In-Between

Chapter 20

Wendy woke up the next morning feeling very excited about spending the day with her parents. After breakfast she went with her parents into town to buy her some new clothes to wear to school and some flower seeds to do gardening with. Unfortunately it started raining when they got home so they had to post pone the gardening for next weekend. 

"It's just a little rainy." Wendy said. "Are you sure we can't plant one little seed?"

"No Wendy, rain makes mud and mud makes a mess." Erza said. "I don't like dirt."

"You didn't always think that way." Jellal chuckled. "In fact Wendy, one time your mother and I went dancing in the rain."

"You did? Did you get muddy?"

"Oh definitely but we're having too much fun to care."

"Jellal we were kids. We didn't think about the consequences of our actions back then." Erza said.

"What consequences? We just had to take a bath."

"Did you do it together like you always do?" Wendy asked. 

Both Jellal and Erza blushed when she mentioned that. 

"Wendy we don't take baths together." Erza said trying to make her blush disappear. 

"At least not all the time." Jellal mumbled which earned him a glare from his wife. 

"Where did you get a silly idea like that?" Erza asked.

"Uncle Mystogan told me." Wendy answered. "Though I couldn't tell if he was joking or not."

"He was joking honey! Joking! Listen why don't you go wash up for dinner okay?"

"Alright." Wendy said going upstairs. 

Erza and Jellal looked at each other awkwardly. 

"Now you know why I don't like my brother babysitting her." Jellal said.

"Jellal how exactly does Mystogan know about our baths?" Erza asked suspiciously. "I thought we agreed to keep those little moments of ours a secret."

"Uh...Heh...Heh...I may have mentioned a few things to him under the influence of too much rum, that time we went to the bar for our birthday." He said nervously sipping his tea. 

"Uh-Huh well you know I think that we should put these little moments of ours on hold for awhile."

"Does that mean we're just going to sleep next Friday night?"

"Yes dear."

"Shoot." He mumbled.

After dinner the three of them sat in the living room to play cards together. From a distance they were being observed by her ghostly friends. Since neither of them could remember their own families or what it was like to have one save for Natsu, they couldn't help but be fascinated by this display. 

"So that's what a family night looks like." Natsu said. 

"Did you remember if you had ever spent any time with your dad or your brother?" Gray asked.

"No but I'm pretty sure my dad was a jerk to me in life just like he is to me in death."

"They say death changes people. Maybe he was a nice guy in life."

"Doubtful."

"If I think back hard enough I think I can remember a little about my mother." Juvia said. 

"What do you remember?" Lucy asked her. 

Juvia thought back as hard as she could. It was difficult but she could make out an image. It was very faint but she had a pretty good idea of what it was.