56th: Flowers
Summary: The withering flowers announced the end of another year, of another year without Lisanna, another year without their little sister.
Autumn came fast that year – too fast if you asked Elfman or Mirajane Strauss, the formerly renowned Takeover Siblings from Fairy Tail. But the Takeover Siblings had been three mages with white hair and blue eyes and Mirajane and Elfman were merely two of them because they had lost the third one, their little sister.
Lisanna Strauss had died little more than a year ago.
And while Elfman had had the strength to keep going even with the pain inside his chest, Mira was still stuck in her post-traumatic haze, unable to break free and to accept the death of her sister.
Lisanna had died.
She had disappeared completely, both soul and body were no longer to be found on this planet. She had left completely, with all her little flaws and her good intentions which had killed her in the end.
While Elfman was going through hell because he had lost control over his Takeover, Mira was torturing herself over and over again because while her brother would at least talk about what had happened, she was silent. She couldn't speak about the tragedy. She couldn't speak about Lisanna who had always picked flowers for her birthday because the youngest sibling had known that the oldest one loved flowers. She couldn't speak about Lisanna, the girl she had made hot chocolate for when she had been ill.
For their fellow guild members, it was a difficult situation as well and with the exception of a few mages (Bixslow and Evergreen who still couldn't understand what had happened) no one ever mentioned Lisanna and sometimes, Mira wondered if this was the right way to deal with the tragedy of Lisanna's death. Maybe it would have been easier to deal with the loss of the cheerful young girl if Lisanna hadn't been injured by her own brother because of a lapse of judgement on Mira's behalf. Maybe it would have been easier to understand if Lisanna had been killed by a dark mage on a mission she had picked out herself.
Lisanna's death had changed the guild. Mira felt it with every day she was in the guildhall, giving out beer and meals and trying to smile to cover up her broken heart. Natsu had gotten slightly more careful, Erza had grown overprotective and Gray had become friendlier towards his nakama instead of ice cube behaviour which he had had beforehand. That Bisca and Alzack had formed a team was also a consequence of Lisanna's death because the tragedy had made everyone realise how fast a life could be over when fate struck. Even Laxus had changed – but in a bad way. He had distanced himself from his only real friend, Cana, and Mira knew why: he was scared that he would break apart just like she had broken. Laxus was scared that Cana might be his Lisanna and that her death would shatter him – and nothing Mira said could make him change his mind.
Sometimes when she looked around in the guildhall, she wondered whether Lisanna would have wanted her death to change everyone so badly or if she had rather seen them smile and laugh brightly even without her. She was pretty sure that Lisanna wouldn't have wanted this but Fairy Tail was infamous for the incapability of letting go.
Elfman hated the current situation. He hated to watch the depressed faces of every single person in the guild. He hated the seemingly carefree smile on his sister's face. He hated the way his heart ached whenever he thought of Lisanna. He hated how nothing he could do would ever heal Mira's shattered heart and her broken soul.
He hated that he hadn't been man enough to protect his sisters.
He hated that his mistake was part of the reason why Cana and Laxus weren't even talking anymore. He hated how Evergreen who had been his friend once could no longer bear to look into his eyes because she felt some misplaced guilt – just like Bixslow too because the two members of the Thundergod Tribe had seen them when they had left.
He hated how he didn't know anymore where one dream had ended and where reality had begun. He hated – especially – the fact that in the end, he was only a human being who had failed not only his little sister but also every friend Lisanna had had and every person in the guild who had loved the cheerful girl.
Sometimes, he couldn't even bear to look into the mirror because he hated the man looking back at him with every fibre of his soul – and yet, he tried to atone for his sin. This was the reason behind all the jobs he took even though he made sure not to overestimate himself because he wasn't sure what Mira would do if he would follow Lisanna.