So as the final one shot before the End of the World, I've decided to do something interesting.
Enjoy!
Elise wished she knew what it was about her parents bathroom that gave her such a kill headache. Every time she walked by it her head throbbed painfully and, if she got to close, she almost passed out. That was where she was at the moment, as she had gone to see her parents before her and the others went to the beach.
"What are you doing Elise?" She heard her mother ask. She turned and rubbed her forehead.
"What is it with that bathroom?" She demanded. "I get a killer headache every time I walk near. Are all your beauty products tat harmful on my head?" Elise noted the panicked expression on her mothers face as she ushered her away.
"It's nothing." She excused quickly. "Just uh...Don't go in there." Elise watched her mother with a weird look as she was shoved into the living room, but didn't pursue the subject. Just as she made to leave, her father came in and passed her, patting her head.
"Hey pipsqueak." He said. "What're you doing here?"
"Just stopping by." she replied. "Hey, Dad?"
"Yeah?" Elise made a face as she met her fathers gaze.
"Do you know why the bathroom here makes my head hurt so much?" There was a flicker of emotion on his face but, other then that he didn't say anything, and instead opted to take a bite out of some utensils in the kitchen.
"Not a clue." He lied through his teeth. "Want a fork, kid?"
"...No, I'm good." She replied. "I'll see you later dad, if I'm any later the others will leave without me."
"Alright, see ya." Elise nodded and left, leaving herself with her thoughts. She honestly had no idea why she got these seemingly random, intense headaches, and it was starting to piss her off. Maybe her friends knew, however unlikely that was. Once she got to the guild, she could see her friends waiting near the front of the door, all really for their trip to the beach.
"About time you got here." Ultear said as Elise made it, "What the hell took you so long?"
"I was busy" Elise replied.
"Doing...?"
"...Whatever." Elise said, shouldering the question away. "Let's just go."
Once the group of friends reached their destination, Elise knew what would happen. The second any of the guys looked away every straight guy on the beach would stare at her. Nashi, and Ultear. She was used to it by now, it wasn't like she minded.
"Alright, let's do this!" Simon shouted.
"Race you there!" Ultear said, shoving Simon and running towards the water. Simon laughed and used Meteor after her, flying right into her and throwing her into the water. Elise smiled and turned, sitting down on her towel.
"Mind if I join you, Elise?" Elise looked over to find Damien lying down next to her.
"No," She replied. "Are you going to get a tan?"
"Yeah, I figure it can't hurt. Also, I like to time how long it takes for some girl to come and hit on me for all of this." He gestured to his inhumanely good form and Elise laughed.
"I don't think that'll take very long at all." She told him, eyeing it herself. "It's quite impressive." Damien grinned and closed his eyes, soaking up all f the rays from the sun above. Looking over at the other two, Elise saw Drake rubbing sunscreen on Nashi's back. She grinned at the scene in front of her.
"Enjoying yourself Drake?" She called, and Drake cast her a smug look as he ran his hands down Nashi's back.
"You jealous?" he asked, and Nashi cast him an irritated look over her shoulder.
"Not really, no." She replied, before something occurred to her. "Can you even get sunburns Nashi?"
"You'd think I couldn't." She replied. "But I've been burned more than once, so it doesn't hurt."
"Huh, never would've thought it." Elise sighed and took her shirt off, enjoying the sun warming her pale skin. "Drake! Come do me when you're done."
"Ugh, fine." Drake replied, sitting down behind her. As he squirted the sunscreen on her back, Elise chuckled at his resistance.
"You know, " She said, "You're the only guy I know who'd be reluctant to put sunscreen on a girl who asked you." Drake chuckled.
"It's because it's you, Elise." he replied. "I've known you to long to be turned on by your back."
"Ow," Elise said, clutching her chest. "that hurt, man. Are you saying I'm unattractive?"
"Take that any way you want it." he replied. "It makes no difference to me." Rolling her eyes at his words, Drake finished up applying the sunscreen and, before Elise could run to the water, Drake caught her arm. She turned to find him smirking at her.
"You haven't done me yet." he replied. Elise tried to pout and get out of it, but he was having no none of it. Growling angrily as she sat behind Drake, she instructed him to take his shirt off. Once he had, Elise's eyes widened.
Drake's back was covered in scars. Some were huge, some were small, but they were everywhere. As soon as Elise saw them, her head began to throb painfully.
"What's up?" Drake asked, looking over his shoulder.
"N-N..." Elise grabbed her head as it began to spin violently. "N-Nothing...It's...I'm fine."
"You sure?" He asked.
"I..." Elise met Drake's eyes, her vision blurring. "I don't feel so good..." After several more seconds of blurred vision, Elise felt light headed.
"Shit!" Drake shouted. "ELISE!
What Drake said no longer mattered, as she blacked out.
"What happened?!"
"Is she okay?!"
"I don't know, she just blacked out!"
"What do we do?!"
"Do you think it's because she remembered?!" Elise flinched and opened her eyes, looking up. She could see her five friends looking down at her with worried expressions on their faces.
"Elise?" Nashi asked. "Are you okay?" Elise groaned and sat up, looking around as her friends knelt down next to her.
Wha-Wha...What happened?" Elise asked weakly.
"You were going to put sunscreen on my back when you blacked out." Drake told her. "How do you feel?"
"Ugh..." Elise felt her head spinning, and the feeling angered her. "Like absolute shit."
"Man, You had us worried there for a second." Ultear said, smiling. "At least you're okay."
"Yeah..." Elise agreed. "Hey, uh, guys?" They all looked attentively at her, and she sighed. "Do...Do you guys know why I get really bad headaches sometimes?" All five of them just stared at her, but she sensed the tension from them increase.
"W-What?" Nashi asked weakly.
"I get really terrible headaches sometimes." She replied.
"They're just headaches." Damien replied. "Don't worry about it."
"They're not...!" Elise took a moment to calm down. "They're not just headaches. I always get them near the bathroom at my parents house, for instance." Drake shifted uncomfortably at these words. "And, when I was going to put the sunscreen on Drake's back and saw his..." Elise's head spun at the mere thought. "..His scars, that's when I blacked out." When she looked around at their stoic faces, she could sense that, one way or another, they were hiding something from her.
"Don't worry about it, Elise." Nashi said, putting a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "You're fine!"
"...Thanks, Nashi." Elise said, putting a smile on her face for her friends. Nashi smiled and stood.
"Now," She said. "Are we going to enjoy our day at the beach or not?" Drake laughed.
"Damn right we are!" He shouted. Elise watched her friends rush back towards the water, leaving her y herself. She sighed.
"So you guys won't tell me, huh?" She asked lowly. "Fine. I'll find out one way or another."
Elise was in her parents house, waiting for her parents to come home. She had decided that, as of her beach trip that day, she was done not knowing what was wrong with her, and if anyone could be guilt tripped into telling her what was up, it was her parents, especially her mother. She looked up as the door opened slightly.
"Just saying shrimp." She heard her father say. "It'd be better if...?" Both of them stopped as they saw Elise standing there looking at them.
"Elise?" Her mother asked. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be at the guild, or the dorms."
"We have to talk." Elise said. "Sit down, the two of you." Both of them raised eyebrows as they moved past her and to the couch.
"Elise, what is this about?" Her mother asked, and Elise took a deep breath.
"This is really serious, and I need you both to answer me as truthfully as possible, alright?" Elise asked, just to confirm getting some semblance of truth.
"Get on with it, Elise." Her father advised. Elise took a deep breath, suddenly becoming nervous.
"Well, I guess what the problem is, uh..."
"Oh my God, you're pregnant aren't you?!" Elise and her father both stared at her mother like she was insane.
"What?!" Elise shrieked. "No! What the...! What the hell mom?!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She said, going red and hiding her face. "I jumped to conclusions."
"No shit shrimp." Her father growled, sitting back a bit. "Why would you even think that?"
"I don't know..."
"Who would even be the father?!" Elise demanded. "Why of all things, would you assume that?!"
"N-Never mind, just continue."
"G-Give me a minute..." Elise rubbed her face with her hand and tried to gather her thoughts. "Alright, alright, what I as going to ask was about my headaches."
"Huh?" her mother asked, but Elise stood her ground.
"My headaches, Mom." She replied. "You both know what I'm talking about. I tell you about them all the time, and you both shake me off like it's nothing and..." She took a deep breath. "Today it got really bad. Drake wanted me to apply sunscreen on his back and I saw his scars...I blacked out." Both sets of eyes on her widened at these words.
"You did?" Her father asked.
"Yeah. I'm done with this, and I know you both know something about why I suffer those headaches. I want an answer, and I want it now." Emphasizing the end of her sentence, Elise watched her parents carefully. There was a stretch of silence before her mother sighed, her father rubbing her back.
"Alright, I..I suppose you deserve to know." She said. "Elise, the reason you suffer those headaches sometimes is...it's because you're memory has been reworked." Elise felt her eyes widen She'd had her suspicions, but this?
"It...It was?" She asked weakly. Her father nodded.
"Remember Phantom Dove?" He asked, and she nodded. "The reason your memory was reworked because, well, some stuff happened."
"What kind of stuff?" Elise demanded, ignoring the spinning in her head.
"We don't even know." Her mother replied. "The only people that really know are Nashi and Drake. Because, you know, they were there." Elise's head was spinning even more violently then before, and she felt sick.
"W-What?" She managed.
"Well," her father said, sighing. "I guess it all really started with that Apocalypse guy..."
Apocalypse...
The name rang through Elise's head like a bullet. The spinning intensified and Elise gripped her forehead again, flashes of green magic circles and black hair going through her head. She groaned and leaned against the couch.
"Maybe this was a mistake." She said weakly.
"Elise?" Her mother asked as the blurring vision came back. "Are you oka...?"
Levy and Gajeel both watched as Elise collapsed in a heap. Levy sighed as Gajeel took initiative to pick his daughter up and carried her like a princess.
"Was that the best thing to do?" She asked weakly as Gajeel made for Elise's room.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean, we used Mest's memory programming to make her pass out so we wouldn't have to say anything." Gajeel sighed at these words and looked over at her
"Look at it this way shrimp, if we'd said anything it might have faulted the programming." He smiled slightly. "It's better she wakes up with no memory of that conversation then that happens." Levy nodded and looked down at the ground, feeling a little sad.
"Hey, Gajeel?"
"Yeah?"
"Are...Are we bad parents?" Gajeel made a frustrated sound as he put Elise in her bed and they both turned to leave the room, shutting the door behind them.
"Listen to me." he said. "We are not bad parents, and you are not a bad mother. Sometimes, shit happens. And, unfortunately,this is one of those times. We don't know what could happen to her is she remembers what happened with Phantom Dove, it could kill her. She might have killed herself knowing what happened."
"Yeah I...I guess." She smiled up at Gajeel. "Thanks Gajeel." He grinned and laughed.
"No problem shrimp." He said, putting a hand on her head. "Now, stop worrying about it shrimp." Levy nodded and followed him to their room. She knew Elise's problem was bad, but it was for the best.
No matter what, Elise could not remember.
Sadly Levy, that won't happen. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get ten!