Chapter Eight

November, X798

There were several advantages to living underground, one of which being an unprecedented kind of autonomy regarding sleeping schedules. The sun, that's rays would so indiscreetly disrupt her dreaming had no effect on Kagura now. And on this particular day, she intended to slumber deep into the afternoon. Her plan, however, was aptly thwarted when a small but mighty force of nature pounced on her.

"Kagura!"

She opened one eye and saw Emilie's smiling face hovering above her. The girl was alone, as not even Frosch and Lector would dare accompany her on such a risky mission."No." It couldn't be a minute past nine. She shut her eye again and rolled onto her side, clutching her pillow.

"But it's your birthday!" the (almost) five year old protested.

"All the more reason to let me sleep." She pulled the plum colored comforter over her head. "Come back in two hours."

There was a pause, and even in her half-awake state Kagura could tell that the little girl was plotting. "Alright," she drawled. "But Uncle Rogue will definitely be here by then."

"I know I taught you not to tell senseless lies." Kagura sighed, wondering whether or not the tendency to bluff was a heritable trait. If so, it would make a lot of sense."Rogue won't be back around for weeks."

"But he is! He's twenty minutes away at most. I can smell him," Emilie insisted, tugging at the blankets.

"That's not humanly possible." But even as she said the words, Kagura knew that her track record defied all reason. The only time her nose was wrong was when she caught colds, which happened quite infrequently for a child her age.

"Maybe I'm a superhuman!" she grinned her smug little grin, making the swordswoman question how she could adore in her all the traits that caused her to dislike her father.

"Maybe." Kagura laughed a little before turning serious. "But if I get out of this bed and he doesn't show up, there will be consequences. So, I'm giving you the chance to retract your claim and return at a more decent hour."

In response the girl merely sung, "He's getting closer."

"Fine. You win." She sat up and tossed the blanket at her. "I'm going to take a shower, and then I'll make you breakfast if you're tired of Millia's cat shaped food."

Before she could move further, a small pair of arms wrapped around her neck. "Happy birthday."

Kagura only sighed as she felt all traces of residual irritation melt away from her. Maybe she just wasn't meant to sleep in. "Thanks, kid."

After a quick shower, Kagura stared at her closet disdainfully before changing into one of those little black dresses her friends bought her. This one—knee length with a sweetheart top—still had the tag on it. It was from some frilly little boutique in Crocus, the kind she never would have set foot in back in '91. Last she heard, it burned to the ground.

When she went downstairs to the living room, Rogue was there listening to Emilie prattle on about a plethora of unconnected topics while he marveled silently at how much she had grown. Once she saw Kagura the girl smiled, before heading for the door. "I'll see you later Uncle Rogue."

Over the years his hair had grown long enough for Emilie to play with, and many horrendous hairdos have come about as a result. But today it was in a neat ponytail, looking sleek like the rest of him. Kagura even thought she smelled a hint of cologne on him. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," he averted his eyes from her, trying not to stare at her toned legs or bulging cleavage. "Well, I was in the neighborhood so I thought I'd check up on Emilie...and Frosch."

She smirked, crossing her arms loosely. "Em just left. But here you are."

"But here I am."

Kagura rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Honestly, I don't know why you try. You've always been a shit liar." She opened her palm, wiggling her fingers a little. "Now, show me." She'd never been one for presents, even as a child, but the things he brought her never failed to please.

The dragon slayer drew a small black box from his pocket and handed it to her. When his fingers touched her palm, Kagura felt a familiar jolt of excitement that never seemed to wane. Her honey hazel eyes peered down at the velveteen box as though it held the great secrets of the universe. Everything about Rogue—from his analytical mind and guilt-ridden spirit to his pragmatism and dogged cautiousness—told her that this could not be what mind so readily believed it was, what, she realized with utter dread, she hoped it was.

Decisively, with every ounce of her warrior spirit, she snapped the box open, killing all hesitation and vulnerability with one fatal strike. When her eyes registered a necklace, albeit one of the most beautiful she'd ever seen, she felt relief and irritation battle for dominance within her.

"Do you like it?" Rogue mentally cringed at the anxiety in his own voice. He had worried the diamond pendant would be too flashy for her tastes, and the conflicting emotions that played upon her gorgeous face all but confirmed his suspicions. "I can exchange it for something else."

"It's beautiful," she assured, weighing it in her hand. "I mean, there's nowhere to wear it now, but I like it." Then she held it out to him by its shining silver chain. "Help me put it on."

As he stood behind her, his fingers brushing the nape of her neck while he swept her hair to one side, Kagura almost imagined that things were normal again. That soon they'd be on their way to some upscale Crocus restaurant, with her rubbing his back during the long train ride while telling him just how pathetic a weakness motion sickness was. When they got to their table, the servers would bring two champagne flutes, and a simple but stunning ring would float to the top when they poured out her bubbly. Then he'd smile in that sheepish way of his and tell her that the necklace was a decoy. She'd make an indignant little noise at the back of her throat and grumble about how the ring would be sticky later, even as she slid it onto her third finger.

Perfect, she thought as she felt the clasp hook into place.

But the mental moment shattered when Millianna, followed by, Risley, Arania, Beth, Em, and exceeds carted in a cake that read Happy 30th Birthday, Kagura-chan! in bright pink frosting.

"I hope we weren't interrupting anything," Risley laughed.

"Happy birthday, oba-chan," Arania said with a wink.

The swordswoman rolled her eyes at this. "You're only two years behind me." And they both knew that the green haired woman was going to milk it until she turned thirty herself.

"Never underestimate the allure of an older woman...right Rogue," Risley teased.

Kagura bristled at this. "I'm not that much older." She turned to the dragon slayer who still stood just behind her. "You turn thirty in February, right?"

"Oh?" Frosch looked up at them with wide-eyed amazement. "Rogue, how did you get four years in one?"

"What?"

"From twenty-six to thirty. That's five, right Lector?" Confused as she was, the jumpsuit clad cat caused a revelation.

"Frosch, please stop talking," the other feline warned, as Kagura was beginning to exude a murderous aura. The swordswoman grabbed Rogue's arm.

"Excuse us," she hissed before promptly dragging him upstairs to her room. After making sure the door was shut, she turned on him. "What do you mean twenty-six?" She always knew he was younger, but always imagined that it was by only a few months.

"You never asked how old I wa-"

"Shh!" She was pacing across the room now, as all the pieces fell into place. "So that means...you were nineteen. You had a teen in your age when we first fucked?" Kagura plopped down on the bed, massaging her temples.

He shook his head at her theatrics. "Kagura," he took her hand. "It's not that much of an age difference."

"Not now," she allowed. "But in the beginning...I robbed the cradle."

He held her shoulders, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "Nineteen is hardly the cradle."

She glared at him. Of course he would say so. "If a twenty-three year old tries something with Em when she's nineteen, you'd split him from hairline to groin before I'd even think to reach for archenemy. And don't you dare deny it."

Rogue sighed. He knew better than to argue against that point, because he knew it was true. "It's different with Emilie."

"Why?" Kagura challenged. "Because she's a girl?" She'd never known him to be sexist. But then again, she never knew him to be three years younger than what she assumed.

"No," he sighed. "Because she's…"

"Ours." Kagura's eyes softened, knowing he never felt right saying it. Even though he raised her, while Sting had never seen her face, Rogue had never been able to refer to Emilie as anything but his best friend's daughter. "She is ours...and when the time comes, she can date whoever she damn well wants."

"Kagura."

"No objections!" she smirked. "You ought to have more respect for your elders."

"Whatever you say." He captured her lips with his own, smirking into the kiss after a few seconds. "Oba-chan."

"Get out!"

March, X799

The rain was incessant, splattering down in chaotic bursts and then tapering off into a steady downfall that melted the ground into thick mud that swallowed her feet up to the ankles. The stinging water and angry gray stormclouds reminded Emilie of the day she became that word.

"Kagura, what's an orphan?" She had asked a few weeks ago while the woman was in her office, barking orders and buying supplies. Kagura immediately cut her lacrima call short, something she rarely did.

"Why are you asking me that? Did someone say something to you?"

She could tell by the note of accusation in her voice that someone would be punished severely if she said anything but, "No, I was just wondering."

Then Kagura heaved the semi-exhausted sigh of someone who had been right about something, but lost the argument anyway. Of someone who knew what was coming next. "Orphan is a word used to describe children who have no parents."

"Am I an orphan?"

She was always a straight shooter, never one for coddling or sugarcoating. "It depends on who you ask, honestly. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. I was an orphan."

"How can it depend? My parents both died, didn't they?"

"They did," she confirmed. "But children can be adopted, right?"

"Did you adopt me?"

"Not legally. The magic council no longer produces the necessary documents. But for all practical purposes, I did."

"But then...why don't I call you mom?"

"Because you remember her." Everyone said that she wouldn't, but Kagura has no illusions about how bright Emilie was. How perceptive. Even if she didn't remember Yukino's mannerisms, or the shape of her nose, she would never forget how warm her birth mother was. A part of her would never stop reaching out for that warmth, even if the answers she sought burned her fingers.

"Open: Gate of the Paired Fish. Pisces!" Emilie clutched the key as her hand grew numbingly cold from the rain. As with all her tries before, nothing happened. "Pisces! Please?" All was silent but the whistling wind and sobbing sky.

"Open: Gate of the Scales. Libra!" She looked down at the two zodiac keys, in her hands as useless as a pair of baubles. Of all the things people claimed she got from her mother, her magic was apparently not one of them."Open," she cried in a small voice, her tears mixing in with the rain. "Please. I have questions." The girl fell to her knees sobbing. "Please. You're all I have left of her."

"What's wrong with her?" Kagura demanded in a harsh whisper, as soon as the elderly healer stepped out of Emilie's room.

She stared blankly at the swordswoman, not intimidated in the slightest. Seeing Kagura in her sweatpants and old tank top, with her hair in a messy ponytail and the dark circles beneath her eyes, Porlyuscia could hardly believe this was the calm and collected heroine who saved tens of thousands of lives with her pragmatism. But then again, young mothers have always been a particularly irritating brand of human to her.

"There is nothing strange about a five year old with a fever." If not for Lucy's incessant begging, and her residual sense of loyalty for the Fairy Tail that once was, she would not have made the trip at all. "Let her rest. Give her the medicines I've prepared. Next time buy a raincoat. She'll live." That was more than she could say for most of her patients lately.

"You don't understand. There's no way she could be this sick just from playing in the rain." Emilie's immune system was notoriously strong. "There has to be something else."

Then, in a rare moment of pity, the still pink haired woman sighed and said, "Then perhaps the fever isn't the only thing she's fighting. From what I understand, that child has her pick of reasons to be heartbroken." She let the words sink in for a moment before continuing. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to show some of that affection you have bottled up."

"You're one to talk."

"I'm not anyone's mother."

"Neither am I."

The healer raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Tell that to the bags under your eyes." She turned to walk away. "The only thing I hate more than humans in general is their political correctness. Don't call me again for something so trivial."

That night, like the past few, Kagura stayed at Emilie's bedside, reading one of her favorite books by lamplight and listening to the child's shallow breathing. She had just begun to nod off when Em started to whimper. Forcing her eyes back open, Kagura felt her forehead and frowned. Her fever had spiked again. She left for the bathroom to get a wet towel for her head, and when she returned Em was awake.

She sniffled miserably while fat tears rolled down the sides of her face and made tiny dark spots on the blankets.

"What's the matter?" Kagura asked, her voice uncharacteristically warm. "Are you in a lot of pain?" If that healer misdiagnosed her and she actually had something serious, there would be hell to pay.

Emilie shook her head slowly. The tears still fell, though they slowed considerably.

"Then, did you have a bad dream?"

She hesitated for a moment and looked up at her with wide amber eyes, slightly glazed with fever. "Is it still a bad dream if it really happened?" she croaked out.

Kagura thought back to the countless nights on which she was tormented by her memories of the Rosemary Village massacre. "It is." She gently pushed Emilie back down onto the pillows and put the cool washcloth on her forehead. "It looks like you need some hot chocolate."

"With marshmallows?"

"With all the marshmallows I can cram in the mug."

Emilie nodded approvingly, but when she heard Kagura's retreating footsteps she bolted up again. "Wait! I changed my mind."

"Huh?"

"Don't leave." Even by the dim lamplight it was clear that she was tearing up again.

Kagura stilled her tongue before the usual responses spilled out of her mouth. That she was only going to the kitchen, that a dragon couldn't possibly be hiding within the confines of their apartment, and that nothing would stop one from coming upstairs if it was, were of no consequences to the scared child in front of her. So instead she walked back to the bed. "Arms around my neck," she instructed. "I'll carry you."

Soon they were both sitting cross-legged on the couch wrapped in Kagura's comforter and sipping hot cocoa. They sported matching messy ponytails.

"You've been thinking about your mom a lot lately?" It was just barely a question.

Emilie nodded. "Did you know her, Kagura?"

"I did." The swordswoman took a marshmallow out of the plastic bag on the coffee table and popped it into her mouth. "But not very well. Rogue and Lucy knew your parents a lot better than I did."

"How did you meet her?"

"We fought." Another marshmallow.

"Why?"

"It was part of the Grand Magic Games, two years before you were born."

"Grand Magic Games?" Emilie looked at her as though she'd grown a second head.

"It was a contest where wizard guilds would compete to see which guild was the strongest in Fiore."

"That sounds so cool! I want to be in it someday."

Kagura didn't have the heart to tell her that there hadn't been one in years. "Maybe someday."

"So who won?"

"The match or the games?" The swordswoman asked. She sprayed a tiny dollop of whipped cream into both of their mugs.

"The match."

"Do you even have to ask?" she joked. "Your mom up a good fight though. If she had anyone else on my team as her opponent, she would have won. She wasn't as good at making wagers as she was at fighting, though." She smirked at the memory.

"What did she wager?" Emilie asked. From what other people told her, her mom did not sound like the type who would make irresponsible choices.

"Her life."

"That was stupid."

"Very," Kagura agreed. "She didn't even know what my magic was. Don't ever make a deal like that."

"I know, I know." Emilie took another sip of her cocoa. "Was she really that sure she was going to win?"

Kagura sighed. "At the time I thought so, and it irritated me. But knowing what I know now, I don't think so. I think she was showing off for the other members of Sabertooth—your father in particular."

"So," the blonde girl began, working out the situation in her five year old mind. "She bet her life against you, and she lost...but you didn't kill her, or else I never would have been born. Did you make her your servant."

Kagura shook her head. "No, I was somewhat impressed by her. I was going to make her join Mermaid Heel."

"Why didn't you?"

Suddenly, the swordswoman looked away, blushing. "I...uh. I lost interest."

"How come?" She put down her mug and curled up on Kagura's lap with one of the couch cushions.

"Well, for one thing, I got tired of fighting with your father about it," she said, while smoothing down Emilie's hair. "But, ultimately a mutual friend convinced me."

"Was it Uncle Rogue?" she asked before her eyes drifted closed.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're too smart for your own good?"

"You do...all the time."

"Well, I stand by it." Kagura looked up at the clock. It was well past one in the morning. "Go to sleep, kid. You need your rest."

"But I'm not...tired," she whined. "Tell me more stories about the Grand Magic Games."

"There will be more stories when you can keep your eyes open."

"Promise?"

"Promise. And you know I never break my word."

She knew that one day that statement would be back to haunt her, and only hoped that it would take the long route before returning to their door.

Author's Notes: So, I tried to keep this chapter relatively light, but of course there had to be a little angst lol. I love writing Mama Kagura (Mamagura, if you will lol). I think the next chapter will be pretty plot driven (with some Rogura moments). Thanks for reading, everyone. Reviews are greatly appreciated.