Ⓘ'ⓜ ⓗⓞⓜⓔ
Locking her round and big silver eyes on the huge door ahead, the little girl was anxious and nervous to meet her new family, Fairy Tail. Although a lot had happened yesterday—she was mistakenly thought to be a thief, knocked out and tied up—however things were good now. Master Makarov had allowed her to be a part of their family. The back of her hand, she could still feel the coldness feeling of the insignia stamp on it. A proud emblem of Fairy Tail was on her hand. She can't believe it, after months travelling across the continent, she finally reached Fairy Tail.
"What are you standing here all for?" The raven haired boy from yesterday suddenly spoke up beside her, making her roll her eyes over his shirtless figure. As usual, he would freak out over his clothes, saying he had spent a lot of money to buy the clothes. It was a wonder, how did he manage to lose his clothes every two minutes? Was it that difficult to make sure he's wearing clothes? The boy named Gray sure raised a lot of questions to her. But, she's sure they won't be acquaintances as she intended to stay low and avoid people.
She didn't answer him, instead she just stared at the huge door again. Knowing behind that door was going to turn her life 180°, of course she's feeling nervous. Exhaling heavy breaths for quite numbers of time now, she began to irritate the boy beside her. He was getting impatient now but what was that for? He could have just opened it himself but he knew that moment was hers alone. He never knew, opening a door can be that hard, her eyes were not joking. They seemed very serious and he was amused to see her all panicked just because of that.
"Just open the door, dummy." His palm pushed her back gently.
It was no different now. Rae looked straight on the door with mixed feelings, she was scared and frightened yet at the same time, she was feeling courageous. Behind that door, was her family, the one who had always been there for her but she didn't know their names. She didn't remember them. Sure it's hard. Just like her past experience, Rae found herself taking deep breaths to properly prepare herself, making a certain Ice Mage get a deja Vu. His eyes focused on every tiny things she did, playing with her sleeves, eyes fixated on the door yet cautiously looked around, as if she's afraid of people seeing her like that.
"Mama, we're home." Haruka held her hand.
Natsu grinned. "Come on, Rae, they have been waiting for you!"
Gray went behind Rae, hand gently placed on her back and within one push, he whispered something to her quietly. Only for her. "Just open the door, dummy." That encouragement moved something inside her and Rae swallowed hard before pushing the door open with a small part of bravery left in her body. She could hear it all from outside, those loud ruckus happened inside—it was lively indeed but all of that turned into a dead silence once she made the move. She could feel many stares on her and suddenly she wanted to turn around now.
Her eyes roamed every face there, she didn't remember any of them. But even so, she had to act normal. Her hair was different but they could never forget those silver eyes and that face. With so many eyes on her, Rae grew insecure as her hands were bandaged, she was embarrassed to be seen. Yet, no one spoke or made any sound. Until a very tall guy with blond hair slicked back almost broke the chair he was sitting on when he stood up. Rae kept herself calm when he's walking towards her, staring at the face that didn't show any subtle emotion but that distinct lightning bolt shaped scar on his right eye caught her eyes.
He went to hug her.
Rae had been hugged like this before, but never this silent. There was something so warm, something that felt right. Her small figure sagged, her muscles became loose. Something about him reminded her of a childhood sweetheart, in that embrace, she sensed her worries loose their keen sting and it was amazing how her optimism suddenly increased. Maybe the hope to be accepted by them had been there all along. But without her opening her heart to let people in, it won't happen. She heard his heavy breaths and felt his hand brush her hair gently. That was unexpected from a big guy like him.
"Welcome home, Rae."
Just one sentence alone had the power to break her. She was caught off guard at first but soon, tears began to fill her eyes and her body trembled in his hold. She was broken, shattered and ground into the earth by the ones who claimed to be her family, but in a good way. She just didn't think she was that important to them. Her trust issues were eating her alive—everything they ever did, she strongly believed it was all for the Rae King they grew up with but with one embrace from him, she felt like she could trust them. Everyone there could hear her heartbreaking cries.
Why did she choose to leave them? Why did the Rae King choose to abandon there family? Rae had so many questions about her past decisions. She never found the answers. She didn't understand how could she play them like that. It was simply wrong. Everyone was suffering because of her choice. Her sob was a prove that she had begun to love them and at that moment, she knew she would do anything to protect her family and be with them but why did she once choose to leave. It was contradicting, unless her past self had something else planned. But that didn't matter anymore. She's starting a new life.
Her body was racked with guilt.
"I'm home." Rae moved her hands to hug him back, only to be crying harder when he pulled her even closer, her face pressed against his chest after her reply. She didn't know his name, but she clearly knew she's someone really important to him. At that exact moment, everyone in the guild joined their own world—they cried for her, adding guilt to her heart. Why did she hurt them? Rae held herself back from telling the truth, she's not going to trouble them with her problem anymore. It was enough that they suffered from her 'death'.
Laxus bit his lower lip, trying to hold back his crying. It was an unusual sight for sure. But, he knew it's futile in the end, he stiffled a laugh and Rae joined him too. Those two laughed at each other, despite still having their arms around each other. Laxus touched her hair. "You cut your hair?" Rae put her hand on his, saying lots of things happened and she did have a change of heart to cut her hair. It was convenient in fight as well. He only laughed even more, couldn't help but agree with her. But his eyes were focused on her bandaged hands and he could feel her losing weight, as if she was starved.
But before he could say anything about that, Rae squeezed his hand, saying she was doing fine. She even asked him if she still looked beautiful with her new haircut, fiddling her fingers with an unsure smile. To be honest, this new haircut made her look slightly mature, that's a given since she's in her twenties now. But one now could see the resemblance between those Heartfilia siblings. She was wearing a simple white dress with ruffles around her wrists to look more feminine, she borrowed it from Lucy.
Laxus smiled, his palm traced a slight noticable scar on her cheek. "Very very beautiful."
"Laxus, can you let go of her now? We want to hug her too." Mirajane asked loudly, tears were running down her face but she's hiding that fact by cowering her face behind a tray she's holding. The rest of guildmates nodded aggressively, saying they were her family as well, it's unfair how he got to hold her that long. Ah, so his name was Laxus. Laxus only cursed at them under his breath and reluctantly released her. He stepped aside and made some room for others to go to her. Even Master asked Mirajane to help him to push his wheelchair.
Rae immediately bowed. And once she raised her face, a huge teary eyed smile was shown. "I'm home, everyone."
"Rae!"
"Rae-nee-san!"
Everyone ran to her with happy smiles and tears to welcome her back. Everyone had been missing her. But what's really surprising her was, there was girl with blue hair crying a river—literally there was a river in the hall and Rae grew panic as she herself turned into water. "Rae-sama! Juvia misses you very much—every day Juvia wets herself for you—" Hearing such inappropriate sentence from the girl, Rae grew flustered and looked like everyone else thought the same as well. That was very bold of her to confess like that.
"Juvia! That sounds wrong!" A girl with slight short white hair yelled, trying to save the other girl from the second hand embarrassment. Now that Rae had seen her face clearly, it seemed like this girl and the other girl were sisters. They had same eyes and hair. Not long after that, Rae had another girl clinging to her forearm as this Lisanna girl was hugging her waist. "Cana—go away, let me have Rae-chan myself." Whining to the drunk girl, Lisanna pulled Rae away from her—Rae only let herself tugged by them cluelessly.
Meanwhile, Lucy was standing at the corner, biting on her hair angrily. "Nee-san is mine alone."
Haruka and Romeo shared a look then those two laughed simultaneously, saying things like they got another Juvia. The boy was truly glad Rae was home. Now, he can no longer watch her stare at nothing alone when everyone was busy having meals. He was happy for her. That smile on her face—it had been a long time since he saw a pure and sincere one. How he missed those big puppy eyes whenever she's asking something from her mother. How he missed her loud and cheery personality whenever Rae got a job and she wanted to go along.
Romeo put his hand on her head, patted her softly. "I'm glad she's home now, Haruka.".
She nodded vigorously. "I am very very happy! Thank you Romeo-san for believing in me." Her body moved to face him, he was her place to share all kinds of things with. She told him everything about her dreams seeing her mother alive and they even went together to find out more about her clairvoyant ability. From all information she had about her previous family, it seemed like Haruka didn't only have one magic, but two. Acid Magic and Foresight, however she was still lacking in using that ability. As far as she knew, it was only activated by accident.
Just like she had a dream about a black dragon, Acnologia trying to harm her family, same thing happened when she had a dream where she saw Rae alone in a forest. It was a mystery for sure. If only there more people knew her real mother then she would have a lead on this magic. It was quite different than Carla's since it only happened in short term. It can be a brief dream. But she knew it came into her dream. She did ask Ciel for more information but that guy didn't have any clue as well.
"Natsu, put me down instantly!"
Haruka snapped her head towards her mother's screaming and laughed once her eyes caught the Fire Dragon Slayer tossing her around, asking for a duel. "Natsu-san still doesn't change, yeah?"
"That's Natsu-nii for you, right?"
She looked at Romeo, nodding. "Right!"
Back with the crowd, everyone was scolding for Natsu as he was carrying her like a sack. He was stubborn as ever, kept on asking for a duel even when she clearly refused to. He was tossing her in the air and Rae was prepared to close her eyes when she was about to fall anytime now but certainly she's not expecting to have a pair of arms catch her body, her hands quickly held on to them. She's freaking out for real. Her grip on the collar was tightened when Natsu's voice was getting louder. That boy sure was energetic.
"Thank you." Rae finally opened her eyes and it was a young man.
It was a young man with orange hair. He was very good looking and he did reminded Rae of something. Rae snapped out and backed away, pulling her hands from him. She took a step back and nodded. "Thank you." The young man bit his lower lip and fixed his jacket, giving her a small smile then walked away. The Dark Enchantress kept her eyes on his figure as he then ran, being chase by some girls. Curiousity filled in her heart.
Rae stared at those eyes for a quite long time. Did she just have a flashback? That's a first. Almost as if her body was possessed, her lips mumbled the unfamiliar name softly and the way his eyes lit up behind the glasses pained her deeply. "Yes, Rae?" His voice was even smoother than she thought. Was he another guy she hurt before? She could feel the admirations in his style of talking. More like he adored her. Rae exhaled with a smile, it was expected that she would return his kindness nicely.
"Thank you, Loke."
A wide smile was on his face. "Anytime, Rae."
7/2/22
Do you get deja Vu?