Greetings,

I have returned. I planned to post this chapter on Christmas, but my computer broke. Either way, I could give you many reasons for not posting before, but I decided to simply tell you the main one: ME. I am very lazy person and with school and grades to keep up I rarely have energy to do anything else that drop in my bead and read or nap.

Well, Happy new year and belated Merry Christmas...

English is my third language so if there are any mistakes I apologize.

Disclaimer: I still do NOT own Fairy Tail, just the plot and Anastasia!

My eyes slowly opened and I saw I was in a white room, it didn't take me long to realize where was I, I knew the room quite well after all the time I spent in it. I was in the infirmary. I started wondering how I got here and my memories came back like a tsunami of cold water. I didn't know she was there, until I saw her I didn't even know she was alive. I swore a long time ago, that I wouldn't think of my life before Nana, but it seemed that it just didn't want to let me go. My past I mean. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear someone enter.

"You gave the guild quite the scare, kiddo" said the voice and I jumped in surprise, but I wasn't scared. "Hello Laxus. What happened after I fainted?" He looked at me with stormy blue eyes and chuckled, then he sat down on the bed next to mine. "Well first everybody started panicking, thinking you were attacked, but they found no traces of attack of any kind, so they brought you to our dear human-hating medic." I was quiet for the next few seconds and then he spoke again: " Why did you faint?"

Laxus looked at me with piercing stare and I found myself wondering what to do. Only Nana and few other dragons knew of my past, however I felt like he of all people would not judge me for it. Wait, no judge wasn't the right word, nobody in Fairy Tail would judge me for my past, I guess with Laxus I had this feeling that he would understand me. I swore I would leave my past behind, but in that moment I couldn't, not with everything I tried to escape standing before my own nose. The moment before I fainted was still fresh in my memory and I wanted to talk to someone about it and Laxus was there. I found Laxus a bit intimidating and scary, but for some reason it just made me trust him more, so I just opened my mouth and it was like a dam inside me broke, everything came flooding from my mouth as I started talking.

"Not many think about it, but children raised by dragons all had a life before them. Not many remember it. Some remember flashes or moments, the others nothing, but I remember almost everything. I was older that others when I was found by Nana. I was 7 at the time and I was the oldest of the dragon slayers. I was the first you could say. You see my story is probably the most similar with Gajeel's, however that's not my story to tell. I had a family before I meet Nana, but they weren't much of a family really. My mum left us when we were babies, well that's what I was told, it could be a lie, my father was excellent at telling them after all." I took a deep breath, it has been a while since I last thought, let alone talked about it , but the understanding look in Laxus' eyes gave me strength to continue. "I don't know if you noticed, but I used the word babies as in plural. That wasn't a mistake, because I had a twin sister." I sadly laughed as I said it "We were- still are, different as night and day. We argued a lot, however I loved my sister and I considered us really close , until we reached the age of 4. I don't remember much before my 4th birthday, just that my sister and I got along in a strange way, but when we reached four our father decided to train us in magic. Our father was rarely home, but when he was it wasn't pleasant, because he was obsessed with power and for him, failing wasn't an option. He was difficult man to live with in the beginning, but when he decided we needed to learn magic, he was brutal."

Tears started to gather in my eyes, it was hard for me to talk about my past and I didn't know if I could continue, but then Laxus stood up and walked to my bed, sat down next to me and moved me in his lap, his arms gently stroking my long hair, that must have been a mess. To say I was surprised would be understatement of the century, but it calmed me down, I felt safe, so I continued with my story.

"My father wanted perfection, but the truth is that it doesn't exist, the flaws make us who we are as much as our strengths, strong and beautiful in our own way. Sadly my father could not understand this. If we failed he punished us and if we succeeded it still wasn't good enough. By the age of 5 our minds were messed up, my sister unsuccessfully tried to make father proud , while I hid in my little shell. My sister and I drifted apart , she became father's puppet, trying to impress him by doing all he ordered, his word became the law for her. I, on the other hand started to question father's methods and words. Not out loud of course, I didn't dare to, I was way to scared of my father and I didn't have a death wish. At the time I was barely able to do any magic, I was horrible at it and my father resented me for it. I was afraid of him, truth to be told I still am, and I often escaped into city where I watched other children with their parents, wondering why my father was not like that. From the start of our magic training to the age of 5 I was beaten more times I can remember by my father, for not being good at magic and I decided to run away. I talked with my sister about it, begging her to come with me, but she didn't listen. Since we started learning magic we had many fights, bad fights that were nothing like before, sometimes she even hit me, but none were as bad as that one about running away. Things she called me shouldn't be known by any five-year-old, even some adults would be horrified by them I imagine and then she beaten me. It was horrible."

I was sobbing in Laxus' shirt and I couldn't stop, but I kept talking even with tears running down my face: "That night I packed my things and ran. My body hurt, but I didn't care, the emotional pain was much scarier and hurtful than all the bruises, cuts and burns on my little body. I escaped into a forest. I survived by eating fruit and even if my body wasn't healed enough I still kept walking I desperate need to put as much distance between me and what I once called home. I kept walking for almost two years, almost never going in any villages or cities, too afraid I would be caught and dragged back to that hell hole. The life in forest wasn't the easiest, but it was heaven compared to before. After around two years Nana found me. She healed me, took care of me, taught me everything I know and helped me change my surname, I owe her my life." When I finished I was just sobbing and crying puddle in Laxus' arms and I didn't really care, because while it pained me to talk about my past, it helped too and I felt a bit better.

I don't know how long was I sobbing in his arms, but after a while I calmed down. I lifted my head and looked in his eyes. He was still scary and intimidating, but there was no malice in his eyes, he didn't see me any different or at least not in bad way. I stared at him for a while and the silence got a bit awkward until he broke it. "It will last longer if you take a picture." I narrowed my eyes, but his words weren't hurtful or anything, I think it was simply his way of saying it didn't change who I was or how he saw me. "My old man was a jerk too." He said in the end and I smiled.

"I guess I still haven't told you why I fainted, hmm…" I broke the not-awkward silence and smiled sadly. "It's funny how unsolved problems from past always come back one way or another. It's like someone wants us to deal with it. I told you my story, but you don't know who my family is. My twin sister, well apparently she's Sabertooth's strongest. Minerva Orlando is her name and seeing as she is here I will take a guess and say daddy dearest is here too."

I was planning to tell him more when doors opened and Natsu, Wendy, Lucy, Erza and Gray came in. Seeing us on the bed, with me on Laxus' lap, while he had one hand around my waist, sweet Mavis, it must have looked weird as their mouth opened and Natsu went up in flames.

Sensing the tense atmosphere (not that it was hard really) Laxus decided to leave. He slowly stood up, but as he was doing so he whispered in my ear: "Don't worry, kid, your secret is safe with me." And with that he left. Not that it brought me any relief as I will kindly point out for you that he left me with five shocked mages, three of them extremely unstable.

"Emm… Hmm… Well…" I started, but let's face it, what do you tell your friends after they see you in a man's lap with puffy eyes, while said friend don't really have the best opinion of said man. And even better how to explain them that nothing is going on between us and that they don't tell Mira about it? Yeah, it was awkward and I was low on explanations for the day, since I kinda went all out before. "Well, you see, when I woke up I was crying and everything," I pointed at my puffy eyes "and he comforted me if you are wondering." I lamely finished. It was the truth, but me and Laxus talked only once before and really do you see him comforting anyone? Sadly my lame explanation didn't do much difference, they still stood there like statues, with those weir expressions on their faces.

It was 5 minutes since Laxus left and they still didn't move. Surprisingly or not it was Natsu who reacted first.

"What were you doing with him?!" He angrily asked and I had to wonder if they listened to me at all. This was extremely awkward situation. "I kinda explained it before." I said, however Natsu only stared at me like I was mad. "And you expect us to believe that?" He asked and I saw Gray nodding his head in agreement, it seemed like they got over the shock. "It's the truth." I replied and when he sensed no lie with his dragon slayer senses he let it go, but I saw he was still a bit upset.

"So why were you crying? And why did you faint?" Asked Lucy. "They are kinda the same reason." She looked at me with confusion, everyone did. "I don't think that there's anyone in Fairy Tail without some kind of bad past and I'm no different." I finally said.

"Was it something with dragons?" Asked Wendy and I smiled sadly. Wendy was one of those or maybe the only one that didn't remember her life before her dragon found her and I envied her a little, but I knew these are thing we have no power upon.

"No, not with dragons. I meant of my life before that. Most forget that we even had one, but that doesn't make it go away. I simply saw someone I hoped not to see again." As I said those words, the others seemed to ponder about them, I don't think any of them except Natsu thought about that before.

The silence started to bore me after a while and I spoke again. "So, how long have I been here?" That got their focus back on me and it was Gray who answered that. " You have been out of it since yesterday."

...Ahh, it seemed that the shock was a bit bigger that I thought.