Chapter 16: First Job
The person who put in the job request was a middle aged woman with stress lines on her face. Blonde curls hung past her collarbone. She wore a purple blouse and black skirt, with some modest makeup, making her look professional.
She wrung her hands nervously while Midnight and Dreamer stood in the foyer of her house. Her eyes kept flickering uncertainly at Midnight and his emotionless face and generally intimidating appearance. In an effort to dispel the tension in the air, Dreamer used a bit of calming magic on the woman. She knew she shouldn't be interfering with Midnight's first job—that it was only her job to supervise but… A little bit of peace never hurt anyone.
"Thank you so much for taking my job request." She bowed her head toward him. "I know it's not nearly as important as some of the jobs you receive at the guild, and I can only pay you ten thousand jules… So, I really greatly appreciate your heart to help someone like me."
Midnight said absolutely nothing. He just regarded the woman with the same unfeeling red eyes as always.
"It's no problem," Dreamer spoke up quickly and bowed her head. "We love to serve the people of Magnolia. Please, tell us what we can do for you today."
The woman stopped wringing her hands and managed a small smile. "Well, you see, today I finalize the adoption of my son." Joy shimmered in brown eyes like sunshine in the forest.
"Oh! Congratulations." Dreamer smiled widely at her. "What a joyous occasion!" She swore she heard a "feh" from next to her.
"Yes. It will be the happiest day of my life. However…" She took a sharp breath and looked out the window in thought. A little yellow bird chirped happily on the windowsill. "There's a chance that the boy's biological father will show up to stop the finalization." She let out a slow breath. "Honestly, it's a slim chance. He's just a low-life thug who abandoned Liam when he was hardly old enough to walk. When I found him, he was underfed and sick… I've taken care of him ever since then."
Dreamer's heart throbbed with empathy. She clutched her hands over her chest, eyebrows knitting together as she remembered a time when she too had taken in a tiny, parent-less child. The bird on the windowsill cocked its little black head, as if it were listening to the conversation.
"Like I said, it's not likely the man will make an appearance. And even if he did, he won't be able to make it into the courthouse, but still…" The woman looked back at the two of them, her eyes brimming with tears. "I don't want this day to be anything but a celebration. My request is simply that the two of you would keep an eye on my son until the finalization is over. It shouldn't take more than two hours, at most."
Dreamer bowed her head, humbly. "Ma'am, ten thousand jules is incredibly generous for only two hours of service. We simply can't accept that amount."
Midnight cut his eyes at her. Whose job was this again? And who needed the dorm rent?
"Please, you must." The woman clasped her hands together, an act that frightened away the little bird. "You don't understand how important this is to me. This day… It means everything! My pride will not allow me to pay one jule less than that amount. In fact, were it possible, I would pay for the rest of my life, if only to ensure that I get to keep Liam as my own son."
Dreamer gasped at the passion in the woman's words. She could feel it tangibly in the air around her. Love. Desperation. Joy. Anticipation. There was nothing more important to this woman than the child she had taken under her wing. Dreamer knew the feeling perfectly.
She wiped a stray tear from her own cheek. "Very well, ma'am. We will gladly do this for you."
Midnight did not argue, nor speak at all.
It was just after midday in front of Magnolia's courthouse. Midnight and Dreamer sat on the steps watching children play in the park across the path. One of the scampering children was a boy about ten years old, building a fort out of sticks with his friends. He had a head of black hair and bright blue eyes. His name was Liam. Soon to be Liam Terrence, son of Elizabeth Terrence.
Midnight scoffed after several minutes of sitting in silence, watching the leaves fall in the park. "Babysitting. Is this what I've been reduced to?"
"Don't think of it like that." Dreamer rested her elbows on her knees and put her chin on her hands. "You get to be a part of changing that boy's life for the better. That's rewarding, isn't it?"
He made a sound of disgust.
A minute went by. The sound of birdsong and children's laughter in the air.
"I guess you're probably more accustomed to changing people's lives for the worst." There was sadness in her tone.
"I am a living nightmare," he said in confirmation of both her words and her worries.
Silence fell between them again. She was surprised that he hadn't fallen asleep yet. Sitting still in the warm sunlight seemed like it would have been the opportune moment for him to take a nap. The day was perfectly warm and peaceful, sunny and calming. Maybe he was actually taking this job more seriously than he let on. His eyes didn't stray from Liam for a moment.
"You know… I really feel for that woman." She looked at her shoes, idly twisting a lace around her pinky. "My situation with Syllest was pretty similar. She was less than a year old when Rosy…" Her voice trailed off. "Anyway. Her dad was horrible. I was so afraid that he would come back and take her away from me. That's why I joined Fairy Tail, actually… I thought they could protect us—protect her. And they have." She looked back up at the puffy white clouds drifting lazily through the sky. The white seemed to reflect off of her eyes, accenting the light pink of her irises.
"Mirajane, Piper, Jezran, Master… They all look out for us. I'm still scared sometimes…" An image of a black diamond rose flashed darkly in her mind. "But I know that everything will turn out okay, as long as I have Fairy Tail there with me."
Midnight was silent, the corner of his lips turned down in a frown.
"I'm sorry…" She sighed and tugged on the shoelace. "I don't know why I told you all of that. I guess this job reminded me of it."
He still said nothing. She wasn't surprised. His mood certainly didn't seem very affable today. She noticed though, that when Liam disappeared behind a park gazebo, he stood up and folded his arms over his chest. It was cool and casual, but there was no mistaking that he'd done it to keep an eye on the boy. This made a warm feeling settle under her ribs. She recalled when she had been traveling with him through a town on the way to Magnolia, when his eyes lingered on a few children playing on the sidewalk. And then the way he softened at the sight of Syllest, even if only a bit.
"You have a soft spot for children, don't you?"
He glared at her from the corner of his eye.
"You do!" She giggled lightly. "I guess it makes sense." Maybe he was finding similarities to his own life in this job, like she was. She didn't know how he'd ended up there, but he was only a child when he was in the Tower of Heaven. Maybe he had been abandoned too. And maybe he'd seen horrible things happen to other children—to his friends—and it fostered in him a desire to protect them. She tossed her hair back and smiled at the wandering thought of Midnight valiantly protecting the weak and powerless.
Her smile broke the moment he was suddenly perched in front of her.
He leaned his face dangerously close to hers, a glaring threat in his eyes. She gasped and leaned back against the stone steps, which he countered by leaning forward and slamming his palms on either sides of the ground beside her hips, trapping her there. He saw the fear flash through her cherry-blossom pink eyes, and a smirk drew across his lips.
"You're not making assumptions about me again, are you?" His voice was a low, mocking hiss. "You couldn't possibly be laboring under the illusion that you know me, especially after I warned you this morning, could you?" He leaned even closer toward her, until she felt like she would drown in the pools of blood that were his eyes.
"N-No, Mac—" She caught the word in her throat and swallowed. "No, Midnight."
His smirk grew wider, but the threat was still evident in his eyes. "Good little dream."
He pulled back, allowing her the freedom to breathe again. His back straightened and arms folded across his chest once more as he turned his attention back to the playground.
Dreamer didn't dare say anything else to him for the rest of the time they spent there. She rubbed her arms, despite the fact that it wasn't even chilly outside.
Finally, the woman came out of the doors to the courthouse with tears pouring down her cheeks and a smile of victory painted across her face. As if sensing her presence, Liam turned and looked at her. He smiled widely too, and ran across the grass and up the steps to leap into her arms.
"Mom!" He clung to her neck. "Why are you crying?"
"Because I'm happy, son. My… son…" She sobbed into the child's shirt and squeezed him as if he was the only thing in the world that mattered to her. He probably was.
Dreamer crossed over to them, tears clinging to her own eyelashes. She knelt down next to them to talk. Midnight watched with his arms folded as the group celebrated in the glaring sunlight. He could have sworn that more light emanated from the three of them than even the sun above. And in the shadow of that light… He felt even darker.
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye. His gaze turned to the shadow a building nearby, where a man was crouched and watching the exchange.
Midnight was standing before him in an instant.
The disheveled man gasped and fell backward. He was dirty and unshaven, his eyes glazed and face taught and scabby from obvious drug use. His appearance made Midnight scowl in disgust. "What do you think you're doing here?"
"M-my boy… I just wanted to see my boy. My Jesse…" He looked past Midnight to the family on the courthouse steps. Midnight stepped to the side, blocking the man's view with his yellow and black pants.
"His name is Liam, and he's not your son. Not anymore."
Tears spilled from the man's hazy eyes. "Mister, jus' lemme talk to him. Please, lemme tell him I love him, just once. Let me tell him I'm sorry."
Midnight's lips turned into a wicked smile. "You don't deserve to be sorry. You're nothing more than a pathetic insect."
"Y-you shut up!" The man crawled back, a little bit further from the looming monster in front of him. "You don't know anything about it!"
"I've stomped on enough worms in my life to know one when I see it." His red eyes bore down on the man, nearly glowing in the dark of the alleyway. "Listen, pest. You'll stay away from that family and crawl back into the hole you came from. If you don't…" There was a sadistic fury in his expression, teeth bared, tongue dragging across his dark lips in anticipation. "Then I'll find you and I'll make your worst nightmares come true. You'll never sleep in peace again, not without seeing insects writhing in your skull—worms eating your worthless corpse. The fear will eat will you alive, consuming you until not even the best high can penetrate the terror you'll feel. Trust me. I'm an expert in fear."
The man gulped, horror evident in his entire body. "I-I… I just want my Jesse to be happy!"
Midnight stepped aside so that the man could see the family. Liam's hand clasped in the hand of his mother, his face beaming up at her. The woman's tender smile as she cupped the face of her adopted son. The love, the brightness shared between mother and child.
"Then stay away from him," he said. "Darkness has nothing to do with light like that." When he said this, his red eyes were fixed on cream-colored hair, and pink eyes that seemed to smile even in moments of sadness or fear.
"He… He is happy, isn't he?" The man put his face in his hands and sobbed. "A-alright, I'll leave them alone. I'm sorry… I'm so sorry… I'll sober up. I'll get a job and send them money when I can but I'll leave them alone… I promise, mister."
"Remember what will happen if you don't. Now flee, insect." With that, Midnight turned on the heel of his boot.
Dreamer patted Liam on the head and hugged his mother one more time. "I'm so happy for you." It was only then that she noticed the absence of her companion. "Hm? Where did he go?" She stood and scanned the park and courthouse steps, looking for a head of dual-colored hair.
Midnight came up from behind her, face expressionless and hands in his pockets. His sudden presence made the hairs on her arms rise. She glanced up and opened her mouth to speak, but saw that his attention was on Liam. He looked down at the boy and the boy looked back up at him. There was a strange moment shared between them, with an imperceptible emotion hanging in the air. Midnight's eyes widened just slightly… and then softened. He nodded briefly at the child, who smiled widely and tugged on his mom's hand.
"Let's get ice cream, mommy!"
"Okay, Liam. Anything you want, today." She squeezed his hand as they walked. "We'll go anywhere you want to go."
"What?! Really?! Like the carnival?!" He hopped two steps at a time.
"The carnival isn't in town, sweetie."
"Then can we go on a boat ride out by the…" His voice trailed off as they walked down the path, hand-in-hand, mother and son.
Dreamer looked over at Midnight with the biggest smile he'd ever seen. "It's really amazing, all the good out here in the world." Tears dripped down her glowing cheeks.
Midnight scoffed and looked up toward the sun, hands buried in his pockets. "It's bright today."
"Yeah. It really is." She smiled up at the sky with him, unaware of him looking over at her from the corner of his eye.
Looking at the sun.