Chapter 3

Ice Cream Fixes Everything

She kept seeing her brother in random places. Every time she tried to confront him, he'd disappear.

"Hey, Kibo," Makarov spoke one day, causing her to stray from her group and approach the old man.

"What's up?"

"A strange man was here yesterday, asking about you." He spoke, watching her reaction carefully.

"What did he look like?"

"Greasy hair, bright green eyes, average height. Is he a friend of yours?" He asked, noting her expression turn sour.

"I thought I was hallucinating him, to be honest. I've been seeing him every where, but whenever I've approached him, he'd disappear."

"Who is he?"

"I think he's my brother…. He looks like him, at least, but it doesn't make sense because he died 20 years ago."

"Is there a chance that he survived, like you?"

"He was injured severely last I saw him…" She said, trying to recall, and grimacing at the memory. There was so much death that day, and the following days, she hated recalling it. She shook her head. "He was sliced in half and thrown to the side like a lump of potatoes. I doubt he survived."

"Is it possible that this person just looks like your brother?"

"He knows things about me that only my brother would know..." She said, and found herself staring at a patch on the ceiling, where a small spider's web had started to appear. "Those screams…."

-1.

"Kibo, keep running, don't stop." Her mother told her, pulling at the little girl's hand, when suddenly her older brother scooped up the 4 year old in his arms. He was only 6 years older than her, but he'd been born with an unusually large body, giving him the appearance of a 15 year old.

The air smelled of gun powder, magic, and death.

The small family had barely managed to escape, running away from the blood and carnage as fast as they could. When the dragon had switched from controlling the village to hunting them down and killing them, he'd relinquished control over their bodies. As the humans ran in all directions, he had an all-he-could-eat buffet.

Their screams could be heard from miles around, forever haunting the mountain side in a never ending loop of terror. It would take another hundred years before the vegetation was strong enough to cover the town and let the souls move on. "Don't look back," Her father said, his panicked eyes locking with his daughter's, who was looking over her brother's shoulder because of the way he was carrying her.

Compared to other dads, he was kind of a small man, weighing only at a 130 lbs and 5'5. But he was a loving father that had an affinity for plaid shirts and paintings of wild animals.

When Kibo turned 2 years old, he bought her a stuffed animal of a rabbit.

He was plopped from the ground like a bird swooping to the earth to grab small a mouse.

She never saw him alive again.

"Gale!" Her mother screamed, and just like her father, she was plucked from the ground and popped into the air.

Her brother panicked, and fell to the ground, narrowly avoiding the talons that had reached for him.

He quickly tried to stand, finding himself at the edge of a very large clearing, which the dragon took the liberty of landing in. The creature was massive, taking up the size of at least several buildings, and causing the siblings to stare up at it in awe. The magical energy and sheer massiveness of it left them awestruck, terrified, and frozen. Most of its scales were black, darker than the blackest caverns, and belly so red that each scale looked like a ruby.

The dragon's head was the size of a bus, and the two siblings found themselves face to face with it.

It snorted hot, grotesque smoke on them, causing them to cough.

It opened its giant jaws, the corpses of their parents inside, and used its tongue to grab their midsections and drop them on the ground. Kibo couldn't help but associate the sound to a piece of meat being dropped to the ground for their dog to eat.

The dragon suddenly lunged forward and latched its teeth into the body of her brother, biting down and then tossing him to the side. The action was so quick that Kibo barely saw it.

She didn't really understand what was going on, but she could still hear screams in the distance as she sat there, her large brown eyes staring up at the terrifying dragon before her.

"Are you scared?" The dragon asked her, its head descending and getting closer to her, so close that she could reach out and touch its nose.

"You're a dragon." She said simply. The dragon shook, causing the ground to rumble as it rescinding its head to laugh loudly into the dark sky, the clouds above them blackened from the smoke and ash.

"Why are mommy and daddy not moving?" She suddenly asked, leaning to the side in order to look at her parents, which she could only recognize by the blue on her mother's shirt and neon green on her father's.

Their bodies to rose, guts spilling and blood pouring out.

She smiled, glad that her parents were okay, and giggling. The little 5 year old had no idea what 'death' was at that time, or much of a concept for pain, so she ran to them in joy.

1.

She felt sick to her stomach at the memory. The dragon had let her 'play' with her dead parents for days before they became so decomposed that not even his blood magic could keep them together. She was too young to understand back then, and in some ways, it may have made the experience more unbearable in the long run.

"Kibo?" Makarov asked, causing her to look back down at the Guild Master, who had been looking at her in concern for some time. "Bad memories?"

"Oi, what are you spacing out for? We gotta go!" Bickslow spoke, ruffling her hair and messing it up for the third time that day.

"I'm not feeling well, I'm heading home." She said, avoiding his disappointed face.

"Whaaat? Come on! This is the first mission with the entire Thunder Legion in 7 years!"

"Have you told him?" Makarov asked, causing her to give him an annoyed glare. He may be her guild master, but she had hoped to keep the knowledge of her brother secret for a little while longer.

"Told me what?"

"Someone claiming to be her dead brother has been following her. He came here yesterday asking about her."

"Dead brother, huh?" He asked, turning and poking at her red face. "Has he been bothering you?"

She didn't say anything, embarrassed by the sudden attention, and still feeling physically ill by the memories. She'd done a good job at forgetting her upbringing for the past 7 years, and this ghost was threatening to destroy that for her.

"Boop." He said, poking her nose and causing her to finally look at him. "Boop."

"Knock it off. You're being obnoxious."

"I'm being obnoxious? You're the one with a ghost brother threatening our first mission together in 7 years. Which of us is being obnoxious right now?"

"You."

"Nope. Boop-" He tried to tap her nose again, but before he could make contact with her nose, she grabbed his wrist, twisting his entire body and forcing him to the ground with his arm twisting painfully behind him. "Alright, alright, I'm being obnoxious."

"Yes, you are." She said, causing him to cry out in pain as she pushed at his arm.

"You did get stronger while we were gone." Makarov commented, still sitting on the counter with his drink next to him. "I thought the others were exaggerating."

"I give, I give- you're going to break my arm if you keep doing that!" Bickslow yelled, crying out again when she suddenly let go, the gravity and strain causing him more pain.

She shoved her hands in her pockets and quickly walked out of the Guild Hall, avoiding eye contact with the other Guild Members. "Meanie…" Bickslow spoke as he slowly moved to stand, his babies echoing him as he held his arm gingerly.

"You totally deserved that, Bickslow." Makarov told him, greatly entertained by the exchange that just happened. The blue-haired wizard glowered, annoyed and sad by what just happened.

She defended herself against him.

She never did that.

She never even tried to hurt him when she was younger.

"You done getting beat up by girls, Bickslow? We've got a job to do." Evergreen said, her arms crossed and a similar expression to Makarov's on her face. The brunette was happy to see her comrade stand up for herself, especially against Bickslow, who had been almost obsessing over her ever since they arrived only a few weeks ago. She had been wondering if she should talk to him about it, but given the woman's show of strength, decided she could handle herself.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to go apologize." Bickslow replied, causing the duo to frown at him. "I need to get a sling for my arm, anyway. Pretty sure she damaged my shoulder."

"Come on, you haven't had a job for weeks. We were lucky to get this one. If you bail, we're not splitting the reward with you." Evergreen told him.

"Kibo will understand, she's used to your forwardness. Maybe giving her some space right now is best." Fried tried to reason with him, and after another few minutes of talking to him, eventually convinced him to go on the mission with him.

-2.

"What's your name?" She asked the dragon one day as they sat in the meadow, the beautiful sun and fresh air making it a wonderful day. It had only been two days since the massacre, and she still didn't know her parents were dead, nor the destruction that the dragon had caused.

She simply thought that the dragon was being nice and teaching her things.

"My name is Jackson." He told her, and grinned up at him.

"'Jackson'? It doesn't seem like a very dragon-y name."

"I suppose not." He agreed, chuckling. "Eat your vegetables, Kibo."

"Okaaay…." She whined, going back to her plate to continue eating her food.

2.

Being cared for by a dragon wasn't all bad, she realized reluctantly. Even though the dragon was a psychopath with no respect for human life, he still cared for her as his own child. He made sure she ate enough food, got the right nutrients, had toys to play with, got enough sleep….

She was alone in her apartment for the first time in weeks.

It was quiet.

It felt… empty. Despite the annoying wizard's persistence, and odd behavior, she did enjoy his company and loved having him back in her life. She had even started getting used to him being there all the time, something she was unable to do with others. Given her sensitivity to others, she'd restricted her interaction with them to a minimum, fearful that she would be tempted to use her lost magic.

But the silence was deafening.

She already couldn't wait for them to return, and they likely hadn't even left the city yet.

3.

"Would you stop being so mopey?" Evergreen asked him, annoyed by the constant sighing and snide comments from the wizard.

"I'm not mopey. You're mopey."

"Yeah, you're mopey." His babies echoed, causing the fairy woman to throw her shoe at him, nearly taking his eye out with her heel.

"Evergreen, calm down. This is our first mission together in years, remember?"

"It's only been a few weeks!" She screamed, hitting the green-haired man with her other shoe. "And this is a shit job! 'Go out and destroy a monster on this path'. It's so easy I could do this in my sleep!"

"Well why don't you? We'll wake you up if we run into anything." Bickslow told her, sticking his tongue out at her. He raised his arms up in defense as she started to attack him with her shoe, leaving a few good bruises along arms.

"You- you-" She stammered, unable to think of a good insult.

"Maybe the monster will die from your screaming." Bickslow suggested, snickering as she started hitting him harder.

4.

"What happened to you?" Kibo asked that night, looking at her team mate's bruises covering the entirety of his arms, along with a stray little bruise on his face. He had unzipped his jacket so that he was shirtless, showing off not only his bruises, but his well toned upper torso.

"Evergreen went crazy." He said simply, smiling cheekily at the memory.

"You provoked her, didn't you?"

"Now why would you say that?" He asked, 'hee hee'ing at the end.

"Because you did it to me this morning, and you've been extra obnoxious this week. What did you do to make her snap?"

"She's been so high strung lately, I'm surprised she didn't snap sooner. By the end of the mission she was balling her eyes out on the side of the road while Fried and I handled the monster."

"Poor Evergreen…" Kibo said, trying to feel sympathetic for the female. The brunette sipped at her fresh cup of coffee, trying to ignore his half-nakedness and focus on their upset team mate.

"Poor Evergreen? She beat me up with a shoe!"

"Give her a break. She's in massive debt, has barely been able to afford food with the small jobs she's been getting, and her beauty supplies are probably running low." She said, unable to hide her smile at the end. "I'm staying clear of her when the last thing happens."

"Smart cookie." He said, while his babies echoed his words. "I'm sorry about earlier today. I just… it bugged me that you didn't tell me about it. Makarov had to tell me, and you were glaring at him the entire time…"

"I watched a dragon kill my entire family, Bickslow." She said, looking down at the liquid in her shaking hands. "Afterwards… he taught me how to be a dragonslayer."

He stared at her, his radioactive eyes watching her in disbelief, surprised that his suspicions were correct. Laxus had once theorized that she survived her village slaughter because she was a dragonslayer, but she was so weak, they'd tossed the idea out the window after the first day.

But it made sense.

She rested the hot mug against her leg to keep it from shaking, nervous by the silence that had encompassed the room. He wasn't saying anything, and with every second that ticked by the anxiety in her chest worsened.

"I'm sorry about your family." He finally spoke, causing her to look up at him. "I can't imagine what you've been through." He reached his hand forward, taking the mug from her hands and setting it on the coffee table next to his. Next, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug, having to sit on his knees.

She was stunned, unable to move or really comprehend what was happening. It shouldn't have been as shocking as it was, but that simple movement had turned her world upside down.

"Now… how about we get some ice cream?" He said suddenly, pulling out of the hug and looking at her face, smiling at her. His fingertips, soft against her cheeks, wiped away her tears. "Dragonslayers like ice cream, right?"

"We love it." She smiled, truly feeling home for the first time in 7 years.