(7 years prior to the Battle of Fairytail, 8 years prior to the Tenrou Incident.)
Laxus stared down the child in his living room, stormy eyes dazed as he watched the dark haired girl shift on the couch. Beside him, his grandfather, Makarov, had a cold look on his face, making the Rune Knight sitting across from them anxious for his life.
"Repeat that one more time." Makarov's often soft voice was hard, cracking as he made eye contact with the Rune Knight. He was struggling to keep his emotions under control, and light flashed in his eyes. The complete opposite of the blank teenager beside him.
The Rune Knight shifted uncomfortably before stuttering. "Makarov Dreyar, you son, Ivan Dreyar, escaped prison a while back, as you know. However, it was not known that he impregnated Kendra Simon. We found out recently, because a neighbour became of aware of Kendra's substance abuse. We came to check it out, and also found that Kendra has been selling dark lacrimas, and was also apart of a slave trade ring. She's been imprisoned, but Skitazuki has no one else. Kendra's family is all either dead or jailed, and there's only you.
Long story short, Skitazuki brought us Kendra's diary, which is how we discovered Ivan is the father, and that she was planning to sell Skita when she turned ten. After further investigation, paternity was proved."
Makarov closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, anger bubbling in the pit of his stomach. That idiot. He broke out, had a kid a left her with a slave dealer?! Unbelievable.
Laxus, at this point, was furious. Once again, his shitty father fucked something up. What was really pissing him off, is that this kids story is nearly the same as his so far. Just without Ivan being a good parent for a couple of years, and without the Lacrima being shoved in her fucking face.
Although, he supposed, maybe it's better that she never met Ivan. That would give her hope, which is a futile thing.
The cause of this distress, meanwhile, is now just sitting and staring at her hands with a blank look on her face. Laxus knew that look. She was lost.
"Gramps. What are you gonna do?" His voice was steadier than he expected, because Laxus was definitely experiencing emotional turmoil right now.
"Hah... Baj. Can you step outside for a minute so we can have a private conversation." Not a question.
The Rune Knight was moving quickly, eager to be out of the tense environment before he got squashed and electrocuted.
"Laxus, my boy, this is your home too. However, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to abandon this child. But, if you wished, I could station her in Fairy Hills instead."
Laxus slowly looked away from the girl, his sister, resting his gaze on Makarov.
"No. She- I don't want that. She deserves you."
A soft smile came onto his face as he raised a calloused hand to his grandsons arm. "Well then. I'll go talk to Baj, and you ask the girl if she wants to stay."
Nodding, Laxus stood. The sixteen year old was lean at the moment, but still held a fair amount of strength. He shuffled over to the child, who was now staring at the roof with her hands in her lap.
"Hey," keeping his voice soft he gently knelt down in front of the child. "Skitazuki, right? I'm Laxus. Do you...uh- use magic?"
The girl snapped her head down to look at him, and a smile came onto her face. Honestly the immediate change was... weird. Fake.
"Yep! Well for both. You can call me Skits or something, and Kendra taught me to use speed magic. It makes me more val- it's fun."
She faltered in her words, pink eyes flashing. She seemed to tense, eyes flirting in search of something on his face. Laxus's eyebrows furrowed, before smoothing out.
"Alright then, Skitz. How do you feel about guilds and things like that?"
For the first time in that conversation, Laxus saw a light come into her bubblegum eyes.
"They're cool. I want to join one and get stronger!" Because if I was stronger back then, maybe I-
"Good, good. I'm a part of a guild, y'know? And I use magic too. Can you guess what kind?" I remember feeling that way too.
Skitazuki gave him a look like he was dumb, which had him snorting. "Lightning. Duh."
Smart ass. "How'd you know?"
Laxus, while he was still plenty sensitive about his scar, knew that it was a dead give-away for his ability. He wasn't proud, but he tried to think it looked cool.
"I can see it. It's dancing, but it's dark. That's not what lightning usually looks like though."
Wait, what?
"Your lightning is more fluid, it looks scaly. Like a snake."
What. The. Fuck.
"Skitz, what do you mean you 'see it'?" To his own surprise, his voice was still soft, and didn't sound confused.
She froze in her seat, her face falling as she rose a hand to clutch at her stomach, a movement Laxus noticed.
Fuck... what if-
"Well, it's like uh. It's in your eyes. It snakes around your... um.. the coloured part like a ring. Like that planet. What was it..?"
"Saturn. That's a pretty cool think Skitz," he attempted a warm smile with his words, but he made a mental note to talk to Makarov.
"Laxus... can I join your guild?"
Great, don't have to worry about topic changing. "Course you can. How about we go down there in a couple of days, get you in?"
"I'd like that," she muttered with a yawn.
"Hey, before you fall asleep, how old are you?"
"8."
She was the sun to him, brilliant and bright in every form. His sister, his blood, he would forever hold and love her until the day his arms burned beyond repair, and his skin burnt beyond repair. Only then would he leave, because he would never make her see that.
Hey y'all. New story instead of updating! Anyways, this is... this. Anyways please review! I'll also make chapters longer, this is just a pilot chapter. Hope you enjoyed!
Fact of the day:
Possessive or plural?
John's carpet - possessive
Carpets - plural
Cousins' carpet - both
Dress - neither