Makarov came back in April, nearly a month after he’d left — and he didn’t come back alone.
I was in the training yard when the commotion started near the guild’s front doors, and by the time I made it over, Erza was already there too, both of us freezing in the exact same instant at the sight of three familiar, achingly familiar faces standing behind him.
“MILLIANNA!” She barreled into me before I even finished saying her name properly, nearly knocking me flat, and within seconds Simon and Sho had closed the distance too, and it became less a greeting and more a single tangled knot of kids who hadn’t been able to believe, until this exact moment, that any of this was actually real.
“You’re here,” Erza kept saying, over and over, arms wrapped around all three of them at once.
“You’re actually here.” “The old man found us,” Millianna said, half-laughing, half-crying into my shoulder.
“Just — showed up.
Said you two sent him.” That was my cue, and I took a breath before actually saying it out loud.
“I told him,” I said, looking at Erza now, guilt and relief tangled together in my chest all over again.
“About the tower.
Everything.
I know you wanted it kept quiet a while longer, but I couldn’t just wait, not with them still down there.
I’m sorry I didn’t tell you first.” Erza went quiet for a long moment, searching my face for something.
Then she bowed to me.
Actually bowed, formal and deep, before straightening back up with tears finally breaking free down her face.
“Thank you,” she said, voice cracking, and then she was hugging me too, fierce and tight, and the rest of them folded back in around us until it was just one massive, overwhelmed group hug in the middle of the guild hall, all of us crying and laughing in roughly equal measure.
It took a while for anyone to actually calm down enough to talk properly.
“So,” I said, once we’d all more or less settled, wiping my own face with considerably less dignity than I would’ve liked.
“You’ll join, right?
Fairy Tail.
All of you.” The three of them exchanged a look, and something in it made my stomach sink before any of them even answered.
“No,” Simon said, quiet.
“What?
Why not?” Sho was the one who explained, haltingly, staring at the floor.
“After you two left — Jellal came back.
Told everyone you’d both been corrupted.
That the power you’d gotten had twisted you both, made you dangerous, made you into something worth being afraid of.
We believed him.
For weeks, we believed him.” His voice caught.
“We hated you.
Both of you.
Until Master Makarov showed up and told us the truth — what actually happened down there, what he’d become, what that woman did to him.
He brought us here to see you both for ourselves.” “That wasn’t your fault,” Erza said immediately, fierce.
“None of it.
You were lied to.” “Maybe,” Millianna said.
“But we still hated you.
For weeks.
And we don’t even have magic — we’re just regular kids who got lucky enough to get rescued.
We don’t belong in a guild full of wizards.
We’re not worthy of that.” “That’s not true,” I said.
“None of that’s true.
It wasn’t your fault what you believed, and it’s definitely not your fault you don’t have magic yet.
Master could teach you.
All of you.
There’s no rule that says you have to walk in already knowing how to do something incredible.” They still shook their heads, gentle but firm, and no amount of arguing from either of us managed to shift it.
“We found a church,” Simon said, eventually.
“In the city where Blue Pegasus is based.
The priest there took us in, no questions asked.
We’re going to stay there for now.
Figure things out.” He managed a small, genuine smile.
“It’s not goodbye.
We’re not that far.
You can visit any time.
We just — need a little space to work out who we are, after everything.
Away from where it all happened, but not so far we can’t see you both.” It wasn’t the answer either of us wanted, but eventually, reluctantly, we let it stand, walking them through the guild one last time, exchanging promises about visits and letters before Makarov personally arranged transport to take them to their new home.
That night, once the guild had quieted down and the three of them were settled wherever Makarov had put them up for the evening before their trip, Erza found me sitting alone near the training yard, staring up at a sky full of stars that felt a lot less oppressive than the ones we used to see from the tower.
“You really told him everything,” she said, sitting down beside me.
Not accusatory.
Just quiet.
“Everything I had,” I said.
“I know you wanted to wait.
I know I broke your trust doing it without asking first.” “You did.” She was quiet for a moment.
“But you were right.
If we’d waited — if we’d tried to get strong enough ourselves first, the way I wanted — how much longer would they have been down there?
Weeks?
Months?
Years?
Decades ?
I don’t know if I could forgive myself for that, if I’d gotten my way .
Would they even be alive till that time .” “I didn’t want to make that choice for you,” I said.
“But I couldn’t sit on it either.
Not with them still there.” “I know.” She looked over at me, something softer in her expression than I was used to seeing.
“You keep doing that.
Making the hard call before anyone else is ready to.
Carrying weight that isn’t only yours to carry.” “So do you,” I pointed out.
“Maybe.
But I have you watching my back for it now.” She bumped her shoulder lightly against mine.
“And I suppose I have to actually keep that promise I made on the boat.
Watching yours too.” We sat there a while longer, quiet, comfortable, watching the stars, two kids who’d survived considerably more than either of us should have had to, finally starting to believe that the worst of it might genuinely be behind them.
Millianna, Simon, Sho — safe.
Free.
Not with us, not yet, but safe.
That’s enough for tonight.
Told you it’d be worth it, big brother said quietly, somewhere in the back of my mind.
Even the parts that hurt to get there.
Yeah, I thought, watching Erza’s small, tired smile beside me under all those stars.
Yeah.
Worth it.