Save for a few words here and there that she has not invented a sign for, Wren can basically hold any conversation she likes with Laxus, Bickslow, etc. Plus, as pointed out by other reviewers in earlier chapters, there's always the possibility of her learning Telepathy later when Warren deigns to show up (I'm working on it). I hope that makes sense?

Author's Note: So, this is the wrap-up chapter for the Ivan Exile Arc, I hope you enjoy but major angst alert for most of the chapter. This is, after all, called fallout and Laxus just lost both his father and Fairy Tail has just been betrayed by someone they thought was one of them. I hope this chapter is understandable, because I'm not lingering to clear up any misunderstandings (you can ask in reviews though, I don't mind). I'm going to time-skip after this, first to Wren's first Christmas with Fairy Tail, then to Gray showing up in Magnolia. After that ... we'll see. Also, for anyone who also reads AMOSC, I have the next chapter, I just need to edit it and post it. It will probably be up sometime after Christmas. I've just been busy/on an inspiration high on this story right now, I haven't forgotten AMOSC. For any readers of Ballad of the Femme Fatale ... also working on it. I've got a bit of a writer's block with that story, but I haven't given up on it. It will just take longer. I think that covers everything, so onward!

Chapter Thirty-One: Fallout

(Six months, four weeks since joining guild)

.

Rihanna sat in the unofficial "Raijinshū's Corner" and watched the November birthday party unfold. Presents were being given, cake distributed, and mugs of either cider or something stronger passed around to the various members. To an outsider's perspective, it was a great party and everyone was having a blast, but to Rihanna, it was very … subdued. Tense.

Nothing had been set on fire, nobody had smashed cake into someone else's face, nobody had been discreetly stuffed down the throat of the giant piñata again, and ninety-eight percent of everyone present was still sober. By Fairy Tail standards, it might as well be … if not a funeral, then something similarly solemn and unhappy.

It had been five days since Ivan had been outed and banished from the guild, and everyone was still feeling the effects of the betrayal. Their guild could bounce back from a lot of things, roll with a lot of punches thanks to Fairy Tail Luck but … the betrayal of one of their own was different.

The trust between members, even members who didn't know each other well, was absolute. That trust, that faith in any who shared the mark of Fairy Tail was one of the things that held them together through the many disasters and shenanigans that dogged their footsteps. To have someone who bore the mark —who was the son of the Master— turn out to be not only a traitor but a murderer and a Magic Hunter was a bitter and nigh-on inconceivable pill to swallow.

It had shaken them, shaken their perception of the world, had threatened to shake their faith in each other. Even as members banded together to shore up that faith, the sheer scope of Ivan's treachery was more than even Fairy Tail morale could shake off in a mere five days. Rihanna suspected that this betrayal would take far longer to put behind them than the vast majority of the world-ending events that had happened in the anime. She couldn't blame them. Even if she had always known that Ivan was scum, they had trusted him for years, had been fooled by his smiles and lies and pretty words for Mavis knew how long.

The disquiet had hit the Raijinshū the hardest. All of them had been on edge since the incident. Porlyusica-san had been called in to see to their injuries and the fury in her eyes upon hearing how they had gotten them had been enough to tell Rihanna that if Porlyusica-san had been there, there wouldn't have been death threats. Ivan would have been dead in that alley, no questions asked.

Bickslow was on training restrictions for two more days until his ribs finished healing. Freed and Evergreen were twice as clingy as before. Cana had issued everyone her experimental tracking cards out of paranoia, and the deep cut on Mest's neck —the one that had almost slit his jugular— was going to permanently scar because of some kind of magic-staining effect. Rihanna herself was on training restrictions for another four days —the thugs had managed to re-injure her leg in the same place she'd been injured during the Pirate Incident— and Laxus…

Laxus worried her.

Ever since his moment of dragon-esque insanity in the alley, he had been quiet. Not his usual calm quiet, but a dark, brooding, sharp-edged quiet that made living in the lighthouse suffocating. He hovered constantly and grew agitated the moment any of them were out of his sight. Rihanna had woken up seven times over the past five days because she had sensed him prowling the lighthouse at night, patrolling over and over for non-existent threats.

He hadn't cried, he hadn't raged, he had completely canceled their training for the time being, and his appetite had become noticeably smaller. Master Makarov had taken him aside a day after the incident, but according to Laxus's grudging report —she'd had to level the Look at him for five solid minutes before he'd told her anything— it had only been to pry a promise out of Laxus to not use his Dragon Slayer Lacrima again. Something about it effecting his mental state too much to be safe.

Rihanna was sure that Laxus had no intentions of keeping the promise —not with how overprotective he'd become— and Master Makarov's apparent lack of addressing Laxus's feelings over Ivan's betrayal made her feel very peeved at the Master. She knew he was very busy dealing with the fallout of a Fairy Tail member turning out to be working with Magic Hunters, and was grieving the betrayal of his only son on top of that, but it was still no excuse for ignoring Laxus.

"Laxus-sama?" Rihanna refocused on the outside world at the sound of Freed's tentative voice. The other Raijinshū were already staring at Laxus in alarm and concern and a moment later Rihanna saw why. Laxus had halfway unwrapped one of the presents he had gotten for his birthday but was now frozen, his breathing tight and his fingers clenched so tight on the box that it was beginning to crumble. Bickslow reached out a hand to touch Laxus's shoulder, "Hey, are you okay-?"

Laxus stood up without warning, the present falling from his fingers as he gave a strangled sound in the back of his throat. He brushed past Bickslow and Mest, ignoring the concerned questions that followed him as he suddenly stormed across the guild hall to the bar where Master Makarov was quietly overseeing the proceedings. Rihanna had no chance to stop him or give a warning as he lunged forward onto the nearest barstool and slammed his fist into Master Makarov's face.

There was a shocked silence across the entire guild hall as Master Makarov fell back, his mug spilling across the floor as he was nearly knocked off the bar by the blow. Laxus didn't say anything, didn't wait for the shock to wear off and the angry questions to start, he just bolted out the double-doors at a dead run.

Cana squawked in horror and Bickslow's tikis shrieked agitatedly. Mest took a half-step forward to chase after Laxus when Rihanna grabbed his arm to stop him. Her eyes sought out Master Makarov's as he sat up, rubbing his punched chin and looking tired and grave. Their gazes met and despite herself, she glared at him. He had deserved that punch. He might have been the third Master of Fairy Tail and a grieving father, but he was also a grandfather and he should have checked on his grandson's emotional state before now.

Something shifted in his gaze —shame?— and Master Makarov gave her a slow nod and began to stand. Rihanna peeled back her lips and hissed across the guild hall at him, causing Master Makarov to stop short in surprise and everyone else to look at her like she had gone mad. Rihanna released Mest's arm and signed a curt, "Go to the lighthouse and wait there, no matter what," to the Raijinshū before she made for the doors herself.

As she passed by the bar, she pointedly did not look at Master Makarov. Partially because she did not want to see his reaction to her essentially ordering him around with her hiss —there would be a lecture for that later she was sure, Master Makarov wasn't that lenient—. But mostly because she had to focus on Laxus now. She knew Laxus, which was why she had stopped Master Makarov. Laxus wouldn't want to see his grandfather right now. He was angry, hurt, and he was blaming the closest thing to his father that he could right now, which was Master Makarov. He wouldn't want to talk to his grandfather, he probably didn't want to talk to anyone.

But he might want someone to listen, and if being mute had taught Rihanna anything, it was how to be very good at just that.

It took several minutes of hunting to find Laxus. She had gotten better at extending the range of her shadow sight, but there were a lot of places Laxus could have gone. In the end, she tracked him beyond the outskirts of town, past the trail that led to the lighthouse, past their usual training grounds, and deep into the woods. She moved slowly, cautious of any trouble she might run into instead of Laxus. She still remembered those blasted Vulcans from her brief sojourn through time and she had no desire to encounter them again.

Thankfully, she encountered no pervert monkeys on her journey and eventually came upon Laxus in a random section of woods. The sound of flesh hitting wood alerted her first, followed by the familiar prickle of static in the air. Rihanna stopped a few yards away, watching as Laxus mindlessly slammed his bare fists into the trunk of a tree again and again. Tiny jolts of lightning danced off of his shoulders, but he did not use any of his magic, just continued to punch the rough bark over and over and over.

Rihanna gave a silent sigh and raised a cushion of shadows between Laxus's fists and the tree with a flick of her fingers. Laxus's next blow stopped short of the shadow. He didn't look at her, "Go away, Wren." Rihanna didn't move, she just waited and held the shadows in place. Laxus's shoulders tightened to the point they shook, "I said go away."

Rihanna stayed where she was, waiting. Laxus's breathing took a harsh note and he slammed a fist against the shadow cushion as he growled, "Go back to the party, Wren." There was something bitter and savage in his voice, an edge that she didn't like. It gave her a sense of deja vu to the Laxus before the Fantasia Arc had ended. Bitter, demanding, cold. Not like the Laxus she had come to know.

"You're not happy." It was hard to convey even the simple sentence with just whistles, but he seemed set on not looking at her.

Laxus made a low noise in his throat and buried another shaky fist in the shadow, "I'm fine."

"Liar."

"I'm fine. It's just another November, just another birthday party." He punched the shadow, "It's not like my team were almost stolen and murdered." Another punch, harder this time, "It's not like all of Fairy Tail wasn't just betrayed a few days ago." Another, hard enough that Rihanna could feel the vibrations through her connection to the shadow, "It's not like one of our own members was collaborating with Mavis-cursed Magic Hunters." Two blows in quick succession, the lightning was getting stronger, curling down his arms and snapping at the air with barely any restraint, "It's not like it wasn't my own father who did it all!" Another punch, thunder roared and Rihanna flinched at the sensation of lightning burrowing into the shadow. Rihanna held her tongue, she waited. No reaction, no judgement, no pity, no lectures, no platitudes. Just a silent, open ear. The air stilled, tension mounted, Rihanna waited.

The dam broke.

Laxus raged. He yelled and he screamed, he punched and kicked and uprooted trees with the force of his lightning. Storm clouds covered the cold November sun and thunder roared with hurt and pain and betrayal. The ground churned and rocks shattered as Laxus howled. As he cried.

It wasn't just the pain of his father's betrayal and exile, it was the pain of years of abuse and doubts and hurt. It was the fallout of a stubborn, desperate faith that had been shattered and ground uncaringly into the dust by the heel of someone who should have treasured it most. It was the mourning of the love of a child which should have been returned unconditionally by the parent. It was the death of an innocence —a belief in family, in blood-ties, in trust— that never should have been tainted, let alone destroyed in one fell swoop.

It was all of Laxus's humiliations, all of his hurts that had been bottled up and sealed away by the tenuous cork of "surely he loves me, surely he cares, surely he doesn't actually…". It was the fallout of a collusion between the world-as-it-was and the world-as-it-should-have-been.

Rihanna would never tell anyone of what Laxus said that day in the woods. Of the secrets and the lies and the wounds —emotional and physical, the former so much longer-lasting— that had previously been hidden away. She would never tell anyone about the sins no child should see their father commit. The lies no parent should pour like poison down their child's ears and mouth until they threatened to choke on it. Until the child became unable to distinguish the lies from the truth and came to think of himself as weak and as useless and as lesser somehow than he should be. Less than he really was.

Rihanna would never tell of the bloodied knuckles and feet from all of his punches and kicks, of the accusations and vitriolic hatred that spilled out at anyone, everyone, anything, everything. She just stood there on the outskirts of the emotional and physical devastation, restraining her flinches and absorbing the pain that came from bringing up shadow target after shadow target and feeling them be demolished within seconds.

And if the rain that fell when Laxus's rolling magic forced the skies to open mingled with the tears that streamed down both of their faces as one of them broke and the other realized that for all of the power she had gained since coming to that world, she still could not fix what had been broken … well. She would never speak of that either.

She wasn't sure how long it was before Laxus finally exhausted himself, finally finished pouring out the poison that had been locked away in his soul. Noon had turned to late evening, but it seemed later because of the thick shadows cast by the storm clouds.

Laxus folded in on himself, his arms tight around his waist as he sank to his knees on the wet ground and went dreadfully still and silent. The magic that had choked the air with hurt faded and the rain that had been falling like sheets slowed to a faint sprinkle. Everything was still. Everything except for the shaking shoulders of the boy across from her as he clutched his waist like he was trying to stop himself from falling apart into tiny pieces. Maybe he was. Maybe it was already too late.

Rihanna scrubbed a tired wet hand over her face, trying to remove her own tears as she struggled with what to do. She couldn't fix this. She couldn't fix him. It wasn't her place, it wasn't anyone's place really. But she couldn't leave him like this. Couldn't leave Laxus in the silence and the rain and the tears and the smothering heartbreak. He was nakama. More than that even, he was her second eldest brother, and she could not, would not abandon him. She might not be able to fix anything that had happened to him, but she would not let him suffer alone.

Rihanna finally crossed the distance between them. She ignored the phantom aches in her limbs from how many of her shadows Laxus had destroyed and the fatigue that tugged at her from using so much magic. She was focused on Laxus and Laxus alone. With slow, deliberate motions, Rihanna wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his shaking head to the crook of her shoulder. She carded her fingers through his soaking hair as he shuddered, and refused to let go as he stirred and rasped, "Don't. Don't touch me."

Rihanna shook her head, her chin brushing against his hair as she did so. Laxus took a shuddering breath, then another, then whispered out the question that was at the heart of all of his previous rage, "Why?" Why did he betray me? Why did he hurt me?

Why didn't he love me?

Rihanna squeezed her eyes shut and tasted salt in the raindrops that slid down her cheeks and to her lips. She pressed her face to his hair, and answered with a sad, feather-light kiss that said, "I don't know. I'm sorry."

Laxus shuddered again, his fury spent, but the heartbreak still there, "…My fault…" Rihanna stiffened and broke away from the hug as if she'd been burned.

Dropping to her knees on the muddy, lightning-gouged ground, Rihanna grabbed Laxus's chin and forced him to look at her as she signed fiercely, "No. It is not."

Laxus tried to avert his gaze, but Rihanna shifted to stay in his line of sight, "But if I- if I-"

Rihanna pressed a hand over his mouth, cutting him off as she hissed. Red-rimmed eyes stared at her in surprise and Rihanna struggled to pass on in minutes what had taken her years to learn and to accept. She lowered her hand from Laxus's mouth, "It is not your fault. It never has been and never will be. It was all him. Only him. He made his choices, not you. He is the one in the wrong, not you. His mistakes are his own, his sins are his own and nothing you could have done or have done or ever will do will change that." Rihanna blinked back a fresh wave of tears as she remembered old realizations, remembered scorn and whispers behind her mother's back and the struggle to accept that everything that had happened was not Rihanna's fault.

Rihanna had not asked to be born. But she had been and her mother had loved her, even when she was a living, breathing reminder of what had happened and what kinds of men lurked in the dark corners of the world. It had taken years after learning how she'd come to be to accept that her mother did not hold it against Rihanna, that her mother did not regret the daughter she had never planned on having. That what her sire had done was and never would be her burden to bear.

The child should not have to carry the sins of the parent, especially not in this. She wouldn't —couldn't— let Laxus think otherwise.

Rihanna gathered her scrambling thoughts, trying to put them into signs that Laxus would understand, "Some people … some people are just like that. They see the ugliness in everyone and they … embrace it. Revel in it. Sometimes it's because they've been hurt too badly, sometimes because they don't understand what it is to hurt at all. And sometimes … sometimes they know. They know happiness, they know love and sadness and laughter and … and they let the ugliness out anyway. They … it just comes out and twists them up and changes them until there's nothing left inside but darkness."

She caught Laxus's gaze, "Maybe they can't help it. Maybe they choose. I don't know. But I know it isn't your fault. Whatever he told you is wrong. He is the one who should have loved you. He is the one who is weak. He is weak. Too weak to love, too weak to change, too weak to open his eyes and see that he had a brave, amazing, wonderful son. I know it hurts, but please, please don't blame yourself. People like him never take responsibility. It's always someone else's fault, someone else's weakness, someone else's problems. But that's a lie. It was and always will be him. Not Fairy Tail. Not Master Makarov. Not you."

Laxus rubbed a hand over his eyes and gave a choked scoff, "How can you be so sure? You're just a kid, Wren."

Rihanna refused to let that hurt. Laxus didn't mean it, not in the way it sounded. She grabbed one of Laxus's hands and raised it to her neck, placing his fingers over her scar. Laxus went still at her action, grey eyes clouded and tense. She slowly let go of his hand and signed, "Is this my fault then?"

Laxus yanked his hand away from her scar, "What- No! You're the one who got hurt!"

"Then it isn't your fault either. Ivan is the one who hurt you, not the other way around."

He gave a hoarse growl, "That's not-" Rihanna just stared at him, daring him to finish that thought. Laxus's face crumbled again, "I don't understand…" Silence wove between them as Laxus scrubbed at his eyes and Rihanna struggled helplessly with how to convince him of the truth in her words.

Laxus took several deep breaths before he whispered, "If you're right … am I going to be like that too someday? Am I just going to … to choose to hurt everyone even though they- Even when they-" even when they love me so much it breaks them when I leave them behind?

Rihanna's mind flashed to the Fantasia Arc. To scornful laughter and stone statues and broken trust.

But then she thought of an impossible stand against an enemy he did not have to fight but chose to face anyway. She thought of dragons going to war against children. She thought of poisonous clouds that threatened to smother an innocent town.

She thought of scars that had not existed in the anime.

Rihanna swallowed hard as her hands twitched, tried to make signs despite the sudden fear that grasped her. She didn't want to say it. She didn't want to talk about it. But Laxus needed to hear it. Laxus needed her to say it. How could she leave a brother in need?

"When I- when I first saw you, I didn't like you." Laxus flinched and confused hurt flashed over his face. Rihanna winced internally at her horrible choice of opening words but pressed on, "I thought I saw someone who was arrogant and cold and stubborn and mean." The hurt on Laxus's face grew and he started to pull away from her but Rihanna caught his wrist and pulled him back down before he could get up and walk away, "But then I saw him cry. I saw him admit his mistakes and apologize. I saw him move on, I saw him change." There was confusion more than hurt now, bafflement over her words because he knew how they had met and nothing like what she was describing had happened.

Rihanna swallowed her fear and kept going, "I didn't see him for a while after that, but when I did, I saw him fight to protect people who were precious to him, I saw him trust that they would help him stand when he was knocked down. I saw him try to lead them to safety and then stand and fight at their side when they wouldn't run away from danger. I saw him fight against the monsters that wanted to destroy Fairy Tail again and again and win because he was all that stood between the monsters and his family."

The confusion was fading into a very slowly dawning comprehension and Rihanna kept signing despite the terror that threatened to ice her veins, "I watched and I realized that what I thought that arrogance was actually well-deserved confidence in his strength. I realized that his cold attitude was because someone had to stay calm when everyone else was afraid. I realized that his stubbornness was really determination to protect and strengthen his family. I realized that he was mean because he was hurt and that once he started to heal, he stopped being mean and became someone steady. Someone loyal. Someone so very, very brave and dedicated and I- I wished I could meet him. I wished I could be like him, even a little bit."

Rihanna leaned forward and briefly pressed her forehead to his, "Then one day I was being strangled and he came out of nowhere to save me." Laxus's eyes went wide and he gave a startled gasp as he realized what she had been saying, what she had been entrusting him with.

Rihanna smiled weakly, "I met him, and I realized something else about him. That he was just a kid. A kid who wasn't the strong monster-slayer I had seen yet, but he would be. And until then, he needed to be protected when things got too rough, or when people lied to him and tried to make him think he was less than what he was. That he needed a friend. That … that he got lost sometimes, in the big wide world out there. That he got hurt sometimes. That he made mistakes and said things he didn't mean sometimes just like everyone else. That he needed to cry sometimes because there are days when it just … all becomes too much. I realized…"

Rihanna eyed the ground for a long moment, struggling to convey everything she had seen in Laxus, everything she had learned. Then she looked back up, "I realized that he was a person. Just like me."

There was something in Laxus's gaze, something fragile and bright and Rihanna looked away because she couldn't stand to meet it, "Everyone has the potential to be a monster." Memories rose, flashes of hate and rage and the desire to kill because he-had-hurt-her-boys-, "There's a monster inside everyone somewhere. But that doesn't mean you're going to become a monster. Just because your father let his monster out doesn't mean you will. You're stronger than that. You can defeat it. And if you fall, or you ever forget how to beat it…" a plea from behind, begging for her not to go somewhere her brother couldn't follow, "then I'll be there. The Raijinshū will be there, Fairy Tail will be there. To help you get back up, to help you beat the monster back."

Rihanna remembered the misunderstanding of the Fantasia Arc, how Laxus had just been trying to make Fairy Tail strong. He hadn't meant to be the bad guy, to be the monster, he had just been trying to help. He had been misguided and poisoned by Ivan for so many years, it was really a wonder he hadn't turned out worse. She tilted her head to the dark sky, then dared to look back at Laxus, "And if the monster ever tricks you into letting it out, and you can't see that it's controlling you, I tell you, okay?"

Laxus was staring at her with something akin to wonder, "How?"

"A … a signal. Just between us. It'll be…" Rihanna scrambled for something, a hand-sign she could make that she wouldn't use normally, something distinctive and memorable. Slowly, she raised her left hand to her scar, the fingertips of her index and middle fingers pushing lightly against it while the others curled tight to her palm. Her right hand came up to her face, fingers curled like claws as she pressed the curled tips against her face and watched Laxus's expression from between her fingers. Laxus studied the sign for a long moment, then carefully mimicked it.

Rihanna lowered her hands and waited for Laxus to speak. Slowly, Laxus rested his hands in his lap, "Okay. Okay. I … I can remember that. It'll mean that the monster has gotten out and I need to stop what I'm doing right now. Right?"

Rihanna nodded, "Right. And it will mean the same thing for me. If I ever start to go too far, you'll use that to tell me. Okay?"

The taut line in his shoulders began to relax, "Promise?"

"Promise."

Laxus didn't smile, but the clouds in his eyes faded a bit and his gaze warmed, "Okay. It's a promise then." Rihanna managed a very tiny smile on Laxus's behalf, then pulled him into a hug again. This time, Laxus returned it instead of shying away.

Laxus broke away from the hug when a small gust of wind blew and made them both shiver violently. Laxus eyed the clouded sky as if it would tell him the time, then clicked his tongue, "We should go home. It's late and you're soaked. I don't want you getting sick."

Rihanna scoffed a bit —he was just as soaked as she was— but allowed Laxus to bundle her up in his jacket —not that it would help, it was drenched— and shepherd her back to the lighthouse. Silence hovered between them, comfortable and understanding, until they were walking up the path to the lighthouse door. Laxus abruptly stopped in the middle of the path and pulled Rihanna close, bending down to whisper in her ear, "Thank you, Wren. For telling me. I won't … I won't let you down." Rihanna swallowed hard at the reminder that she had shared what she had seen in the anime —even if only vaguely— with someone else for the first time. For a moment the terror came back, terror that he would insist on knowing more later, terror that this would somehow ruin everything farther down the line.

Then the terror faded because she knew Laxus, she trusted him. He had promised not to pry when he'd first learned of her supposed "future sight" and he wouldn't break that promise now. He also wouldn't suddenly change into someone else just because she had told him that she believed in him, had seen him do great things. He was her brother, just like Bickslow, and Mest, and even Freed. Perhaps more importantly … Laxus was Laxus.

She smiled into his wet shirt and hugged him tighter, hoping to convey her thoughts without her usual signs, "I know you won't. I trust you." Laxus didn't say anything, but from the look in his eyes as he released her, she knew he had understood.

They continued the rest of the way up to the lighthouse and were promptly mobbed by the Raijinshū the moment they were through the door. They were fussed over —Freed and Mest—, yelled at —Bickslow, Cana, and Evergreen—, and lectured —Bickslow and Mest in tandem— even as Freed mummified Laxus's bloodied knuckles with bandages in his enthusiastic attempts to help and Cana bundled Rihanna into warm clothes and blankets.

They both caught colds anyway —though Laxus's only lasted for a day because of his Lacrima—. Rihanna managed to convince Laxus to have an actual talk with his grandfather two days later and Laxus came back from it more … settled somehow. More like himself.

Things weren't completely fixed, Rihanna doubted they would be for a long time, if ever. But there was a calm now. A sense of stability and normality in the lighthouse that had been absent since Ivan's betrayal. Laxus started training and eating and sleeping again —though he still patrolled the lighthouse at least once a night—, and the Raijinshū showered their leader with care and support at every turn.

And if sometimes, when no one else was looking, Laxus would raise his hand to his face with his fingers curled like claws in a silent question and look relieved when Rihanna shook her head, well. That was their business.

Just like it was their business if Laxus somehow started to know when to come sit with her and watch the lake on nights when her worries had her pouring over her future-knowledge-diary and scribbling what extra details she could remember. His steady, living presence gradually chasing her ghosts away until she would fall asleep on his shoulder and mysteriously wake up tucked under the blankets in her own bed the next morning.

.

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There. Done with the angst for the moment. Next up, Fairy Tail Christmas! Hold onto your hats ladies and gents because it will be crazy!