It's been a long time since I've worked on this fic, but doing so felt like greeting an old friend.
I hope you enjoy this new installment after so long.
Many years ago...
In the dark, the family of three cowered. Their backs pressed to the cracked wall of the stone cabin in which they'd been living, next to a long dead potted plant. Outside the shadowy house which they called home, people shouted. The orange glow of flames from burning torches flickered against the grimy window panes, sending black forms, menacing, dancing along the wooden floorboards.
"Monster!" came the screams from outside. "Monster! Demon! Chase it out of the village before it comes after us!"
A quiet sob escaped the smallest of the huddled forms, swiftly muffled by a pale hand. "Shh... Lisanna," came a soft croon, heavy with restrained tears itself. "Shh..."
"I saw them go in there!"
"Smoke them out!"
Lisanna whimpered at the rallying cries that erupted after that particular shout. "M-mira," she stuttered. "I'm… I'm scared…"
"It'll be fine," Mirajane consoled her sibling, though she felt none of the comfort she tried to impart to her terrified sister. "Stay there for a moment." Holding herself low to the floor, she shuffled towards a rug in the center of the old house. Moving it aside, she unveiled a dusty trapdoor, and she beckoned to the other two. "Elfman, Lisanna, over here," she instructed her siblings softly, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible so her younger siblings wouldn't panic too much to listen. She pulled on the trapdoor with her good arm, holding her deformed one close to her chest.
Her siblings mercifully obeyed, crawling across the dirty floorboards after their sister. Elfman descended first into the root cellar, then he helped Lisanna down the ladder. Mirajane held the trapdoor open for them, and finally followed them down just as the first baleful flames began to lick at the cabin's door and smoke began to pour into their makeshift home.
The cellar was dark and musty from long disuse, but Mirajane had explored this place long before, when they'd first taken up residence there. With her good hand held out in front of her, Mirajane felt around the old crates and barrels and tried not to shudder at the feel of cobwebs against her skin. She smothered a cry of pain as her shin collided with a low crate and pressed on with her search, spurred on by the acrid smell of smoke beginning to filter down into the cellar. Her fingers soon brushed the mark she had made on the lid of one particular barrel, and she smiled in relief at its discovery. "Elfman, Lisanna. I need you come here. Follow the sound of my voice." Shuffling in the dark and restrained sniffs soon followed her command.
With a grunt of effort, Mirajane soon had the barrel pushed aside. "This way, you two." She felt around for the door that had been hidden behind the barrel. She tested the old metal handle, and it obediently swung open without quite as much noise as she feared it might. Then she turned slightly, releasing the handle and holding her human hand out to her brother and sister. "Take my hand, and each other's hand, so we don't get lost."
Small digits fumbled in the dark, but soon grasped Mirajane's hand. They were slick with sweat. "Got each other?"
"Yeah," they both replied.
"Good. Watch your step and follow me. Elfman, since you're at the back, close the door behind us."
"Okay."
Soon they were on their way, Mirajane feeling ahead of her with her monstrous arm and her siblings connected like a chain to her. The tunnel would eventually lead them to door hidden a safe distance away from the cabin – an old smuggling route, no doubt. Today, it would smuggle them to safety. Eventually the villagers would pursue, but by then Mirajane hoped to have her and her siblings far enough away that they would give up.
Mirajane didn't know what tomorrow would hold, but she was determined that all three of them would live to see it.
The Present
Encouraging her siblings to read the article on her interview before Tenrou had entertaining side effects, Mirajane decided. For one, they were both staring slack-jawed at her, rendered completely incapable of speech in their abject shock. She giggled at their expressions. "Is it really that surprising?" she asked of them. "Is it really so surprising to you two that I've had a crush on someone, before?"
As one, their mouths snapped shut, and red crept across their cheeks and the bridge of their noses.
'Cute,' Mirajane thought. Her siblings were positively adorable, no matter how much they grew. In all honesty, it had probably never crossed their minds that the Mirajane that had protected them all their lives hadn't been much older than them. A child who'd lost her parents, too. She had always been too busy looking after them to feel like much of a child, though, so maybe it wasn't all that surprising that they were so shocked.
"It's just… you never said anything before," Lisanna offered tentatively, her embarrassment plain. "I mean… I'd always wondered how you were able to retract the demon parts, but…"
"We didn't think you'd want to answer if we'd asked," Elfman finished when Lisanna trailed off. His younger sister sent him a grateful look. "So we just… never brought it up."
"I see." Mirajane's eyes were soft as she gazed at her siblings. "I'm happy that you were thinking of me."
"You'd have thought we'd notice you sneaking off for lessons, though," Lisanna commented, a nervous laugh bubbling from her mouth. "I mean… we clung to you pretty tightly, after all. When did you even find the time?"
"After we joined Fairy Tail, I didn't have to look after you two nearly as much as before." Mirajane swept her arm out towards the guild at large. "You had a lot of playmates, and plenty of adults to look after you. So I was free to train and take jobs to support us until both of you were ready to help me earn money."
Her siblings accepted the explanation easily, laughing and smiling. Soon, Mirajane found herself engulfed in their hugs – okay, more Elfman's than Lisanna's – and she laughed along with them. Fairy Tail had been good for the three of them. It was the home where they had been allowed to grow, a place they could come back to without fear of being chased away. This peace and their smiles were something Mirajane would have given her life to protect and keep.
It wouldn't hurt them to not know the full truth.
They didn't need to know that she'd met Mard Geer far earlier than she'd insinuated.