Rapproachment II

Erza walked the near vacant streets of Magnolia as the morning sun began to rise. It had been about an hour since she left the tree where she and Natsu rested. The thought of them being so close together made her smile a bit, she missed the idiot. Erza when did you become a love struck little girl? She chastised herself as she continued to walk towards the Fairy Tail guild hall.
Her thoughts of Natsu had to wait, she departed early with a purpose. She had to correct a mistake, but if she was being honest it felt more like she was preventing one. Even though the mistake was in the far future, Erza felt the backlash in the present. Her big heart was always one of her biggest weaknesses, but she never thought that she herself would be the one to exploit it.
She continued down the path, with her head and shoulders forward. She had her same confident stride, her warrior's walk never breaking, but it was all muscle memory. Her mind was elsewhere, departed into the air the moment she walked away from Natsu's house.
Daughter. The word still felt odd in her head, almost as odd as the fact that Natsu was the father. She knew Natsu was a good man, but the thought of him raising a child seemed disastrous. Honestly, if I wanted to have children Natsu would not have been my first choice. She began to think to herself. She began to randomly think of those who would be good fathers, she couldn't deny that Jellal was at the top of the list; but Natsu was in the top 5…after Gray.
She chuckled to herself when she thought of it. I bet Natsu would be angry that I thought Gray would be a better father than him. Even though Natsu wasn't her first choice for a father, she couldn't deny that he still had his own unique qualities. Well he did raise Happy with Lisanna, Romeo idolizes him, he and Wendy have a nice relationship, and from what I've seen Aura is a well-rounded girl despite what she had to go through. She smiled softly, "Maybe Natsu would be a good dad."
She continued down the street until she was in front of the guild hall. Her heart was pounding, it had only been 12 hours or so since she had seen Aura but it felt much longer. She didn't know what to say, what could she say? Aura potentially ruined her future by telling Erza her true origin, and she did nothing. She felt terrible about it.
She slowly opened the doors to see Mirajane at her usual spot behind the bar. Wendy, Carla, & surprisingly Happy were sitting at said bar, and Master Makarov was sitting on the railing of the second floor; but to her surprise and slight shame Aura was nowhere to be found.
"Good morning Erza." Mirajane said in her usual happy tone.
"Good morning everyone." Erza replied, walking towards the bar.
"How was your mission?" Wendy asked with a smile.
"It…went well." Erza replied with a smile, although she was a tad bit hesitant. "Has anyone seen Aura this morning?"
"I haven't seen her since last night." Wendy said a bit sullen.
"Last night?" Erza's eyes widened.
"I saw her on the way to Lucy's house after you returned from your mission. She seemed pretty sad."
"Did she say anything?"
"No, she didn't seem there at all. I tried to talk to her, but it was like she didn't hear me. She just kept walking." Wendy looked down sad, "I hope she's ok."
Erza felt the pain in her stomach get bigger, she had to find Aura and apologize.
"I believe I saw her walking to Fairy Hills." Master Makarov commented from above sipping his morning coffee.
"Fairy Hills? Why would she go there?" Erza asked confused.
"I can only imagine she went to look for you, child. You should hurry if you want to catch up to her before she leaves." Makarov once again sipped from his mug, not looking at Erza.
Erza bowed, "Thank you Master." She then darted from the guild hall.
"Erza wait!" Mirajane yelled after her but it was too late.
"Let her go Mira, Erza obviously has something in her heart that she needs to let out. We shouldn't interfere."
"But Master…" Mirajane relented and looked at the equally worried Wendy, both of them worried about Erza & Aura.
Erza raced up the hill towards the Fairy Hills dormitory, she hoped that when she reached the peak that Aura would be there waiting; she almost prayed for it. When she reached the top she saw a lone figure standing in front of the dormitory doors. Erza ran closer and was able to make out long wine red hair, it was Aura.
"Aura!" she yelled her name desperately. Erza stopped and stood behind her giving her a decent amount of space, but the gap between them felt so much larger. "Aura." She said her name again, this time low and forlorn.
"Mo-"Aura's heart tugged, "Erza."
Erza knew how much Aura was hurting, but she couldn't help but smile a bit. Aura was just as stubborn as she was and part of her was happy about that. The wind blew between them which only served to increase their emotional distance.
They said nothing to each other for what seemed like hours. They had no idea how to approach one another, Erza had no idea how to handle a daughter and Aura had no idea how to approach her mother after so long.
Finally they broke the silence and Aura turned around, "I'm sorry." They said in unison.
Both of their eyes widened in surprise, they didn't know why the other was apologizing.
Erza relaxed and smiled. "Why don't you go first?"
Aura still had a guilty look on her face as she started her apology. "I'm sorry for telling you about me. You have a lot of things to worry about with this battle, it was unfair and selfish of me to reveal myself to you."
"Aura." Erza could feel the pain radiating from the young girl.
"I jeopardized my mission, the future, all because I wanted to make up for the time I lost. I was an idiot, I should never have told you who I was." She clenched her shaking fists as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Erza, Mom, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I unloaded such a huge amount of baggage, you're still so young, and…and I may have screwed things up for good. I should have kept my mouth shut, I should have…" Aura suddenly felt a warm pair of arms wrap around her body, pulling her against something just as soft. It was Erza, she had pulled Aura to her chest. Aura could feel her heartbeat, it felt just like hers.
"I'm the one who should be sorry Aura. You risked a lot to tell me about yourself and I just left you on your own. What you did took courage, more courage than I could ever have." She softly stroked her hair, "I didn't run because of who you are, I ran because of who I become."
"Who you become?"
"When you told me of how I acted when you were growing up I was ashamed of myself. I became so neglectful, so out of touch. And when you told me how I died I shut down."
"What?"
"How could I do that to my own daughter? How could I leave you on your own when everything came crashing down around us?"
"You did everything you could, you just trying to protect u-me." Aura quickly caught herself before she revealed that Erza had another child. "Besides it's not like it's happened yet, you shouldn't feel that way."
"I wasn't protecting anything, I was being a coward." She clutched Aura closer, "I should have stayed with you, I should have protected you instead of giving in to my foolish pride. I'm sorry." She pulled Aura back some and looked into her face. "Even if it hasn't happened the knowledge of it doesn't make me feel any better."
"Past, present, future, it doesn't matter; you're my daughter. It doesn't matter if you're born 9 months or 9 years from now." Aura felt Erza's warm embrace.
Aura's eyes watered again, but this time they were tears of joy. "Mom!" Aura grabbed Erza tightly and embraced in another hug. It had been so long since she had hugged her mother, she almost forgot what it felt like. She felt this warm calm wash over her, all of her worries were fading. As she looked up at Erza Aura couldn't help but smile, she felt like a little girl again.
…
BOOM!
The sound could be heard throughout Magnolia as the townspeople gathered on the hill above South Gate Park. Three wizards clashed in the park itself, their fierce attacks shaking the huge tree in the middle of the park. Some of the townspeople were amazed, others were terrified at how quickly the fight could escalate.
"Man they sure are going all out."
"I doubt it, if they were none of us would be standing here right now."
"Why are they fighting in the middle of the park?"
"Who knows with Fairy Tail anymore, but it sure is fun to watch."
"I heard that the guild barely has anyone in it these days."
"Really, what's going on? Another big mission?"
The random chatter went on but the four warriors in the park didn't even notice. Fists, flames, swords, and torrents of air clashed in South Gate Park. The battle was so ferocious that one would make a great deal of jewel off it if they sold tickets.
"FIRE DRAGON WING ATTACK!"
FWOOM!
Two torrents of flame were slashed by an orange blade.
"FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!"
CLANG!
This time a hard fist connected against the large orange blade. It was Natsu's fist, and the blade he collided with belong to none other than Erza who was fighting in her Flame Empress armor. They were both smirking at one another as the crowd went wild.
"You've gotten better Natsu."
"Did you think I was just sitting on my butt for the past 2 months Erza?"
He pushed against her, forcing Erza to slide back slowly as they fought for position. Erza seemed pressed then much to Natsu's she smirked, and jumped into the air. Natsu almost fell over due to his own momentum and looked up, confused at why Erza suddenly ran. He saw the smirk on her face but remained confused until her heard a yell.
"SKY DRAGON ROAR!"
A huge vortex of air headed towards Natsu, he barely had time to block before it sent him flying through the park.
"WHOA!" the townspeople cried in unison at the battle happening below them.
"This is amazing!"
Erza was still floating in the air, having changed into her flight armor. Wendy, she thought as she gripped her sword. She was poised to strike the young dragon slayer until she felt a sudden heavy pressure against her ribs.
"AGH!" she yelled in pain she flew through the air into a magic circle.
Wendy looked in the air at Erza but her eyes widened in shock when she suddenly disappeared. Where did Erza go? She was just there a moment ago. Suddenly Wendy felt a presence behind her, it was Erza flying towards her! Wendy tried to brace herself but their bodies collided, sending them flying into the tree in the middle of the park.
"How did they get there?" One of the townspeople asked.
"I don't know one minute Erza was in the air, the next she was slamming into Wendy."
"Aw that poor girl, they should take it easy on her." A worried woman commented.
"She can take it. She is a Dragon Slayer after all."
Natsu stood up from the rubble on the other side of the park, Wendy's attack had sent him flying against the hill. "Man, Wendy sure has gotten stronger. I wonder when she-agh!" Natsu felt a hand grab the back of his head and thrust him forward into a magical circle. He closed his eyes because of the bright light and soon found himself being thrown against the big tree. The tree?! How did I- he looked in front of him as he flew forward, "Erza?! Wendy?!"
BAM! He slammed into the tree, his eyes dazed making him unable to realize that he had collided with the already downed Erza & Wendy. The crowd roared in excitement as they watched three of Fairy Tail's strongest wizards go down in a flash.
"Whoa what happened?!"
"I don't know but it was awesome!'
"Fairy Tail gets more exciting every day."
"They also get more rowdy, look at what they did to the park."
"Hey who is that girl?" A man pointed as the crowd turned their attention towards the tree. There stood a girl with long wine red hair, a bandana tied to it as her long sleeve shirt flowed in the breeze.
"Is she a new Fairy Tail wizard?"
"Did she take them all out?"
"If she did she must be pretty strong."
The girl crouched down in front of the tree, looking at the three wizard pile she caused. Erza slowly opened her eyes and looked around. In her lap was Wendy, the Sky Dragon's stomach was lying on Erza's knees although she was knocked out she did look cute. To her right was Natsu, he was upside down with his legs over his head. Erza wanted to laugh at how funny he looked but she still didn't know how they got into that position.
Just then she heard the roar of the crowd on atop the hill. Did all the townspeople come to watch us? She then looked up to see a smiling face that resembled Natsu's toothy grin. "Looks like I win mom." The voice from the face said cockily.
Even though she was defeated in battle Erza couldn't help but smirk, "Aura."
…
Natsu, Erza, Wendy, & Aura walked the streets of Magnolia after another day of training. It had been 2 days since Aura & Erza talked, and 3 weeks since Aura and Wendy began training with Erza & Natsu. The rules for their training changed with each day, from games of tag, to hide & seek, sword fighting, and today's roundabout version of king of the mountain, things were never boring but they were always strenuous. Erza & Natsu were obviously the strongest of the foursome, but Aura managed to keep up when necessary. Wendy on the other hand wasn't as sure about her abilities.
"You sure picked an opportune time to make your entrance Aura." Erza remarked.
"Yeah where were you? We were waiting." Natsu asked slightly irritated.
"Sorry-"Aura apologized as she rubbed the back of her head. "I was cleaning Lucy's apartment. She's coming back to town in a couple of days."
"Lucy's coming back?!" Natsu yelled excited, he hadn't seen his teammate in months, and he would be lying if he said he didn't miss her a bit.
"Yeah, she sent me a letter last week. She said her train will arrive in town the day after tomorrow."
"Mira told me that Gray & Juvia will be back then as well." Wendy added. "Also Pantherlily told Happy & Carla that He, Gajeel, and Team Shadow gear would be coming home too."
"Everyone's coming back?! We should throw a party!" Natsu yelled excitedly.
"That sounds like a nice idea. We can host it at the guild hall, I'm sure Master Makarov & Mira would be pleased." Erza commented smiling.
"Yeah!" Natsu yelled again, "You can cook some of your delicious food Erza." Natsu added with a smile.
Erza blushed slightly, "I suppose I could."
Erza & Natsu continued to talk to each other about tomorrow, but Aura began slowing her pace. She noticed Wendy was a good distance behind them and slowed down so she could catch up. Aura walked side by side with Wendy but the Sky Dragon didn't even notice, she was looking at the ground, a distraught look on her face.
"What's wrong Wendy?" Aura asked concerned.
Wendy looked up at her and smiled weakly. "It's nothing, I'm ok."
Aura easily saw through the young girl's front. "Come on Wendy, you don't have to lie to me."
"Really it's nothing, don't worry." She smiled weakly again.
Aura looked forwards as the pair continued walking behind Natsu & Erza who didn't seem to notice they were missing. Aura put her hands behind her head. "Are you afraid that you're slowing down our training?"
Wendy didn't say anything, instead she just sulked a bit more.
"I knew it. I told you before you don't have anything to worry about."
"I know, it's just that all of you wouldn't have to hold back if I wasn't here."
"Who says we're holding back?" Aura asked as Wendy slowly looked up.
"You're not holding back?"
"Hell no. Why would we do that?"
"Because I'm so much weaker than the rest of you."
"That's not true Wendy." Aura said consoling her, "You're getting stronger every day. When we first started you could barely follow us, but today you were able to get the jump on Natsu." She smiled at her. "Although he never did think about his surroundings much."
"Even so, you still won." Wendy commented.
"That's only because I got lucky and surprised you guys. If I started with the rest of you I probably would have lost."
"But you still have your Dragon Slayer magic." Wendy commented.
"I'm trying to be less reliant on that, I'm trying to focus more on my teleportation magic and hand to hand combat, although I still practice my Dragon Slayer magic with mom sometimes."
"Why not with Natsu?" Wendy asked with a confused look.
Aura paused for a moment, "I…still haven't told him about me."
"Why not?" Wendy asked with an even more confused look.
"Well I wanted to but…"
1 week ago
"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" Aura rushed Erza with her flaming fist but Erza managed to sidestep and strike Aura with the hilt of her sword, sending her crashing into a tree. Aura tried to regain her bearings but her will to fight slip when she found Erza's blade against her throat.
She put her hands in the air, "I give, you win again mom."
Erza smiled at her and made her sword disappear. "You almost had me that time." She reached her hand towards the downed Aura, "You're getting better."
Aura smirked and grabbed her mother's hand, Erza pulling her up to a standing position, "Yeah, but I still can't beat you."
Erza smiled softly, "Don't worry you will…one day."
"I had no idea you were this cocky when you were younger." Aura teased as she brushed the dirt off of her body.
"I prefer the term confident." She looked at Aura up and down, "Come on let's get you cleaned off before you go back home."
"Okay."
The two headed towards the Fairy Hills dormitory from the back field where they had finished their training. Ever since Aura and Wendy started training with Natsu & Erza, Aura only found time to train her Dragon Slayer abilities alone with Erza at night. She didn't like hiding her powers from Natsu since Erza knew but she didn't complain out loud.
Erza drew the bath while waited in her room.
"Do you want to bathe together?" Erza asked with a smile as she poked her head out from the bathroom.
Aura almost fell from the bed she was sitting on. "W-what?!"
"What's wrong?" Erza asked genuinely surprised.
"W-what's wrong? We're almost the same age!" Aura protested her face red from embarrassment.
"We don't take baths together in the future?" Erza asked curious.
"We stopped doing that when I was 10." Aura replied deadpan.
"Oh, that's a shame." Erza said with a bit of a sad tone, "Well the bath is ready. You can get in now." Erza stood up and walked from the bathroom, Aura walking in.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Aura took off her clothes and placed them next to the door, she then slowly got into the bathtub and sighed with pleasure as the warm water slowly covered her body. She could feel all of her aches and pains melt away as she let the flow of the waves embrace her. Erza walked in and picked the clothes up from the floor.
"I'll take these downstairs to be washed."
"Okay, thanks." Aura replied with a smile. She then looked to see Erza staring at her panties.
"What?" Aura asked her face slowly reddening.
"These are Lucy's underwear aren't they?" Erza asked smirking.
Aura's faced turned bright red, "I didn't have any more underwear ok?!"
Erza began to laugh at her daughter's embarrassment. "Will you just go already?!" Aura yelled still embarrassed.
"Okay, I'm going." Erza answered in between laughs as she exited the door.
Aura sunk until only the top half of her head was above water. Geez, I see she still has a problem with people's privacy. She thought irritated, she then rose from the water and laid against the back of the tub. "Still, it's nice to talk to her again. Even if it's her past self." Aura then let herself drift away for the remainder of her bath.
When she was finished bathing she grabbed two towels from the rack next to the tub, one to wrap around her body and one to dry her hair. When she emerged from the bathroom she saw Erza sitting on her bed.
"Nice to see I passed something down to you other than hair color." Erza remarked to a confused Aura.
"Huh?" Aura looked down and saw that Erza was referring to her breasts. Aura never really noticed but they were pretty big, not as big as Erza's but she did still have some growing to do. Aura's face turned red again as she turned her back towards Erza. "Are you going to mock me all day now?"
"No, don't worry I'm just having some fun. It's not every day you meet the daughter you never knew you were going to have." Erza said with a smile.
"Speaking of…" Aura said low, "When are we going to tell…dad?"
A serious look appeared on Erza's face. "I don't know. Honestly I don't think we can tell Natsu."
"Why not?" Aura asked turning around.
"I don't know how he is in the future, but telling Natsu this kind of information now would only confuse him. Best case scenario he accepts it, worst case he becomes scared and your never born."
"Do you really think that will happen?"
"I don't know, but it's likely. Natsu is not the smartest guy in the world, so telling him he has a daughter will most likely shut him down. He wouldn't know how to handle it." Aura could feel the hint of regret radiating from Erza, "I don't like keeping things from him, but this may be the only way to keep things on their natural course." She then looked at Aura, "So if at all possible, don't use your Dragon Slayer magic around him; it would only make him curious."
Aura looked down sullenly, "Alright, I don't like lying to him though."
"Neither do I, but hopefully he will get to meet you the natural way." Erza replied with a warm smile, Aura returning one of her own.
…
"That must be hard for you." Wendy commented
"Yeah, but Mom and I decided to tell him if we ever feel he can handle it."
"So never?" Wendy teased.
Aura laughed, "Yeah I guess you're right."
The group finally reached Natsu's house and went inside to find Happy & Carla waiting for them.
"Welcome back." Carla greeted with a smile.
"How did the training go?" Happy asked.
"Man, I was totally winning until Aura butted in." Natsu pouted.
"Natsu, I seem to recall you being taken down by Wendy before Aura even showed up." Erza corrected him.
Natsu stuck out his lower lip and looked away. "Wendy got lucky." Erza & Happy simply laughed at the pouting Dragon Slayer.
"Are you alright Wendy? They weren't too rough on you were they?" Carla asked concerned as usual.
"I'm fine Carla." Wendy replied with a smile.
"Now let's get down to business!" Natsu yelled grabbing everyone's attention.
"What business?" Happy flew over to him confused.
"Lucy, Gray, & the others will be coming back in a couple of days, and we're gonna throw'em a party." Natsu said to his flying cat with a sly smirk.
"Really?!" Happy yelled, his eyes lighting up.
"Yep and we have to get everything ready."
"Aye!" Happy yelled excitedly as Natsu pulled out a big piece of paper he was saving for Reedus to paint on but always forgot to give to the Picto Wizard. As Natsu and Happy excitedly scribbled and explained their plans, Wendy looked at it with awe, Carla looked at them with small smile, and Erza & Aura exchanged warm smiles with one another.