Hello everyone! If you celebrated, I hope you had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving! If not, I still hope you are happy and well! I spent time with immediate family for the holiday and am just now able to work on this story. I know my last chapter was nice and long, but this one isn't so much orz I have the next chapter planned in my head, but I wanted to get something up as soon as possible. As always, enjoy!
Rosalie made her way to the back of the guild where the office was kept. As she came near, she saw the door was open, giving her a view of Master Makarov talking with his grandson, Laxus Dreyer.
Quietly, she knocked on the open door. "Ah, Master, Laxus, I hope I wasn't interrupting. Gray said you wanted to see me?"
"Ah, Rosalie! It's so good to see you. Please come in and make yourself at home!" Makarov exclaimed, clearly thrilled to have one of his children back.
"I'll head out then Jiji. Good to have ya back Rose," Laxus gave the girl a small smirk. The two had gotten along well when they were younger, despite him being five years older than most of the kids in the guild. She saw him as a big brother, he saw her as less bratty than the rest, so he never minded her company.
"Good to see you too Laxus. Now that I'm back we'll have to duel!" Rosalie gave him her best game face.
"You're on," Laxus accepted, shutting the door behind him.
"I'm glad to see you adjusting so quickly to life with us again Rosalie. The more time that passed, the more I feared we would never see your family again. How is your father, anyway?" Master was quick to get into his discussion.
Rosalie took a deep breath. "He's...the same. A lot happened while we were gone. He doesn't know I'm here." This felt like the safest way to start the conversation, by hinting that it was a touchy subject.
Makarov nodded sadly. "I always knew it would be difficult for Walter to get his head back on right after learning the malicious ways his magic can be used. I can't say I'm surprised you returned in secret, what with his hatred for this town. Now tell me child, how did you come to learn such strong magic?"
Another question she expected, and she felt comfortable enough with the tiny old man to reveal more of the story than she had to Gray. "Papa had a Water God Slayer lacrima and magic power enhancer placed into me by some doctor he found out where we live... he didn't want me having to use my keys anymore. He hated the reminder of Mama. The plan was to make that magic so strong the keys would be weak in comparison. Papa doesn't know much about magic power, since increasing the power of one magic would affect the other. And of course, love makes my Spirits even stronger, and there's nothing he could do to make me stop loving them," the words quickly left Rosalie's mouth, leaving her breathless. She had never told another person what all happened the fateful day two years ago, and now that she had started, it was almost impossible to stop. "The doctor was disgusting, giving me gross looks the entire time. He seemed happy I was in pain. He expected more out of me, thanks to his deal with Papa for the service, but Papa ended up using his Mind Magic to swindle him. As much as I hated him for putting me through that, I was grateful…" Tears formed in her eyes, remembering the pain and terror she felt.
Seeing her pained expression, Makarov stopped her. "My child, you do not need to tell me anymore. I can tell that was a terrible day in the past for you, almost as bad as losing your mother. It hurts me to think that Walter was willing to go that far to remove a piece of your heart from you, but I must say I am so happy to have you home a powerful mage. I know he would not approve of you being here, so if he does come looking for you, we will be sure to handle it," his mouth and brow were set in firm lines, but his eyes showed a kindness that Rosalie was relieved to see. All she had wanted was to be happily accepted back into her family, and it was all falling into place.
"Now enough talking about the past, let's go join that party! Fairy Tail needs to properly celebrate the arrival of our Rosalie!" Makarov suddenly shouted, leaping from his chair and running to the door.
Laughing, Rosalie joined him. She knew the party would still be in full swing, if not more chaotic than earlier. As they neared the main hall, the volume grew exponentially. From an outsider's perspective, the guild was in a full on civil war, with everyone fighting the closest person to them. But to Rosalie and Makarov, all they saw was their nakama having a blast, celebrating the return of their long lost friend. Sure, things were breaking, messes were made, and it would be a rough cleanup in the morning, but that was a problem for tomorrow. For now, it was time to just drink and enjoy each other's company.
Until Erza's fifth slice of cake became a victim of the carnage.
Everyone froze. It was common knowledge that you simply did not interfere with Erza's desserts, especially if it's strawberry cake, and especially if it was a celebration cake. Titania stood up, looking no one in the eye. Suddenly, a sword was thrown in a seemingly random direction, but a terrified Natsu dodged and immediately dropped to his knees, begging forgiveness. "Please, Erza-san, it was a complete accident!" he cried, hoping for a miracle.
Unconsciously stepping back into her old role as peacemaker, Rosalie stepped forward among the frozen crowd. "Now everyone, let's tone the party down, okay? I just got back and don't want to see any of you dead in the ground because of someone's," she shot Natsu a look, "poor decisions. Clean up some so there's less to do in the morning. Erza, let's get you some more cake. We can eat this one together." Seeing no room to argue, everyone quickly scrambled to their assigned task.
Oh how I've missed Rosalie-chan! Makarov thought to himself as proud tears streamed down his face.
With the situation rectified, the party slowly ramped back up, albeit safer than the last round. Rosalie sought out Mira at the bar. "Can I get another gallon of water?" she asked.
"Coming right up, Rosalie-chan!" Mira replied happily, relieved to see that total crisis was averted.
"Hey Rosalie," a voice made the girl jump as she turned mid gulp to see who had walked over. She was a bit surprised to see Natsu had recovered and was braving being this close to the feared Titania. "That's so much water! Do you have to drink a lot for your magic?" Natsu inquired, fiending to see just how strong her water would be against his magic.
Rosalie laughed, "If I'm not hydrated enough, I won't be as strong, plus it can apparently have a weird side effect on the lacrima. I haven't tested it so I'm not really sure, but I don't want to find out."
"So it's like when I eat fire and get recharged! Nice!" Natsu grinned, "Now when are we gonna fight? I wanna turn that water of yours into steam!"
Before she could respond, a haughty voice spoke up. Rosalie immediately recognized it as Juvia. Great, here we go. "Hmph! Juvia IS water so Juvia doesn't have to worry about such trivial things to be strong. Only someone truly strong is worthy of Gray-sama's attention!" the water woman huffed.
Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Gray isn't even over here right now Juvia. Besides, I wasn't born with this power so it makes sense that I would need to recharge in some way," she said. Making a point to turn away from Juvia, she responded to Natsu, "It's too dark out to fight tonight, and we are NOT exposing the inside of the guild hall to your flames or my floods. Tomorrow I plan on unpacking my apartment and going shopping, so we can tomorrow afternoon or the following day."
"That's too long, Rose! I'll go crazy by then! Let me help you with all that stuff tomorrow so we can get to fighting even faster!" Natsu looked pleased with his plan.
"That...wouldn't be a terrible idea actually," Rosalie pondered. "We could invite Gray, Erza, and Cana along to have the old gang back together and get it done even more quickly. And that way you all can see what I can do so we can go on a mission soon." The last part slipped out before she realized, causing her to blush. She didn't want everyone thinking she was overly eager to do missions with them, but that had been a driving force for her to get back to the guild as quickly as she could.
"Hell yeah! We can be Team Natsu and do all the crazy hard missions! Yo, Gray, Cana, Happy, c'mere and hear this plan!" Natsu shouted over to the two. Gray had been sitting a few tables down with Elfman, Cana was having yet another drinking contest with Macao and Wakaba, and Happy had been trying to flirt with Carla. He hadn't needed to call Erza, as she had been quietly listening next to them as she had eaten her cake.
As the group of five discussed their plans for the following day, Juvia seethed. It was bad enough being ignored by Gray on a daily basis, even worse now seeing him actively pay attention to another woman, but especially awful with it being another water mage. She thinks she has some special connection to Gray-sama since they were friends since they were kids, but Juvia knows Gray-sama! He needs someone strong, who will love him no matter what and give him thirty babies! How dare she talk down to Juvia! She's nothing but an artificial water mage, unlike Juvia who was born as one with the water. Juvia must show Gray-sama who he belongs with!
From her escalating emotions, Juvia accidentally summoned attention to herself due to the forming thunderstorm above her head. Having an idea of what was going through her head, Gajeel stepped up to where she was.
"There's no point in starting a fight here now, Juvia. Give it some time. They're all just happy the chick is back," his words were by no means comforting, but they were enough to calm the woman down before the entire guild was subject to her storms.
The group of five were oblivious to the drama happening behind them. They were too busy planning out their first full day back together. "Alright, if you guys wanna stop by at around 10 in the morning, we can go do some shopping, eat lunch, go back to my apartment and unpack and sort everything, and then go to the guild field and do some showing off. Sound like a plan?" Rosalie asked, looking at the others for confirmation.
"Sounds good to me Rose. You got food for breakfast tomorrow?" Gray asked. "I do, thanks Gray!" she smiled at him, earning a slight blush from Gray and an unseen glare from Juvia.
"This will be a good time for me to get some shopping done too," Erza nodded in agreement.
"As long as the place we go to for lunch has booze!" Cana shouted gleefully, downing yet another beer.
"Ehhh, 10 is so early Rose! Happy and I never wake up like that unless we're going on a mission!" "Aye!" Natsu and Happy complained, but both were immediately silenced by a glare from Erza.
"Perfect! I'm going to head home now to do some light unpacking and get ready for tomorrow. I'll see you guys in the morning. Goodnight everyone!" Rosalie called as she began to exit the guild.
For a brief moment, there was complete silence throughout the room. Then suddenly, "3..2..GOODNIGHT ROSALIE!" everyone shouted at the top of their lungs. All that had known Rosalie as a child were thrilled to have her back, and all the newcomers who had never met her were already happy to have her as a part of their family.
It's...been so long since someone told me goodnight, let alone a whole room of people… Tearing up, she called back, "I love you all!" And with that, she set out back to her quaint apartment on Strawberry Street.
Uh oh, drama! Fluffy shopping time! A "battle" scene?! Chapter 5 is going to be a good one! Please review with any feedback and follow for updates! xo Marj