Here's chapter twenty-two! I felt like I'd gone more into their kids instead of Romeo and Wendy's relationship, which was the whole reason for this one-shot series (by the way, I was thinking of doing a spin-off series of the kids and other Fairy Tail children; what do you guys think? Too cliché?) so I did this to remind myself who this story is really about! :D
The mission had seemed simple on the flyer. All he had to do was escort the wagon out of Magnolia and into the next city over, which would take a couple hours, but he could still be home in time for dinner. That was what he planned on, because if he didn't make it back in time…
Romeo shivered involuntarily at the thought. If he didn't…
"Are you all right, son?" The driver of the wagon was peering down at him, his eyes owlishly large behind his thick glasses. "You look a little pale."
Romeo forced a smile onto his lips as he looked into the face of his executioner. "Just fine, sir," he replied politely. "Thanks for asking." But he wasn't fine, because this oh-so-simple mission was going to get him brutally murdered. What was supposed to take four, maybe five hours—what he had jumped up at seven in the morning for to make sure he had enough time to do—had already stretched out further than planned. In the distance, he could already see the sun making its lazy descent from the sky, and he felt his stomach plummet. Oh, Mavis.
He couldn't help but call out, "How much farther?"
"Oh, not much," the man replied. He seemed utterly peaceful, staring out at the strengthening sunset over his horse's head. "Maybe an hour and a half."
"Oh." His forced smile faltered into a grim line. This had not been a good day. First the wagon's wheel breaks halfway out of the city, and he'd had to wait an hour for it to be repaired. Then bandits had shown up to ransack whatever it was that was so important to this man that he had to hire a mage to protect it, and Romeo had spent a good hour and half beating them senseless (and of course it had to take that long; the time had nothing to do with the fact they called him "beautiful"). Then they had to tack another twenty minutes onto that while the man checked on the item itself, tucked safely away in the cloth sack—or, rather, multiple cloth sacks—in the back of the wagon. And…well, the list was practically endless to Romeo, and he was wondering at how he could possible have such bad luck.
Wonder what Wendy's doing, he mused; then winced at the thought. He quickly banished that and moved onto something happier. The twins, seven this year, were beginning to learn magic. He and Wendy had offered guesses at what each would excel at, and it did not come as a shock to Romeo when his boisterous Mai had taken after her father (in reality she had taken after her favorite uncle Natsu and delved into fire magic…so like her father). However it had come as a shock what Haru had seemed to take a liking to—Earth Magic.
Like the form-a-mountain-from-a-molehill kind of magic. His gentle-spirited child…
But right now, to put it quite frankly, they were both awful. They were only seven, of course, so it was to be expected. Romeo even wondered if they'd stick to what they planned on working at, because childhood fancies changed so abruptly.
Still, every once in a while Mai's fingers would spark, or a small rock would tremble beneath Haru's palm, and Romeo knew his twins were going to be great mages one day.
He just hoped he'd live long enough to see them beat up their uncles.
And his mood darkened once more. He stared broodingly at the ever-lowering sun, wondering what awaited him at home. The twins would be in bed by the time he got back, and Wendy…
Romeo sighed and ran his fingers through his hair worriedly. Wendy would hate him. Just great.
"Sure you're okay?" his client asked again.
This time Romeo shrugged. "It's nothing," he told the old man. He waited a moment, opened his mouth again, and was thusly interrupted.
"An hour, boy," the man said with a slight smile. "An hour left, and then you can catch a train back." As Romeo's shoulders slumped slightly, the man asked, "What's got you so riled up you need to hurry on home?"
Romeo blinked, thinking, How does he know? "I don't have to hurry," he said, because it would be rude to say any different. "Take your time."
"Don't lie to an old man." When Romeo glanced back up at him, he smiled from his perch. "I'm not stupid, boy. I know when I'm being lied to." He rearranged his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, "So talk to me. Can't do much else, now can we?"
Romeo pondered his words for a moment before finally saying, "Just wanted to get back to my wife, sir, and my kids."
"You look awfully young to be married with kids," remarked his client.
Romeo grinned up at him. "Would you believe I was twenty-one when I got married?"
"Only if you'll believe I'm fifty," the man countered, obviously deducting at least ten years from his age, and grinned back at Romeo.
"I was twenty-one," Romeo insisted, "and she was twenty."
"Must've been awfully sure, then."
"I was. She was—is—amazing." Romeo was half-aware he was babbling to this man now. "We met when…" Romeo trailed, thinking how complicated explaining that would be. Yeah, I was six and she was twelve, but then she got lost for seven years and didn't age, so when she got back we were the same age, and now we're married. "We met when we were kids," he finished finally, taking the easy way out of that conversation. "Been together ever since."
"Sort of like a fairy tale, huh?" The man grinned at his pun, and Romeo laughed a little.
"Yeah," he answered. "That's exactly it."
The man was quiet for a moment. After a couple minutes, he spoke again. "I was married, too, you know."
"Really?" Romeo said, for lack of anything better to say. It seemed to work for the old man, however, since he nodded and continued.
"Her name was Julie," he said wistfully, and Romeo noted how this was in past tense. "We met a lot like you and your girl, when we were fifteen. Got married at eighteen." He winked a Romeo. "Looks like I was ahead of you, son."
"Must've been pretty sure," Romeo said with a smile, and the old man laughed.
"Very sure, I'll tell you!" he said. "Loved her to death, I did. We had three kids together, all grown up and living elsewhere now, and my Julie's…passed on. Just me nowadays."
Romeo didn't know what to say. He could say "I'm sorry," but that would sound flat and uncaring. So he stayed silent, and the old man didn't seem to mind. He filled in the silence quickly.
"How old are your kids?"
"Seven," Romeo answered, glad for the change in topic. "They're twins, Mai and Haru."
"The ocean," murmured the old man. "The spring."
"The ocean for my favorite place. Spring for when me and Wendy got married." He rattled of his reasons automatically, then blushed a little at the cheesiness. The man just smiled at him.
Romeo babbled on, "They're going to be great mages one day. Just like their family."
The man nodded. "Good for them. Hope they do become great." He peered down at Romeo. "Maybe I'll see them in the papers one day."
Hopefully not in the same way Fairy Tail's normally in the papers, grimaced Romeo mentally, and replied, "I know you will."
And they lapsed into silence again except for the old man's reminding him of, "Keep a lookout. Thirty minutes left to go, I think."
"Why are we going all the way out here?" Romeo finally asked, since he had been curious the whole time why an elderly man wanted to take this wagon full of stuff all the way to the next city. He wondered if it were too bold a question to ask his client, but he'd figured he'd passed that line a far way back anyway.
The man didn't seem to think it too bold. "Remember those kids I mentioned? They live out here. I'm heading out to live with them, because I'm getting old and can't do much by myself anymore." He winked down at Romeo again. "Fifty's a bit too old for me, I think." And then he said, "And you haven't answered my question, boy."
Romeo frowned. "Huh?"
"Why're you so worked up to get home so quick? No man's that eager to get home to his wife without a reason." He paused and shrugged. "At least not many men."
Romeo's frown deepened. Of course, Romeo was always eager to see Wendy—she was the love of his life, if he had to be sappy about it. But, to be quite honest, there was one teensy little reason.
"Our anniversary," he said finally. "Tonight's our anniversary, and I was supposed to be home by six, and…"
The wagon rattled noisily along, and the man stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Ah," he said. "I see now."
The fire mage sighed. "She's gonna be so mad at me…" He had another image of her waiting at the dinner table in her best dress, dinner set out and her eating alone, and he felt a pang of regret in his chest. He should've just skipped out on work altogether today and stayed home to be with her, but he'd wanted to earn some extra money. They'd agreed not to get each other any gifts this year, just to spend some time together, but Romeo had saw this beautiful sapphire necklace –much like that one he'd given her so long ago—and he'd desperately wanted to give it to her and make her smile. And now it had all become a disaster, because Wendy was alone and the store was probably closed.
Romeo sighed again, then blinked and gave the old man a quick smile. "Sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to trouble you with that—"
"Got her a gift?"
"What?"
"Did you get her a gift, boy?"
Romeo looked curiously up at the man. Can he read minds? "Um, no, sir. That's why I took this job today. We weren't going to give each other gifts, but…"
"A romantic, eh?" The man grinned down at him, then nodded up ahead. Romeo turned and felt relief washed through him; he could see the village now. He could get home to Wendy and beg her to forgive him. Sounded fun.
"I don't think I'll need you to take me any further," the man was saying, "since my baby girl will be waiting up there somewhere, and I may be old, but not so old I can't find my way around. So you can go on ahead. But wait a moment, son, let me get you your money."
He scrambled down off his horse before Romeo could offer him any assistance and hopped into the wagon bed. He immediately opened one of the sacks and began rummaging through it. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he tossed the sack aside and opened up another one. He went through three of the four bags before he finally shouted "Aha!" and withdrew something, which he quickly closed his fingers around so Romeo couldn't see what it was. Then he beckoned Romeo over to the end of the wagon.
As Romeo approached, the man said, "The reward for this job was three hundred jewels if I recall correctly." Romeo nodded and the man continued, "However, I think this will suffice considering the reason for you taking this job and the worth of the item." Then he opened his hand and Romeo's mouth fell open.
A silver chain necklace rested in his creased and weathered palm, a large, blue, shiny pendant dangling from it. It glittered up at Romeo beautifully, and he wondered if this man had read his mind about the necklace he'd wanted. It wasn't dragon-shaped or anything, but still that seemed to be a sapphire in the pendant…
"Oh no, sir," Romeo said, waving him off. "That's much too valuable—"
"Shut up, boy, and take the necklace," commanded the man good-naturedly, and with uncertainty, Romeo carefully took the necklace from his hand. He held it gently as if it would evaporate in his fingers.
After a moment, Romeo looked up at the man gratefully. "Thank you so much. She'll love this."
His client nodded, his mouth splitting into a grin for the millionth time. "Of course she will. It's one of my own pieces." Then he shooed him off. "Go on, now, go get the girl. She's probably lonely right now on your anniversary!"
Romeo nodded and, shouting back his thanks every few feet, ran off for the village. He had a train to catch.
The man watched him go with a smile. "Julie," he said, "I'm sure you won't mind that boy giving your necklace away, will you?" And then he clambered back onto his horse and set after the young mage.
At home, Wendy was cleaning the dishes. She had eaten the meal she'd made especially for the occasion alone, and for the first time since her youth, she felt like she might burst into tears at anything sudden. She'd become vulnerable again.
She angrily swiped a sleeve across her eyes, the sleeve of the t-shirt she'd changed into when she realized Romeo wasn't going to show. She furiously rinsed the plate in her hands and set it on the counter before falling back into one of the table chairs behind her tiredly. She'd waited up as long as she could, holding out hope he'd come in with his big grin and some lame excuse that she'd buy anyway, but it was nearing eight o'clock now and she was sleepy and mad and upset all at once. It was like she was pregnant again, except without the weird cravings.
She felt exhausted. She'd taken to helping Mirajane with bartending while Romeo went out on missions, and keeping the alcoholic guild raucously drunk was proving to be much of a challenge, or, at least, more than what she was expecting. Then she came home to wrestle her two kids to an early dinner and into bed with their teeth brushed and their pajamas on, and all she wanted at the end of it was to have dinner and watch some sappy romantic comedy with her husband. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently, since he hadn't shown.
Suddenly the front door's lock flipped. Wendy lifted her head, eyes narrowing as she watched through the kitchen doorway as Romeo slipped in quietly. He glanced around anxiously before seeing her sitting there, and his face visibly lit up. However Wendy was having none of his silly grins by this point and promptly crossed her arms and returned with a glare.
"Dinner's cold," she said flatly.
His smile faltered at her coldness. "H-Hi, Wen…"
Wendy stared him down for a moment before standing up. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed."
"Wait! Wendy!" He jumped forward to catch her arm. She turned and glared at him again.
"Three hours," she snapped finally. "I waited three hours. Where have you been?"
"I-I went on a job, and it took a lot longer than it was supposed to. There was a broken wheel and bandits and…I'm sorry."
And he did look sorry, but Wendy wasn't easily swayed by puppy eyes anymore. She prided herself on being stronger than that, so she turned her back to him, crossing her arms once more. Romeo sighed behind her.
"I missed you," he offered up, and she rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see her. She said nothing, and he sighed again. "Oh, well," he said, and she detected the dramatic tinge to his voice. "Don't know what I'll do with this pretty necklace now…"
She frowned slightly and dared a peek over her shoulder. Necklace? And then she saw it, and it was beautiful. In the half-light the silver chain glittered, and the sapphire sparkled prettily. She didn't realize it, but she'd turned to face him as she studied the necklace appreciatively. "Mine?" she asked disbelievingly, glancing up at him. "Romeo, how on earth did you get this?"
He grinned at her. "That's what the job was for."
Wendy stared at him a moment more, reminding herself to be angry. Then she returned her gaze to the necklace. "It's pretty," she murmured. The next thing she knew, he was fastening it around her neck and kissing her forehead gently.
"Just like you," he told her, and she couldn't help but smile back at him now.
"You still missed dinner," she reminded him, but glanced towards the living room. "I still have the comedy, though."
"Can you stay awake?"
"I'll manage. You want to make the popcorn, or me?"
"I'll do it." He kissed her forehead again and smiled. "Happy anniversary."
She kissed him back. "I love you."
"Love you, too."
