Ever, Ever, After

Chapter 9

That evening Gray, Juvia, and Wendy went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. They ordered pizza and when Juvia ate it she was amazed. She had never eaten anything so tasty in her life.

"This stuff is delicious. Natsu would love it." She said.

"I'm curious what kind of food do you have in Alvarez?"

"Nothing like this and we don't have places where we can sit down and eat like this. What do you call it again?"

"A restaurant."

"Restaurant. Oh it's very nice place. Oh!"

"What?"

"This is a very nice place."

"Yeah."

"And we're having dinner."

"Yeah."

"This is a date."

"Yeah...Wait! No! No! No! No this isn't a date. We're just friends and besides people don't normally bring kids on dates."

"Oh that's too bad." Juvia said looking over at Wendy who was talking with her friends from school who happened to be eating at the same restaurant. "Wendy is a lovely girl and so very sweet."

"Yes she is."

"Does she miss them terribly?"

"Who?"

"Your parents."

"My parents? Why would she miss my parents she's never- oh because we're brother and sister you assumed we had the same parents."

"Of course, don't you have the same parents."

"Not exactly. Biologically speaking we're not related." 

"Well does she miss her parents?"

"I don't know. You see she never knew her father and she doesn't remember her mother."

"What about you? Do you remember your parents?"

Gray bristled a little but then eased up.

"Yeah I do. They died in a car accident when I was eight years old. The three of us were out driving when a criminal named Deliora had jacked a car. In his haste to get away from the cops chasing him he hit us. I survived because my parents shielded me from the crash but it cost them their lives and the monster who took them away from me escaped unscathed."

"Oh my goodness."

"I was found and cared for by a paramedic named Ur. She thought that she could never have children so she adopted me. I know she wasn't really my mother but she loved me like I was her own son. Then when I was eleven she got pregnant and her no good husband ran out on her so she had to be a single mother but she didn't care because she was finally going to have a baby."

"You must've been so happy for her."

"Not at first. At first I thought now that she was going to have her own baby she was going to get rid of me but when I angrily voiced my feelings to her she gave me a thump on the head and told me that no matter what happened I was always going to be her son. Then Wendy was born and Ur told me that I was a big brother now."