Disclaimer: I don't own The Promised Neverland
We Made It
"Emma!" Don, Gilda and the others all cried upon seeing the oldest girl tumbling down, right as she had been about to go look for Ray to see if he was alright while distracting the beast that had chased them and if he ran into pursuers.
"She's bleeding! The wound on her ear opened up again!" Anna called over as she and Gilda leaned over her.
"And she has a burning fever!" Gilda added.
Everyone started worrying how long she had been like that, what they were going to now that she was fainted and not knowing what happened to Ray when a rustling sound made them all jump.
Turning towards it they gasped upon seeing a girl on a hood.
"A human?" "A girl?" some of them had cried, remembering how they'd heard of other humans being out there.
"Follow me." the girl said and some of the younger ones already started moving before Gilda yelled at them to wait.
She wasn't too sure about trusting the girl.
After all, it seemed a bit too perfect for her to suddenly appear while pursuers might be near.
"Why are you? What are you? Why are you here?" she asked fiercely.
"Show us your face." she then ordered the girl who stared in surprise as everyone else followed the bespectacled girl's lead and tensed up, ready to act if they needed to.
Then she smiled again before turning to look over her shoulder.
"Goodness, it seems that they don't trust me." she spoke with amusement but instead of it sounded condescending she sounded like the genuinely found it funny.
More rustling was heard as if someone was joining them.
"I guess I should have figured as much but I can't say I'm disappointed that they're being so cautious." a familiar voice answered and everyone's eyes widened.
It was a voice they hadn't heard in months and which they'd thought they'd never hear again.
When the owner came from behind a tree most of them broke down as tears streamed down their faces.
"Y-You're-"
"Why did demons save us humans, you food?" Ray tensely asked as he and Emma stood in front of the girl.
They had both woken up and found each other a while ago after Emma fainted from her fever and Ray from exhaustion from all the running while being chased by demons.
They were without their siblings however.
Together they concluded that their rescuers might be enemies or allies or even William Minerva.
Then the girl had appeared, catching the off guard by how friendly she was.
She also revealed that she wasn't associated with Minerva.
Together they walked through a tunnel with the girl in the lead when Ray noticed something.
"Thank you for saving us. We would have been doomed if you hadn't so I thank you from the bottom of my heart. There's one thing I want to ask. Why did you save us?" he asked, catching both Emma and the girl off guard as he grinned tensely.
"Why did demons save us?" he asked.
"You're both demons, right? You and that guy. What are you up to?" Ray kept on asking as Emma heard noise behind them and found the tall man approaching, a large weapon in his hand.
"Tell us why, demons!" Ray ordered them as he grabbed onto Emma, ready to run and drag her along if needed.
"You have the same feet as demons." he pointed out, making Emma's eyes go wider as she noticed a pair of non-human feet poking out from under the girl's dress.
She looked to much like a human that Emma hadn't noticed sooner.
Then she gasped in horror as another thought struck her.
Their siblings weren't with them. The strangers were demons. Demons ate humans. The girl had said she finished preparing food.
Could it be...?
Horror overcame Emma at the thought so she barely noticed the tall male demon appearing behind them with a huge spear-like weapon.
"Why did you save us humans, your food?" Ray asked again but didn't get an answer as the demons talked to each other like Emma and Ray weren't there.
They talked about them and it sounded like their siblings as well before Emma had enough.
"Are they okay?!" she shouted, making them stop and look at her in surprise.
Not getting an answer she glared at the tall demon with pure hatred and ran off in the direction he came from, ignoring Ray calling out to her.
'Everyone! I'm sorry I fainted! Please be okay!' Emma thought worriedly as she ran until she reached the end of the tunnel and...
Found all her siblings alive and well.
"Emma!" they cried as they rushed to hug her.
"Are you all save?" she asked, worried and also confused.
"Yeah!" they all nodded cheerfully.
"I'm sorry to have scared you." the female demon's voice suddenly called from behind Emma.
"We don't intend to harm you." she said, taking off her hood, revealing her face with a mask with two holes for her eyes and long purple hair.
"I'm Mujika and this is Sonju." she introduced herself and her friend who had also removed his hood.
"We don't eat humans." she said, looking over her shoulder at a surprised Ray, finally answering the question he had been asking multiple times.
"That's why we won't eat you or any of the others so please don't worry." she said as Emma stared in awe.
"And you also wanted to know why we saved you, right? That was because..." Mujika trailed off and grinned widely with Sonju smirking along.
"Because I told them about you." another voice said and Emma gasped at hearing it.
Turning towards where the voice came from she froze as she stared with wide eyes.
"W-What the-?!" she faintly heard Ray stutter but she payed him no mind as she could only focus on the person standing only a few feet away from her.
"N-Norman..."
There he was.
Her and Ray's best friend who they had thought had died.
He was wearing different clothes then they last saw him in.
Nor he wore a what looked like a different white uniform of sorts with hints of blue.
Without thinking she rushed at him and threw her arms around him, feeling him hug her back as she burst into tears.
"Norman! You're alive!" she cried as she clung to him.
"And so are you. I'm glad your alright, Emma." Norman whispered as he buried his face in her hair.
They stayed like that for what felt like forever before slowly pulling away, eyes wet and puffy.
"Ray! Look!" Emma called over her shoulder to the dark-haired boy who slowly approached.
"Ray..." Norman smiled at seeing his other friend again.
slap!
Everyone gaped and some cried out upon seeing Ray slapping Norman with enough force to send the albino tumbling to the ground.
Norman wasn't really phased however and just laughed. "You didn't even say hi before my punishment!"
"But you saw something cool, right?" he smirked knowingly.
"Yeah, thanks to you..." Ray murmured before throwing his arms around both Norman and Emma.
"I'm so glad you're alive!"
"Don't ever try to die again, stupid Norman." he sobbed in their shoulders.
"Yeah, I got it, stupid Ray." Norman nodded, hugging back.
After a while they all got up.
"How are you even alive?! How are you here?!" Emma asked,leaning in Norman's face.
Norman sighed, a small smile on his face.
"I was supposed to go to a different kind kind of farm." he explained, only confusing the other two more.
"A different farm?"
He nodded. "One where they experiment on children." he explained.
"Experiment?" Emma cried in shock.
"Yeah, they first kept me at one site where they made me do some tests to see if I was really smart enough to be worth their time before transporting me to the real thing. Luckily for me they decided to move me at about the same day as you guys were supposed to escape so I didn't have to worry if it would be more difficult for you all to escape. At the night we were driving through the forest in a truck and when were were driving and the adults with me weren't paying attention I just took my chance and jumped out. They of course noticed right away and went to chase me but Sonju and Mujika happened to nearby and saved me too." Norman nodded towards the two demons who smiled.
"And now we could even help out with reuniting all of you!" Mujika cheered as she rushed and grabbed hands with both Emma and Norman.
"Right... Thank you so much..." Emma smiled, looking down timidly as she remember how she acted earlier.
"Don;t worry about it, kiddo. We get it." Sonju shrugged as he too walked closer.
"You got some feisty friends who're a real handful, Norman." the demon told the boy who chuckled.
"Oh, you don't even know half of it." he joked, laughing slightly as Ray's glare and Emma's exaggerated offended gasp.
"If you wanna see a handful you should look in a mirror, pal!" Ray snapped and shoved the other in the chest, though all annoyance quickly turned into worry when Norman let out a pained gasp.
"Norman!" he, Emma and all the other quickly gathered around him.
"Everyone, please let me through!" Mujika called out as she lightly pushed some kids out of her way.
She placed a gentle hand on Norman's hand and soon he seemed to be doing better.
"Right at that spot." she mused softly, Norman nodding in conformation.
"I'll prepare some herbs." she said.
"Wait, what spot? Herbs? What's going on?" Emma asked as she nervously looked between the two.
Norman sighed at that and gave a pained smile.
"Before I was to be transported to the new farm they decided to permanently put their mark on me. It's still fresh and still hurts a little." he said and with help from Mujika pulled his sweater-vest over his head and unbutton the shirt underneath, revealing pure white bandages, earning gasps.
"What the hell did they do to you?" Ray asked.
"Something I myself find quite disturbing." Mujika answered for Norman as she carefully pulled some of the bandages off, revealing a black mark burned into Norman's chest, the skin around it an angry red color.
"O-Oh my god!" Emma gasped at what she saw.
She knew that burning a finger on a candle already hurt but to get burned so bad that the skin turned completely black?
She felt sick knowing it happened to Norman.
"Emma." she jumped at hearing her name being called and looking up met Norman's gentle blue eyes.
"Don't worry about me. Mujika's been taking great care of me and it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as before and soon it's be healed." he told her and she frowned.
"You better not be trying to hide your pain, you hear?" she threatened only to yelp when Gilda suddenly grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.
"Don't go acting like you're one to talk, Emma! We were all worried sick about you, you know!" the bespectacled girl scolded and that kick-started the rest of their siblings in joining in on scolding both Emma as well as Ray for their recklessness.
Norman burst out laughing at the display.
"Oh, how I've missed this!" he laughed, prompting Mujika to let out a small giggle at the commotion.
"I'll just to finish up dinner." Sonju huffed and walked past them.
"Hey." Emma gasped from where she had been sitting, mindlessly staring ahead of her only to have Norman call out to her.
"H-Hey!" she greeted back.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked and she shook her head.
"Of course not! You should know I'd never mind your company!" she said.
Norman stared at her for a moment before moving to sit down next to her, their shoulders brushing lightly.
"How are you feeling?" he asked after a moment of silence and she sighed.
"It all feels do unreal. All the older kids escaped, we met Sonju and Mujika who are demons who don't want to eat us... You're alive..." she added the last part softly and he nodded.
"I'm alive." he conformed, slowly placing his hand on top of her's.
In response to this action Emma carefully scooted closer so their sides were pressed together.
"I cried a lot you know." she said.
"I'm sorry."
"Still, I kept going for you. You told me not to give up so I kept going." she then added, staring ahead again til she suddenly felt a hand on her cheek.
She looked over at Norman in surprise to find him smiling the same smile he had given her before being shipped.
Back then he had attempted to touch her cheek too only to get interrupted by Isabella.
However, unlike then when she was filled with panic, desperateness, anger, sadness and despair, now she found herself really liking the sensation, feeling warm and tingly inside as her heartbeat sped up.
She also felt her face warm up a little.
"Emma." "Y-Yeah?" she looked up nervously.
"I'm so proud of you." he said softly. "You made it."
She smiled back, slowly placing a hand over his on her face.
"You made it too. We made it." she said.
"That we did."
Emma leaned her head on Norman's shoulder and felt him wrap an arm around her shoulders, pulling her even closer.
They would be just fine.
The End
Thanks for reading! This had been the sixteenth fic for NoremmaMonth2020, "Day 16: Norman Escape AU! I hope you liked it! Please review, fav and read my other work too!