Chapter 24 - Rainy Day

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

It started off as a rather ominous looking day ever since Jaina crawled out of bed that morning. The sky was littered with thick grey clouds that stretched out in every direction, making her hesitant to venture out in case she got caught in the rain. Though the storm from a few days prior had died down for the last little while, the rains returned just a as she began rooting around her fridge for lunch, cementing that she'd be inside for the rest of the day. She sunk down onto a futon after finding something to eat, leftovers of something Jon had made a few days ago, switched on the TV for background noise, and pulled a medical journal off of a large pile of books. She'd been trying to broaden her medical knowledge for the past month; and her current fancy was, of all things, long-term complications for amputees. She barely made it through the first paragraph however, when she heard a knock though the pattering rain.

Jaina glanced at the door, wondering if she'd just imagined it. She lived a good ten minute walk past the guild, which was already a fifteen minute walk out of town, so visitors where rare to say the least. What was more, she couldnt fathom anyone trudging out this far out of their way in this weather without a really good reason; like the town was on fire or something. Another knock quickly changed her thinking on that though, and she tossed aside her book and jumped to her feet.

Her peg leg slid out from under her the second it hit the hardwood, causing her to stumble to her knees. "Ah, dammit..." She mumbled, slowly standing up again and rubbing her now aching kneecap. "Shit, shit, shit..." She glared at the door again, becoming slightly more annoyed with every step she took closer. Whoever this was, they better have a damn good reason for being here.

She threw the front door open, ready to tear this person a new one, but stopped dead when she found a soaking wet Amber standing on her doorstep. "Um... Hi."

Jaina was stunned, forgetting about the pain in her knees. "What're you doing out...? Never mind, get in here before you get sick." She practically dragged her inside by the collar of her shirt, tossing her a towel so she could dry herself. It hadn't been raining long, but Amber was already completely soaked. "What the hell are you doing all the way out here?"

Amber waited a moment, flicking her now semi-dried hair off her shoulder. "Axel is sort of mad at me, so I wanted to visit the guild. But the door was locked and it started raining as soon as I got there." She knelt down to wipe the water off her legs, sheepishly trying not to look up. "I was hoping I could stay a while..."

"Aww, I'm your third choice, am I? Well aren't you sweet." Jaina quipped, dropping down to her futon again. "Well make yourself at home. What you see is pretty much all there is, so... Yeah."

"What was that noise before?" Amber mumbled. "It sounded like you knocked something over."

"Word to the wise; if you ever have the misfortune to need a peg leg, opt for a carpeted floor. Or rubber. Or anything else you can't slide on, for that matter." Jaina chuckled slightly, as did Amber after she figured out what she had meant. Hopping up again, she headed for the fridge. "Want some munches?" Amber kicked off her sandals and nodded slightly, sitting down on the futon. "Ya' like oatmeal?"

"Uh, Sure..." She nodded.

"Good, 'cause that's really all I got." Jaina tossed her a box of cookies, then leaned back on the counter to take the weight off her peg leg. She rubbed her kneecap, trying her best to look like nothing was wrong. "Isa's trying to get me eating healthy, so she's got me on this low sugar diet thing. Because, you know; on top of all my other health issues, she's afraid I'll get diabetes or something."

"Thanks..." Amber mumbled, not exactly knowing what to say.

"How about a drink?" She continued. "You want a beer or something?"

"No thanks..." She trailed off, trying not to look as bugged by the offer as she felt. "I don't like alcohol."

"Right, sorry." Jaina pushed off the wall and sat down in a small chair next to her futon, giving Amber a little room to get comfortable. From here she took a quick look around her hut; books piled here and there, empty dishes scattered about, large boxes full of all manner of things. It never bothered her before, but with Amber here now she found the state of her home rather vexing. "Sorry about the mess. In case you hadn't noticed, I don't have guests too often."

"I don't mind." Amber giggled, trying her best to keep fixated on the TV and not look at the chaos around her. "It sort of reminds me of Axel's place, to be honest."

"Oooh, that cuts deep." Jaina grinned, a thought popping into her head. "Speaking of Axel, has he seen you naked yet?"

Amber shuffled away, her face glowing red. "What!?"

"You know; girl moves in with guy, hilarity ensues." Jaina laughed, but the look on Amber's face made her realise she didn't see the humor of it. She quickly changed her tone, trying to lighten things up a little. "What, you've never seen a comedy before?"

"Can you not do that?" Amber huffed. "I don't like it when you poke fun at me."

"Ok, sorry..." She tried to sound sincere, but it still came out like she was brushing her off. It also made her realise that she hadn't even thought about what she had said, which was probably what contributed to their rocky relationship at first. Thinking about this made her understand why she was drawn to Amber so much though; she reminded her of Isa. Taking a cookie from the box, Jaina quickly grew sick of the TV show they were watching and decided to try and get a conversation going. "Want to play our game again?"

"Sure." She answered quickly, so much so that it caught Jaina by surprise. "You go first."

Jaina grinned again, trying to carefully choose her first question. "So what do you have nightmares about?"

Amber's face immediately went red again. "Shelly told you about that?"

"I kind of dragged it out of her." She shrugged, sensing she'd made a bit of a misstep. "You may have noticed, but baby girl's basically a human lie detector. Trouble is that doesn't make her any better at lying herself."

Amber sunk back into the futon a little. "Yeah, I noticed."

Trying to tread lightly while she could, Jaina moved on. "Alright, your turn."

"Do you really hate the council?" She began.

Jaina laughed. Given recent events, she should have seen that one coming. "Naw, I reserve my hate for things like tax collectors, or people who insist they get gluten free food. No, what I feel for the council is a little more... Well, more. I haven't really thought of a word for it yet." Amber giggled slightly while she carried on, but Jaina soon had her question in mind. "So why's Axel mad at you?"

Amber snorted, likewise expecting this question. "I... Sort of kicked him." She said sheepishly, tucking her legs against her chest. "I was sleeping and, he kind of scared me a little."

"Wow." Jaina cooed. "You kicked his ass just for waking you up?"

"No..." She huffed. "I was having a nightmare. And I didn't realise I was awake until after I kicked him..."

A million things she could have said flooded into her mind, but Jaina fought back every one of them. "Well, don't worry about it. He normally forgets stuff like that in a few days, so don't let it bug ya."

Amber nodded slightly, appreciating just how much effort Jaina had put into response. Or rather, the effort she put into how little she said. "Why do you tease him so much?"

Jaina opened her mouth to say anything, but no sound came out. She rubbed the back of her neck, racking her brain for some sort of answer. Thinking back, she hadn't given the reason much thought herself. "Partly because it's fun, mostly because it bugs him. But if we’re being honest, I guess he reminds me of, well... Me, back in the day."

"Really?" Amber gasped in disbelief.

The show they were watching cut to a commercial, and Jaina took the chance to shot her a wide grin. "What? Did you think I was always this mature?" They both laughed, but in that moment Jaina noticed that, other than her hair, Amber was still soaked with rainwater. "Oh wow, did you want something to change into?"

Amber looked herself over, adjusting her shirt where it had stuck to her back, but ultimately shook her head. "No thanks, it doesn't bother me that much."

"You'll catch a cold." Jaina headed into the back room and, after a bit of digging, pulled a folded tracksuit out of her closet. She hadn't used it in forever, and the two of them where around the same height, so it seemed perfect. She spun around to see Amber watching her from the doorway, apparently less content with her wet clothes than she said she was. "There. It's bound to be warmer than that sports bra I made you wear last time, right?"

Slowly, Amber accepted the offer, and the two of them switched places to that she could get changed. "Thanks..."

"Just give me your stuff and I'll throw it in the dryer for ya." She was about to go get a laundry basket, somewhat enjoying being able to help, when she remembered something that had been on her mind for a while. "Wait, one more thing; I got to know..." Amber poked her head around the door, already with one arm out of its sleeve. "When you guys got back from your job, why'd you go with Axel instead of me?"

Amber sunk back a little, looking for the best way to word it. "Well, Shelly didn't have room anymore and... You were being kind of annoying."

"Yeah..." She sighed. "I have that effect on people sometimes." Amber quickly disappeared, hanging her shirt and shorts on the doorknob before closing it again. Quick to get her mind off things, Jaina took the garments and made her way to the dryer. She loaded them quickly enough, but for one reason or another the machine refused to start.

She jabbed the button a few more times, but each time the machine simply groaned before dying out again. "C'mon..." She complained, looking it over for any sort of problem. Unfortunately, while she knew quite a bit about human anatomy, anything mechanical was beyond her comprehension. Push the button, the thing works; what was so hard to understand about that? Clueless, her eyes trailed to the cord sticking out of the wall and she had an idea. She half unplugged the cord and stuck her thumb between the tongs, planning to use her Lightning Magic to jump start the dryer. "Don't try this one at home, kids." She smiled to herself, charging electricity into the socket and jamming the cord back in again. A defining pop sounded off the second it was plugged back in, and a shower of sparks launched into the air. Jaina jumped back instantly, fearing she'd just started a house fire, but nothing else followed and the dryer slowly hummed to life after a moment.

"Dammit, I'm good." She said with pride, resting her hand on her hip. The ringing in her ear made her remember something Shelly had told her, particularly about her guest, and her pride instantly turned to regret. She found Amber curled up into a ball on the futon with her hands over her ears, and Jaina's felt a knot grow in her stomach. "You ok, hun?"

"What was that?" She asked, sliding her hands down to cross her chest.

"Faulty workmanship." Jaina insisted, trying to reason to herself that it wasn't her fault. More for her benefit than for Ambers. "Sorry about that. Shelly told me you've got a bit of a thing with loud noises, but it sort of slipped my mind." Amber tucked into a ball, and Jaina could feel thing's grow tense. "Don't be mad at her. I'm the closest thing to a mom she's ever had, so she comes to me about pretty much everything."

"Really?" Amber looked more surprised than upset now, which still sort of stung a little.

"Davin may be a great dad, but there are some things a girl can only ask another girl about. If you get my meaning." The TV switched back to the show they had been watching, but Jaina had already lost herself in reminiscing. "Shelly, Carra, Bell, Kat when she was younger... Even Clair had her day, once in a blue moon. I've sort of become like their big sister, in a way."

Though that last one was clearly the most shocking of all, Amber backtracked a little farther than that. "That reminds me... I've been meaning to ask about her." She exchanged glances with Jaina, then thought to correct herself. "Not Clair, I mean Carra. Kat said she has agil... Agoli..."

"Agliophobia?" She suggested, somewhat amused by Amber's stuttering. "Yeah... It's a damn shame. She's a sweet kid."

"What happened to her?" Amber pressed on. "She fell yesterday, and I saw this huge scar on the back of her neck."

A grimace formed on Jaina's face. Though she was willing to talk about it, the memory of what happened was a little less pleasant then the last. "It's not just her neck. Her whole back looks like she fell on a shredder."

"What?" Amber gasped in disbelief, looking more saddened the more she learned. "How?"

Jaina sighed, knowing she couldn't very well not share the story now. "It was... Maybe a month after my big fuckup that left me a cripple." She began rubbing her stump of a shoulder. "Davin was having the guild renovated, so he had a million things on the go, right when Carra and skunk head showed up."

"Skunk head?" Amber questioned.

"Peltin." She said, holding her hair up in a ponytail. "You know, because he's got greying black hair, and a ponytail that looks like a skunks..." She cut herself off, realising that Amber got the joke but just didn't find it very funny. "Anyway... Her parents use to work in this gang Peltin ran, and when things went sideways he tried to dump her off with us so he could go settle things." She made air quotes, which didn't really work because she only had one hand. "But the guy chasing them showed up and took her to get at Peltin."

"Took?" Amber questioned.

"Kidnapped." Jaina explained. "You'd never have guessed by looking at him, but Peltin went on a damn rampage looking for her. And, well... To make a long story short, he still had two eyes when he first showed up."

"What about Carra's parents?" Amber asked, a little hopeful.

To her dismay, Jaina just shook her head. She was becoming depressed just talking about it, and figured Amber was smart enough to figure that part on her own. "Isa found them just in time, but they were both in pretty bad shape. And Carra has had a problem with getting hurt ever since." She smiled up at Amber, trying to put a good spin in it all. "We let her work at the guild as a waitress, and a lot of us pitch in to pay for her apartment, so things are on the up and up." She chuckled slightly, unable to hold back her sense of morbid humor any longer. "Even if she'll never quite have that bikini body every girl dreams of."

Though it wasn't exactly a happy story, Amber smiled at the end. "Oh..."

"Yeah, a lot of us have a story like that..." Jaina mumbled absentmindedly. "You included, apparently."

Amber gripped her shoulder, curling up into a ball and glancing at her feet. "Did you want to know?"

Jaina hadn't heard her at first, trying to lighten her mood with a mouthful of cookies. "Know what?"

"My story." She said quickly, shuffling a little closer. "You asked about my shoulder last time I was here."

This was suppressing, and Jaina quickly looked at her for any sign that she was joking with her. Same as always though, all she found was a slightly sad smile on Amber's face. "Thought you didn't want to talk about that?"

"Yeah, well... I do now." She shrugged, apparently coming up with little more for an explanation.

Jaina tried, and failed, to fight back a smile, attempting not to look as giddy as she felt. "Ok, sure." She jumped up from her chair to join her on the futon, sensing that she could risk getting a little closer. "So what happened to your shoulder?"

Amber breathed a long sigh; apparently this was about to get heavy. "I was attacked." Jaina bit her lip, trying not to say anything. Of course she was attacked, she wouldn't be so reserved if she'd gotten that scar by falling out of a tree or something. "I was with this other group of mages before I came here. I travelled with them for a while, but was never really a part of their team. Not officially anyways." She shuffled uncomfortably, apparently growing closer to a more sensitive point. "But one night we ran into a dark mage, and he pretty much wiped us out."

Though she listened intently, Jaina couldn't help but feel like she had heard this story before, and that last part sounded especially familiar. "Wait a minute, I think I heard about this. Some hot shot team a couple months ago, maybe half a dozen people just dropped off the face of the earth one night." She lowered the volume on the TV, trying to hear her over a strangely loud commercial. "You're telling me you where one of them?"

"There were more of us than that, but only a few with a reputation." She corrected. "Some of us got away, but they blamed me for what happened and chased me off."

"They blamed you?" Jaina asked in disbelief. "The hell made them think it was your fault?"

"Because..." Amber trailed off, her eyes beginning to glisten in the reflection of the TV. "I knew the mage who attacked us." Jaina did a double take, and her jaw hung open. "We had something he needed, and he left me alone during his attack, so they thought I called for him."

"Oh..." She sighed. Sure, she had questions, but she didn't even know where to begin. What was more, Amber had already taken a big step in opening up to her like this, so pressing for details seemed like a bad idea right now. "So... What did you do after that?" She said, trying to move the conversation along.

Amber wiped her eyes, obviously appreciating that Jaina didn't dwell on anything. "I wandered around for a while, just sort of living wherever I could. But then I met Axel and all of the rest of you a few weeks ago and, I guess you know the rest."

"There, see?" Jaina quipped, trying to sound more upbeat. "Things are on the up and up for you too." Amber slowly turned to look at her, and Jaina got the impression that her comment hadn't gone over quite as well as she had hoped. Quickly trying to change the subject, she jumped to her feet and headed for the fridge. "Wow, I'm thirsty..." She mumbled, trying to save face. She returned later with a pair of bottles clenched between her fingers, and offered one to Amber. "Don't worry, its soda."

After flicking the cork off, a sly smile cut across Amber's face. "Didn't you say you were on a diet?"

"I said Isa was trying to get me on a diet." Jaina corrected, dripping down next to her on the Futon. "And to my credit, I'm a lot more devious than she is. She says go on a diet, I nod my head, she smiles and never gives it a second thought." Amber giggled slightly, but Jaina was just happy that they'd been able to move on before any tears were shed. She was horrendous at consoling people. "Speaking of Isa, you and her had a chance to talk a little. How'd that go?"

"She's really nice." Amber said quickly. "She told me a lot about the guild when I found that photo album."

"Oh, that was you that found that?" Jaina hadn't heard that part. Then again; Isa's hushed mumblings after the pair of them had come down from the attic that day sort of became an afterthought. She was just happy to have her album back, and didn't really care for details at the time. "Thanks for that. It's one of the only hobbies I've got nowadays."

Amber giggled again, and the two of them took a long drink together. After wiping her mouth, she had another thought. "Hey... Do you think you can change my picture?" She said sheepishly. "I look... Kind of dopey."

Jaina roared with laughter; it wasn't the first time she'd had that request before. "Sorry hun. No retakes." Amber slumped her shoulders, but Jaina quickly nudged her with her elbow. "Don't worry; I don't think anybody's picture comes out the way they want. I'll show you Kat's the next time you come by. It's probably the funniest one of them all."

Amber nodded excitedly. "Sure, ok."

Jaina giggled at her reaction, but it reminded her of something she'd been wanting to ask for a while. And seeing as how they'd both been in a sharing mood, it seemed like the perfect time to get it off her chest. "So you like it here then? You'll be sticking around for a while?" Though she blushed at first, Amber nodded slightly, which was enough to make Jaina feel relieved. "Good." Just as the TV cut to commercial again, Jaina stretched out over the couch and rested her arm on the backrest. "Come here, gimme a hug."

"I thought you didn't do mushy." She asked suspiciously.

"In my defence, you caught me off guard last time." Though she was trying to play it off; it looked like Amber needed a hug just as much as she did. "Come on, bring it in." Slowly growing a smile herself, Amber shuffled closer and curled up under her arm, burying her face in Jaina's shoulder.

They stayed like this for a moment, just enjoying having someone to hold onto, until the TV cut back to the show and Amber rolled away again. For the first time that day the two of them tried to follow along with the TV, swapping notes as to what they thought was going on; both of them unaware that the rain had let up only a little after Amber had arrived.

Next Chapter – Invitation to Party