The girls went back to the house after that, and as soon as they stepped in the door, Derek was at Juvia's side asking questions and checking her body for injuries.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt? Did you break anything? Are you bleeding? How many bruises do you have? Did you get whiplash from that broom? Were you attacked by birds?"
"Why would I be attacked by birds?" Juvia asked.
"Don't be fooled by their small appearance, they're hostile creatures."
"Hey!" Makarov hooted, feeling insulted.
"Poor Derek, you never did fully recover from that seagull incident." Anna sighed.
"Can you blame me? Those harpies were trying to steal my eyes!" Derek said.
"They wanted the half eaten sandwich in your back pocket."
"Then why did they go after my head?"
Long story short, it was a whole hour before Anna managed to convince Derek that Juvia was fine. Later the girls started to settle down and eventually get into bed. Lucy and Erza were out like the flame of a candle which had been snuffed. But Juvia couldn't close her eyes without popping them open immediately afterward, her mind was just swimming with so many questions and her body was just full of these emotions over everything that had happened today. She still couldn't believe that she was a witch or that her mother had been witch. That she actually had magical powers. That she had an entire other family of witches. And that she didn't know about any of this until today. How could someone spend sixteen years without knowing such things? It seemed impossible.
She looked over to see the cat snoring on the window sill.
"Psst! Gajeel I can't sleep."
Gajeel yawned and licked his chops.
"Then I guess there's no reason why I should."
Juvia ignored his sarcasm. For some reason it was easier for her to accept the cat could talk than the fact that she was a witch. Then again, she always suspected that Gajeel was not a normal feline.
"I'm sorry to wake you Gajeel, I'm just...Confused. I mean, I've been a witch all this time and I'm just finding out about it today. It's crazy."
"Well you know that your old man and Anna wanted to tell you sooner, but the witches' council forbade them to do so until they knew for certain that you had magic."
"But isn't that a little unreasonable?"
"I'm the wrong guy to ask, sweetie. They weren't very reasonable with me. Sentenced to a hundred years as a cat, and for what?"
"I don't know. I forgot. Why were you turned into a cat again?"
"Oh like any young kid I dreamed of world domination. Of course they really crack down when you act on it."
"Wow. No wonder you're so possessive of the sofa." She chuckled.
"It would have been glorious. Me, the firm but just emperor of earth." His tail twitched in annoyance. "Trust me, being a house pet wasn't even plan B."
"Is it really so bad? I mean you do take five thousand naps a day."
"I can't go dancing, I can't play my guitar, the sound of the can opener is the only thing that makes me feel truly alive."
"At least you have people who take care of you. By the way, how did you end up with Nanny Anna?"
"She needed a new familiar because her old one, and by old I mean he was a ferret who was as old as methuselah, had died. Her house also had a terrible rodent infestation at the time. She decided that her new familiar should be young and able to catch mice, go figure."
"Well I can't recall a time there was ever a mouse in this place. You do a good job."
"Then you were born and she decided that I should devout my nine lives to keeping you safe."
"Keep me safe?" She gave him a skeptic look. "No offense, but you're a cat. What protection could you provide?"
"Let's just say there's a lot more to me than what you see."
"That's the understatement of the year. But seriously, I wanna know, why out of all the familiars in the world, did Nanny Anna choose you for me?" She inquired, her interest piqued.
"Ugh..." He groaned in defeat. "I really hoped that you weren't going to make me tell you this."
"Tell me what?"
"You and I first met when you were a baby. Anna had brought me with her on a week long visit because your old man broke his foot going down stairs. One night when Derek and Anna were asleep, I heard this weird and nasty little sound in the hall. I followed it and I saw a rat sneaking into the nursery. It was no ordinary rat, it was a familiar to a bad witch. One with a strong hatred for half mortals. To this day I don't know what that rat was intending to do to you."
He could still remember it all so clearly. All day Derek had insisted on keeping his infant daughter away from the cat turned ex con, thinking he would only do her harm. All Gajeel saw of her was just a bundle that was either held by Derek or Anna. Then at night his highly advanced hearing picked up a scurrying and creaking noise on the floor. He jumped down from the desk he had been sleeping on and went to investigate. That's when he saw a flash of fur and red eyes slip into the creaked open door of the nursery. That's when his nose caught the unmistakable scent of a rat.
With velvet paws, he crept into the nursery in complete silence and his yellow eyes gleamed, allowing him to see the rat despite the darkness. He spotted the vile rodent crawling along the bannister of the crib and looking menacingly down upon the tiny bundle that slept inside. Gajeel was suddenly overcome by a new instinct, seized by unfamiliar desire to protect that bundle by any means necessary.
So before the rat could make its next move, Gajeel had leapt out from the darkness, caught the rat in it's teeth, then flung it across the floor. The rat turned and ran, Gajeel shot after it. They had raced around and around the room. The rat then bared it's teeth and flashed it's claws, ripping into Gajeel's fur and lashing him. Yes this rat was definitely not normal, it was much too clever and quick. But witch familiar or not, no rodent could be victorious in a battle against a feline. Gajeel gave a shiver and a leap and before the rat could blink, the cat was holding it down with his paw.
Now Gajeel had him. He pounced, caught the rat's throat in his jaws, and bit down hard. The rat's head was snapped off and it died instantly. He dropped the decapitated rat and was ready to go back to the desk where he had slept, but the ruckus had awakened the bundle, frightening it. He heard crying. Curious, he leapt on to the bannister and finally saw what had been swaddled in all those blankets.
He saw a tiny baby girl with skin like snow and a patch of azure fuzz on her head. She was squirming about as she cried, confused and scared by what was happening around her. Then she opened those big blue eyes of hers and looked up at the creature hovering over her. Other infants may have been even more scared by the sight of a black cat in the dark but not Juvia. Her crying stopped, and she started to coo. Smiling and reaching out to Gajeel with her little hands.
For a moment, he just kept staring at her, surprised by how unafraid of him she was. Then he jumped down into the crib, wanting to know what she wanted from him. First she started grabbing and pulling on his ears and whiskers, much to his discomfort, but he wasn't going to scratch her for it like a regular cat would under the same circumstances. Next she hugged him tight like he was stuffed animal meant for her to play with. Finally she nuzzled closer to him and dozed back off to sleep. It was new territory to Gajeel. He had never been loved like this before, and he would never admit it, but he liked it. So he spent the remainder of that night, curled up next to Juvia, guarding her from any danger that may try to sneak in again.
"When Anna found the dead rat in the morning, she figured I would be a good familiar for you or something like that." Gajeel said.
Juvia looked at him utterly amazed.
"You saved me?"
"Hey I may have a disturbed desire for dictatorship, but even I don't want to see a baby get hurt. I'm not that twisted." He rolled his eyes. "But don't you tell anyone else about this. I'm already a mockery for being turned into something that pees in a damn box, if word gets out that I have a very, very, very, small soft spot, no one will ever respect me again."
Juvia smiled at him completely touched. She sat up from her bed and grabbed him from the window sill.
"Hey what's the big idea?" He asked.
"I love you Gajeel."
"Whatever." He scoffed. "And take it easy with the mush, will ya?"
She only hugged him gently and kissed his furry head. Gajeel tried mightily to maintain a proper feline dignity. That effort lasted only ten seconds, and he couldn't help but purr.