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fallen029 · 7 years ago

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Remember Me: Twists and Turns.5

Previous Chapter

The sun was crawling closer to the center of the sky as Kai and Marin found themselves lying on their backs next to their garden, him toying with his puzzle cube while she read a children's book. Everything felt peaceful and calm, in those moments, before Ravan arrived. 'cause when he did, Kai knew it would all turn bad. Ravan would shove it in his face, that he'd done so well at his job and there was poor Kai, not even able to complete a stupid puzzle. Then he'd be subjected to the terrible word of having an arrow shot at him and that would make him cry and it just…

Rolling onto his stomach in the grass, Kai continued to diligently work at solving the damn thing while Marin sat by, reading to him the directs Lucy had given him when asked. He felt like he was memorizing them though and understood the cube a lot more than he had previously, but his confidence over being able to eventually solve the thing was kind of shot.

"Still working away, I see," was what Erza remarked when she came out into the backyard to lord over them. "On everything, but your magics. Marin, do you wish to be a true slayer or not? And Kai...oh, Kai."

"Hey," the little boy grumbled with a frown at the woman. "I have lofty goals too."

"Lofty?" the elder mage repeated, partially in shock that he even knew such a word. "Or lazy?"

"I'm ambitious, Erza," he insisted to the woman. "How could you say that?"

"You are learning quite the array of words, apparently, I will give you that."

"I'm an uncle now," he reminded her. "That's a lot to deal with. It's matured me."

"Hmmm." The swordswoman only continued to stare down at him. "Has it?"

Pushing up some, he nodded his head at her. "I think about other things now, than just food and myself."

"What do you think about?"

"This cube. Being Ravan's arrow boy. How come the baby doll's eyes are painted on instead of those cool googly ones that I like much better."

"Riveting," the woman told him simply, "thoughts."

She'd stumped him finally, with her words, but he could tell from the tone that it wasn't anything nice. Glaring at her, he retorted, "I've got a lot of other thoughts too. I'm a real deep person, Erza. Like, do you ever think about how come some people eat a lot and get fat, but other people eat a lot and get really muscular, like Elfman? No. I do."

"I don't," Erza replied, "because I know why. There's regimen and working out that go into all of that as well the type of food one is consuming. Not to mention-"

"I also think about other things!" Kai wasn't giving up so easily. "I think about...um… I think about life."

"Life?" Marin giggled back. "What do you mean?"

"In general," he specified without being specific at all."

Erza, that time, didn't question him. Only folded her arms over her chest and chuckled softly. Then, shaking her head, she continued on past them and went over to her weapons shed. She summoned her key from her reequip space before unlocking the heavy metal locks.

As they softly tumbled to the ground, Erza became reequipping other things.

She was swapping out her weapons.

On any other day, Kai would have happily rushed over and offered his service in polishing for them, as he had way back when (a year ago, at most), when he didn't know her too well and the action was an order from the woman. It felt like so long ago to him though that he didn't live with Erza and they weren't the best of friends.

Some nights though, when he thought really hard, he could remember life before… Before. But it got harder and harder with each passing day. He could still recall his mother and father's faces, but his other relatives and members of his tiny village grew tougher. It was hard for him to even think of names, some days. Or the path he and his father would take down to the best fishing spot.

Even the terrible event that he thought would forever be seared into his memory, when that hideous monster came out from the water and destroy his home, his family, his life, was slowly beginning to fade. And, though it still hurt his heart to think about, Kai struggled to honestly understand his true emotions in it all. He loved his mother and father. Their village. Their simple life.

Honest, he did.

Or he had.

Now, being so young and being inundated into a new lifestyle, it was hard for him to say with confidence that he wouldn't choose it over the other. Had he stayed on that coast and never ventured with Ravan to Magnolia, he'd have never truly met Erza. Or Master. Or Ms. Master. Or Marin. Or anyone. Fairy Tail woudln't mean anything to him.

But as it was, it meant everything to him.

How oculd he ever consider it not being that way?

Ravan got really mad at him sometimes, when he'd ask for him to tell him a story about their past. About how they lived. Before. Ravan didn't like to think about those things.

But Kai did.

Or at least he wanted to.

He wanted to remember that he was happy back then too. That there were happy times when he was with his family. His real family. He never wanted to forget that there had been something before Fairy Tail. Before he met Marin. Before Erza started taking care of him.

For as slow and immature as he could be at times, Kai wasn't dumb. He knew that if it was already so hard for him to recall things, that as time went on, it would become impossible. And that made him sad.

And he didn't like being sad.

It was as he watched Erza disappear into the overly filled shed that he thought of all this. Again. And he wanted to go over there and help her. Honest, he did. But…

He had to finish his cube, after all.

No, those few, easy jewels that he would make off that could wait. He had to-

"Ravan!"

He had to be shot in the butt with a bow by his vindictive older brother who would then make fun of him for the misfortune.

Yep.

The sound of Marin announcing his brother's return made Kai fall back down to the ground in defeat.

It was over.

There was a chance, of course, that Ravan would come back unsuccessful and therefore would void the contract, but no. The air he had about him just gave off an enormous victorious vibe. And, as he came to sneer over at his brother, Kai knew for sure that his goose was cooked.

"Looks like I'm back," the older boy said while pointing to the cube that the younger held in his palms, "and you're still not finished."

Kai had to bite back any complaints he had, literally grinding his teeth to stop the excuses from coming out. Instead, he only sat there and nodded as his brother. Because he was right. He hadn't finished and that was the deal.

"I," Ravan continued, "am gonna go ask Erza for the biggest bow she has with the sharpest arrows. Then we can get to practicing, huh?"

Kai was shaking.

No, literally.

Seeing this, Marin frowned a bit and asked the oldest boy, "Don't you wanna rest? You just got back home. Did you wanna go play at the guild?"

"I don't play at the guild, Marin," he griped at her. "I'm a serious mage with serious responsibilities. Playing is for babies. Like you. Who can't even solve a puzzle made for babies."

Still, before he walked away, Ravan dropped his sack of stuff on his back to the ground and, digging around it some, produced a large bag of candy, like the one he'd purchased the same day Kai got his cube.

"Share," was all he ordered the two kids who, now in better spirits, took to doing just that.

But Kai didn't have to be an arrow boy just yet, it seemed, as at his return, Erza wanted a complete rundown of his job and how he went about completing this.

It was at the bar that this took place, however, where Erza bought herself a stiff drink and Ravan purchased his own lunch with his own money because he was a man. Kai and Marin ate what Mirajane gave them because they were still kids.

And honestly, as he munched into his grilled cheese, Kai didn't think that was all that bad.

"Hi, Locke," Marin greeted with a giggle when the older boy came in with his father and Pantherlily. He'd made a beeline right over for them.

"Hi," he greeted them all with a nod. Erza was the only one to return it as Ravan only glared at him and Kai was too busy eating to focus on much else. "Have you seen Haven? I wanted to know if she wanted to go with me to the toy store to get a cube-"

"You can have mine," Kai offered as he finally came up for air. "I don't want it anymore."

Erza, taken aback a bit by this, asked, "Why? You seemed so enamored with it before."

"Well, I can't solve it!" he complained. "I gave it everything and I didn't solve it. Locke wants one and-"

"So?" Ravan, from his spot next to Erza, frowned at his younger brother. "You're just gonna give up? I thought you didn't want to be a baby."

"I'm not a baby!"

"Then don't act like one."

"I'm not!"

"Are too. Quitter."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I used to want a brother," Locke remarked as he glanced between them slowly. "I'm glad I never got one."

"Locke!" And Haven had found him, it seemed, as she came to shove his shoulder. "You're late."

"Late?" he gripped, rubbing at where she'd no doubt left a bruise. "What are you talking about?"

"I learned a new magic spell from Laxus last night that's super powerful and I want to test it out on somebody."

Widening his eyes, the older boy said simply, "Why do you think I want to be the one?"

"Locke-"

"I'll do it." Ravan was still eating, but dropped his fork then at the sound of a challenge. "Haven."

Which, of course, made Locke glare at the boy before remarking, "She asked me."

"And you said no."

"Why do you guys wanna get shocked so badly?" Marin asked with a frown.

It was weird, honestly, the way they all intertwined together. All friendships at the stage of life are, in some ways, but the closeness in which theirs were frequently brought made it even odder. In any close group of friends, there always has to be a leader of sorts. With such pigheaded people like Haven and Ravan around, most would assume that it would be the two of them that butted against one another frequently.

And it was. It definitely was.

But at the same time, Haven more or less was just the defector leader. Her father was the guild master, she was one of the oldest and, most importantly, by far, she was the one with the least will to give up. She would kick and scream and punch and bite until she was unconscious if it meant getting her way.

Her strong will, when put up against the other children, was usually enough to at the very least outlast them. While Locke only got bigger and Ravan only got stronger, neither would ever have as much drive as Haven did.

So, that left Locke and Ravan to fight for second in command.

Of sorts, at least.

Because Ravan would never admit that he wanted anything to do with the slayer kids. And Locke would never admit Haven was kind of sort of his leader. However, they could both feel that though Haven was Ravan's mortal enemy and definitely Locke's best friend who he hated, the two of them just had a natural rivalry to them.

Fighting over letting Haven potentially paralyze them went into that.

"It doesn't matter," Haven decided. "I probably can do the attack twice now, I'm so powerful."

Still, Locke and Ravan glared at one another. It was during this though that Kai asked, "I thought you wanted to go to the toy shop? Locke? Or will you take my puzzle cube?"

That, at least, got the dark haired boy to look away from the other. Instead, he stared at the other's brother, shaking his head.

"I wouldn't take your toy, Kai," he told him with a bit of a grin. "Besides, Master bought you that. Remember? That makes it special."

Staring at where it sat on the table, Kai only shrugged his shoulders. "Mr. Bickslow said that I gotta learn to do it piece by piece. That may take awhile."

"But you've already gotten so much better!" Marin insisted. "You get it started all on your own, even, without the instructions Lucy gave us. And the more you go on, the better you'll understand it. You can't just give up, Kai. It's not manly!"

He wasn't sure, Kai wasn't, when he told Marin of his desire to become that. A man. But he was sure it had been divulged during their deep integral conversations where they discussed things like what made some people fat and some people muscular. Why the sky was blue. What's the difference between paste and glue? Lost in all that deep, stimulating conversation, was no doubt a tip off.

Or maybe...maybe Marin just knew.

He did like Elfman a whole lot.

They were both uncles, after all.

"You'll get better at it, loser," Ravan told him simply as he stood to accompany Locke and Haven. "Just keep practicing."

It was only after the older kids were gone though that Erza, who'd silently been sipping at her drink, spoke.

"When I was a girl," she began to which both Marin and Kai, too young to roll their eyes, only sighed softly, fearing a lecture, "I was quite scared of it too, Kai."

"Puzzle cubes?" he asked softly.

"Failure," she corrected. "Of course, the stakes were quite raised for me, in comparison to you-"

"His arrows hurt when they hit me, Erza."

"-but the first part of overcoming that fear is accepting the defeat when you taste it. And you have already done that part," the woman said with a nod of her head. "Have you not?"

"Well," he said slowly as Marin only giggled, "I didn't gripe too much when he told me I lost. And I will go collect his bows for him, when he practices his archery."

"The second part, however," she went on, "involves something much harder."

"Harder than getting hit with arrows?"

Nodding a bit, she said, "You must keep your head up. And continue to improve. Do you think that when I first arrived at this guildhall, I was capable of handling the toughest of jobs?"

"I dunno," Marin remarked slowly. "I always kinda thought you did."

"I did not," Erza assured them. "I worked at it. And I failed, at times. But when I failed, I hardly gave any time to licking my wounds. I got another job, I practice the move that failed me, I leveled up my magic. Whatever it took to get back out there, I did it. Ravan bet you, fine, and you lost, but that does not mean that you give up on what you originally set out to do. You must continue on, Kai. Eventually, you will be able to do a puzzle cube in your sleep. And what then?"

"Then...then I go on a job?"

"No." Reaching over, she patted him softly on the head with care that she only seemed to have for him. "You take the lessons that you learned from it and you continue to grow and mature as a person. You widen your magical abilities and find a side to you that doesn't constantly have to smart off and loaf about. Then, and only then, will you take a job."

Kai frowned some, down at the table, and thought on this for a long moment before raising his head and staring the scarlet warrior right in the eyes as he questioned, "Erza?"

"Yes?"

"You knew that I bet Ravan that I would go on a job, if I won and finished the cube."

"You told me that, yes."

"But… You don't want me to go on jobs yet. And you didn't tell me that if I won, I wouldn't be able to. Did you lie to me?"

"No," the woman said with a bit of a shrug as she raised her mug to her lips. Around it, she told him simply, "I knew you would never finish the cube."

His eyes falling then, Marin felt her own spirit crush at the woman's words as the boy only whispered, "Oh."

"But I was pleasantly surprised by your determination," she complimented him. Sort of. "Even in the face of inadequacy, you persevered. That is not something that you do often."

"I just wanted to prove Ravan wrong."

"Good." Nodding her head, she said, "Whatever drives you, use it. If we're lucky, maybe one day Ravan will dare you to actually learn some more spells."

Doubtful.

But maybe.

As it turned out, Haven's new spell was not as master as she thought and wound up with all three kids rather ill the next few days. She'd been far more powerful than she planned and nearly killed Locke, as he was the first to be shocked, and injured herself and Ravan in the process as the electricity flowed through the area behind the bar they attempted this, striking both the young reequip mage and the girl herself.

Laxus had a long talk with Haven about control and what it meant to have power over others.

Gajeel talked to Locke about not being such a weenie and, hey, maybe even finding a new best friend because the Dreyar girl clear had it out for him.

Erza didn't talk to Ravan about the incident at all though she did hold off on a job to stay around the house as he laid up on the couch, feeling singed from inside out.

Mira had to work though, up at the hall everyday as Lisanna was going out on a job and they were just too busy for Kinana to work alone. Laxus had to go out of town, to attend a guild master meeting. This usually meant that either Evergreen and Elfman would watch the girls, but that couldn't be the case as they were off too. During the evening, their mother could be with them, but during the day, with Haven so laid up…

She wanted to go to Locke's house and he wanted her to come there too, so they could heal (bicker) together, but Gajeel and Levy seemed a bit peeved about the whole thing, Laxus felt, and he didn't want a whole ordeal (being a master and all, he was always worried that eventually he'd be forced to actually discipline Haven for her misdeeds, worst of all when she wasn't even doing anything wrong, just being too powerful for her own good), so he was going to send her over to Navi's place, but Mirajane insisted he not do that as Lucy already had enough to deal with.

"Oi, boss, I can watch the kid," Bickslow told the man and his missus the morning Lisanna was leaving. "I already have Ajax here to watch, right? So I'll just come over here with him and sit with Haven. Like she was a baby again. Won't you like that, Haven?"

"No," she insisted from the other room, where she was stretched out on the couch, bandaged from head to toe. "I don't. Laxus, no, please."

From the kitchen, Laxus grunted a bit down at his coffee before saying, "You able to handle that, Bickslow? Your kid and Haven? Especially when she's so whiny-"

"I am not. And no, he can't. Mom, tell Bickslow no.":

"I can watch her!" Bickslow even saluted Mirajane and Laxus, getting the former to giggle. "Take care of it all, I will. I'll keep her entertained too. Movie lacrimas rot the minds of the young. I'll keep her entertained with the same things I was entertained by as a kid. The mystics of card tricks! The illusions of juggling! How to do a back flip. How to not do a back flip. Are you really a tragic clown trapped in the body of an equally as tragic acrobat? Find out!"

"Laxus, I won't ever do anything bad again," Haven continued to plead. "Don't make me listen to that."

"I, for one," the slayer said with the brightest smile he'd had in awhile, "am sold."

"Laxus!"

But when her parents were gone and it was just Bickslow and her (Ajax was too busy playing with his toys to care about either of them), Haven didn't gripe too much.

Mostly because he didn't do all that he told Laxus he would.

Instead, he pulled up a chair by the couch and sat down, tossing around a rubber ball he'd found in their toys, throwing it up high enough to just graze the ceiling before falling back down into his waiting palm.

"Why'd you wanna stay with me so badly?' Haven asked with a bit of a frown. Honestly, she was banking on being sent over to Freed's where he'd make her read books and give her lectures on her recklessness. "Is it because you wanna impress stupid Laxus?"

"What, kid?" he asked her with his own frown. "I can't love you? I'm your uncle, aren't I?"

"Not like Elf. And don't be gross."

"Love ain't gross," he insisted with a sigh. "Love is special."

Still, Haven stared at him. "You just wanna impress Aunt Lisanna and Mom, don't you?"

"Perceptive little shit, huh?" Bickslow snickered a bit. "It's why I love you."

"Stop saying that."

"Your aunt needed to go out on a job," the man said then with a more straight face. "Can't keep forcing her to stay home with Ajax here. A man should raise his son and all."

"Now you sound like Elf."

"He isn't the only one that can worry about that sorta stuff," Bickslow insisted. Then, looking off, he added, "Besides, I'm not trying to just impress them. Your aunt and mother. I'm just trying to be a better person. What's wrong with that?"

To Haven? Everything. To admit you wanted to be better at something meant that you'd failed at something.

And she'd never admit something like that.

"It's a piece by piece thing," he insisted to her as, that time, when the ball came down, he held it in his hand, clutching it tightly. "Piece by piece."

Across town, Marin was having a much better time than her sister as, rather than worry for her own flesh and blood's well-being, she worried over the sibling she had in hushed whispers only. Ravan.

He was much better at being a big brother than Haven was a big sister.

In true big brother fashion, even, he made her sit by the couch, reading a comic book to him. This annoyed Erza who, by this point, though the boy was playing up his injury a little too much, but did take the pressure off Kai to entertain the girl for a few days.

Because yes, he did think of that as his job. It was an important part of their friendship, after all.

During all this though, as Kai sat near by, tinkering with his cube, it happened. After days of trial and error and assistance from others, he'd done it.

He'd solved the puzzle cube.

It was with a lot of pride that he came to set it on Ravan's chest who, a bit put out considering he was very invested in the comic he was having read to him, frowned at first. This changed though, after a moment.

"Well, look at the big baby," he congratulated in his own way as Marin, noting then its completion, dropped the comic to go hug her best friend. "Finally finished it, did you? It'd be a shame if someone messed it up again!"

"No!" And Kai had to be quick to grab it before his brother did. "Ravan!"

"What's the point then?" the older boy asked. "It's how the toy works, ain't it? You mix it all up and start all over again, don't you?"

"Not me," the younger said as he took steps back, away from his brother and friend. "I'm gonna go glue it together. So ti can never be messed up again?"

Joke lost in his tone then, Ravan told him simply, "Don't do that. You big diork."

"You're a big dork!"

"You're the biggest one if you go and do something like that."

"Fine," Kai huffed as, looking down at his cube again, he said, "But I'm not messing it up again. Not yet."

"Don't then," Ravan huffed as the moment passed and he wasn't so congratulatory towards the younger boy then. "You big baby."

"I'm not a baby."

"I like it, Kai," Marin told him with a big grin. "I think you did great."

"Thank you," he grinned right back. Then, glancing down at it, he said, "It looks so nice. This way. I'mma go show Erza!"

"Me too!"

"Hey," Ravan complained as they ran off for the kitchen to find the woman. "You were reading to me. Marin!"

That's what he got though, he figured as his body cried out at him when he tried to reach to grab the comic where Marin had discarded it on the ground. Trusting another Dreyar girl. What was he thinking?

Locke wasn't thinking about much of anything as he laid in his room, having taken a far worse brunt of the magic than Kai or Haven had. He wasn't sure what was worse, the way his head banged or everything smelt like smoldering coals, but mostly he just knew it plain stunk.

It was the shittier end of the stick, for sure, being an only child. And only family, it felt like, at times, as even though Marin and Haven didn't get along too well, she had all those aunts and uncles to play with. And Navi's brothers were too small to really do much, but she had her dad who was more like a big brother than he was a, well, dad.

Locke loved his mother and father and Lily, but sometimes you just needed someone else.

Which is what he got when, after some convincing, Haven was allowed by his mother passed the front door and there she was, in his room.

But she didn't apologize.

He'd have feared he was hurt far worse than he was if she had.

"Here," she said simply as she held out something to him.

Locke smiled, maybe, a bit, as he asked, "Oh. Kai solved his puzzle cube?"

"No, loser," she remarked as, no longer holding it out, she took the solved cube and begin to mix it all up. It was only once it was thoroughly mangled that she moved to actually place it in his hands then. "I bought it. For you."

He grinned widely at that and Haven wanted to punch him, but she couldn't because he was so hurt and it probably would actually get them grounded for one another even longer. The short few days they had been had been terrible for them both and were more than enough.

He wanted to thank her and ask her how she was feeling and, maybe, even about Ravan (bleh, maybe not), but she was sinking to the floor then, to sit with her back up against his bed and he only began to toy with his cube as she started to tell him all about her horrible punishment of having to be babysat by her Uncle Bickslow and, honestly?

He'd take that moment over a stupid apology any day.

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