Chapter Two

Roxanne woke up a few hours later, but she didn't wake up as quickly as usual. Her senses came back to her one at a time, like how a reset modem's lights flicker from red to green. Because she was plunged into a deep sleep so suddenly, everything had to turn on again in a particular order. It was the body’s way of making sure nothing was damaged.

The first sense to return was her hearing. She could hear three voices; Two boys and one girl. One of the boys was high-pitched and snickering at that moment, while the other had a slightly deeper, gruffer voice and he barely spoke. The girl had a normal voice and sounded kind. The voices together reminded Roxanne of someone, something, important but she couldn't remember who or what.

The second sense that returned to Roxanne was her sense of touch. She could feel that she was lying on something soft, with something like a blanket over her and something soft beneath her head. She must be lying on a bed. Light fell on her eyes, but it wasn't hot like sunlight, so maybe a lamp? Then she must be in a bedroom, which was preferable to being outside. Sunlight would only dehydrate her more and she certainly didn't need any more of that, and a sunburn would only make things harder for her.

The third sense to return was her sense of smell. She could smell a faint, flowery perfume and something harsher. That second smell, for some reason, made her realize how hungry she was, and she remembered being at her parent's house and having a fish dinner. That second scent must be fish, then, but it didn't smell as good as the dinners had which meant that this is uncooked fish. Gross.

As to taste, her mouth didn't feel quite as dry as it had before, though she was still thirsty. Someone must have helped her drink while she was asleep, washing away the taste of dust and replacing it with only marginally more comfortable scumminess. Whoever was taking care of her must be friendly, or at least nice.

Once she realized all that, she started to really wake up. She moved a little, noting how her limbs were stiff and sore, and she moaned softly as her eyes finally opened, thus booting up her fifth sense of sight.

Seeing the ceiling overhead, she knew she was right�"she was indeed indoors and laying on a bed. Moaning again and closing her eyes, she sat up, rubbing her throbbing head.

"Good evening." The girl's voice said gently, as if she was trying not to startle Roxanne.

"Good evening." Roxanne responded automatically and opened her eyes again, only for them to widen in shock as her thought processes stopped. A second later, they started again, but far faster this time.

Wait a second. H-how is this possible?! I must be dreaming this time! How else can they be here?! What's going on?!

Roxanne closed her eyes again, rubbed them fiercely, and then opened them again, hoping they'd be gone and someone real would be with her. She was wrong.

Her heartbeat started to pick up a bit, not so much out of fear but panic, as she realized that the people sitting at the end of her bed were Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel. The high-pitched boy's voice, she now realized, belonged to Happy, who was currently perched on Natsu's shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked as the younger girl realized the implications of where she was. She wasn't at all afraid of Lucy, Natsu and Happy themselves; they wouldn't hurt her. But she was scared because in order for her to be meeting them, she would have to be in their world, Fiore. Which meant she wasn't in her world.

I want to go home.

She'd never see her brother again, her friends or any familiar face.

I want Jacob.

She was alone.

I want to go home. I want to go home. I want home, and Jacob, and�"

"Um, Natsu, she isn't looking very well." Happy observed uselessly as Roxanne curled into a ball, her elbows on her knees as she gripped her head in her hands. She started to shake uncontrollably so she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the shaking. At the same time, her brain was working overtime. She tried processing everything that had happened�"falling asleep in California and waking up in now-confirmed Fiore�"but found that she just couldn't. Fear was swamping her, making coherent thought impossible. It was hard to breathe, her heart was pumping furiously.

"Hey, Lucy, what the hell is going on?" Natsu asked.

"How should I know?" she snapped, more worried than truly angry. "We didn't say anything bad, did we?"

"I don't think so…" Happy muttered as he watched Roxanne regain a bit of control, spurred on by her need to be away from them, alone for just a moment, so she could truly break down and then piece herself back together.

Dirt and sand itched at her skin from where she'd fallen, giving her an excuse. A shower. No one would follow her into the shower. "I think�"I think I'd like to take a shower. Is that okay?" Roxanne asked, her voice void of life, as she started to get up.

"Oh, um, sure," Lucy responded, and the trio watched Roxanne stumble her way to the bathroom.

Standing under the hot water a few minutes later, Roxanne struggled to first focus on relaxing her muscles and enjoying the heat, which turned out to be impossible. The heat should have felt nice, but with panic still in her throat she just couldn't relax and enjoy it. She had to find some other way to calm down.

If you're lost, all of her teachers and her parents and Jacob had told her, stay put and remember to breathe slowly until you can think.

Roxanne tried. She practiced breathing, thinking only of breathing, long and slow and even, until her hitching breaths smoothed and evened out and her hammering heart slowed. Thought about breathing�"in, hold, out, in, hold, out�"until the panic and fear subsided to a background hurt. Only once she had done that did she let herself think about the water again. This time, it did feel nice and she could almost feel her tense body starting to loosen. As close to relaxed as she'd be able to get, she started the next step.

Think about how you got to be where you are. You might remember the way back to where you were.

Roxanne started to wash her hair, thinking think about the events that had led to her current position. She thought about her last day on Earth, then waking up in Fiore. Her walk and subsequent collapse. Then she went over what facts she knew. I'm in Fiore, in the same hotel room as Natsu Dragneel, Happy and Lucy Heartfilia. I'm safe.

I'm safe.

Once everything had sunk in, she then dared to remind herself that her brother was not there and that she'd probably never see him again. She was, for the first time in her life, truly alone. The mere thought of never seeing Jacob again sent pain shooting through her chest, and she started to cry. For nine years, her brother had been the only warm thing in her life, her best friend and protector but also teacher. To suddenly be ripped away from him was unbearably hard for her, and she wanted nothing more than to see him again, to find a way back to him.

She let herself cry, wrapping herself into a ball as she sobbed under the shower's spray. This was probably the only time she had to be alone, so she had to get past it. Come to terms with everything she could. Once she had, she'd be more able to cope with her new life and figure out what she needed to do. But, right now, she just needed to cry.

Once her tears subsided, she finished her shower routine and realized that she had to figure out how to adapt to this world. She had to decide if she wanted to become a mage and join a guild, or if she wanted to get a job. Almost as soon as she'd thought it, she knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to be a mage.

For a few brief seconds, her fear and grief vanished. Her chest burned with desire as she imagined herself wielding magic and taking out bad guys and protecting people. She wanted to become a wizard! And it was possible, too. There were mages her age, in guilds and everything. Natsu, Erza, Cana and Grey had been her age when Master Makarov adopted them, hadn't they? Wendy wouldn't be much older than she was, too. A guild would keep her safe, give her a place to live and work and not be alone.

Plus, magic. Who would want to be normal, if being a mage was an option?

With that resolution blazing strongly in her heart, she turned off the water and got out as she grabbed a towel. Drying herself, she left her hair wet and cleared the vapor from the mirror so she could see herself. She needed to see her new face. She wasn't at all surprised to find that she was animated as well, and found that she liked the change, mostly. Her face looked a bit thinner and paler, and her previously dull brown eyes now looked bigger and brighter, more like amber, contrasting nicely with her brown hair which had deepened in hue and seemed to be richer in color. She didn't have a single freckle, and she wasn't sure if she liked that change, but she couldn't change it back so she decided to let it go.

Nodding in acceptance, she dressed and prepared to leave the bathroom, but then stopped suddenly with her hand hovering over the knob. She was sure that Natsu and Lucy would ask her where she had come from, if she had any family. What should she do?

Her first thought was to tell them the truth. They were being so nice to her, helping a little girl they didn't know and even taking her to their hotel room to take care of her. She really wanted to repay them by telling them the truth. But would they believe her? Happy's personality, the way he talked and acted, seemed a little�"off. Unfinished? Not quite the perpetually-cheerful, occasionally teasing role he'd settled into later on. Since it was just the three of them, they probably hadn't formed a team with Erza and Gray yet�"that meant that they probably hadn't engaged in the Edolas arc, so alternate universes would seem impossible to them. Not only that, but Roxanne wasn't even sure what really happened to her either. How it had happened, or why. How could she expect them to believe her crazy story if she wasn't even sure what happened?

But… I don't want to lie. Roxanne didn't like lying, not even when it would get her out of trouble. Not even for little things. She liked acting, and cosplay with her friends�"her heart clenched again, realizing she'd never get to do that again�"but lying to people outright seemed so wrong, especially to nice people. Lying was wrong. She didn't want to lie. Especially not if she wanted to be friends with everyone! They'd be so mad if they found out she lied to them; it would shatter every relationship she made. Makarov might feel bad for her and forgive her if she gave good enough reason, but what about everyone else? Would they yell at her like Melody had? Tell her how awful a friend she was?

What would they do if she told them the truth? Lucy was nice�"she put up with the guild's craziness all the time, and Natsu was really big on accepting people for who they were. They might humor her, even if they didn't believe her. But what if they didn't? What if she couldn't join Fairy Tail? Doing that was her only real hope�"she didn't know enough about the rest of Fiore to live anywhere else. She had no one to rely on, no one who could help her find somewhere to live. And she was little. Who was going to let a girl her age work a real job?

Roxanne bit her lip, tears wobbling in her eyes and making them sting. I don't want that! I don't want to lie to them! She wasn't even any good at it!

Wait.

A thought eased the tightness in her chest. What if she only lied for a little bit? What if-- what if it wasn't a lie? What if it was, was acting? Cosplay! She could be someone else, for a little while, right? She wasn't really the same Roxanne Simmons, after all�"she was animated now, thin black borders tracing the lines of her hands, smooth color where the little wrinkles surrounding her knuckles should be, and her personality had certainly shifted already as a result of this whole experience. And she could spend the time searching for answers, trying to find the truth! Then she could tell them the real truth once it was safe for her to do so! She was sure that if she gave a good reason for her deception, everyone would forgive her. Okay, Gajeel probably wouldn't. He'd be pretty mad, because he didn't like being tricked. But she liked to think he'd understand, even if he got mad about it. And everyone else… they'd understand too. Especially Carla and Lisanna, when they joined the guild. Lucy would always forgive her�"that was the kind of person she was�"and Erza and Gray would probably be upset at first, but they'd forgive her eventually too. Natsu would just take everything in stride, right?

And besides! This way, she could keep an eye on the guild and, and maybe kind of warn them when danger was approaching without them getting freaked out? Was there a magic that let people predict the future? Cana had magic like that, with her cards, right? She didn't think it gave specifics, though, so she'd have to be really, really subtle. She had to preserve the timeline so it wouldn't change, then she could continue to protect the guild from the sidelines. Maybe she could even convince Makarov to forgive Gajeel and Juvia faster, or warn him that the guild hall and Team Shadowgear would be attacked!

Yes, this was a plan. She could do this!

Her mind made up, she felt determination wash over her. Now she needed to think up a plausible story. Who was this Roxanne Simmons? What kind of character was she? She kind of wished she'd paid more attention to Melody's lectures about how to get in character.

Roxanne thought for several long minutes, planning out every detail that she anticipated would be asked about, and exited the bathroom once she was confident that her story was good and she knew how she should act, at least at first.

"Sorry about that. I'm better now." She smiled and bowed. "My name is Roxanne Simmons. It's a pleasure to meet you, and thank you so much for taking care of me."

"Hi, Roxanne! I'm Lucy, and this is Natsu and Happy." Lucy smiled as she gestured to the boys in turn.

"Nice to meet you, Roxanne!" Happy cheered happily.

Roxanne just stared in confusion even though she wasn't the least bit confused. She'd seen Happy before, but she hadn't reacted to his presence. Partly because she'd been panicking, and partly because she already knew who Happy was. But she shouldn't. This new Roxanne shouldn't. "A talking cat? A blue, talking cat?!"

"Yep! And I fly, too!" He exclaimed as he demonstrated his magic.

"Wow!" Roxanne cried and backed up a bit as she forced her eyes to widen in supposed surprise. "How is that possible? What-What is he?"

Natsu shrugged. "He's just a talking, flying cat. That's all we know."

"That's so cool!" Roxanne smiled, eyes still wide, but this time with excitement. It was the way she'd first reacted when seeing Happy in the manga�"talking animals weren't all that strange in manga, but a flying blue kitty that talked and wore a little knapsack was something special.

Then she turned her wide eyes on Lucy, rushing over as if the excitement of the whole thing had slaughtered her attention span. "Oh, wow!" she said, all admiration as she seized Lucy's hand. "I love your nails! They're so long and healthy. I'm so jealous!" She pretended to look at the nails when, actually, she was checking Lucy's hand for her guild mark, which was absent. That alone told her all she needed to know. Without the guild mark, Lucy wasn't in Fairy Tail yet, which meant that they were between episodes one and two of the anime. They must have been on their way to Fairy Tail when they found her.

"Oh! Uh, thanks."

"How do you get them so long? I can't seem to stop biting mine." She asked as she held up her own small hand to display her bitten nails.

Actually, she wasn't the least bit interested in nails at the moment, so she changed topics again before Lucy even answered, as though suddenly realizing something far more important. "Hold on!" She exclaimed and turned to Natsu. "You're Natsu? As in Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail?"

"Yep, that's me." He grinned and Happy flew down to Roxanne's level as she squealed in excitement.

"Wait a second. How do you know that?" Happy asked, using a suspicious tone of voice.

Roxanne wasn't worried about the tone, though. At this stage of the anime, most of Happy's lines were almost plastic, they were so lacking in depth. His character wasn't developed yet, unlike Natsu and Lucy. As such, Happy was using that tone of voice because he thought it was appropriate rather than actually being suspicious of Roxanne.

"I've been following Wizard Weekly for a long time," Roxanne said eagerly, eyes shining with admiration. "I've always dreamed of being a Fairy Tail wizard, so I pay attention to any kind of media involving the guild."

"A likely story," Happy replied, seemingly unconvinced. Even though he seemed more to be enjoying the act of acting suspicious than actually disbelieving her.

"Oh, Happy, you're so silly!" Roxanne smiled as she grabbed Happy, pulling him into a hug in an effort to redirect the conversation. She couldn't help it�"he was so cute, like a plushie! She'd always wanted a Happy plushie, and Jacob had promised to buy her one on the third day of the�"

Her excitement wavered, and she briefly buried her face in Happy's tiny, blue-furred shoulder to hide the tears that sprang to her eyes. He struggled in her arms, but she didn't let go, cuddling him desperately for a moment as Lucy and Natsu laughed at his predicament, not realizing that her hug wasn't a little girl's reaction to cuteness proximity, but something more serious.

After a moment, though, Roxanne forced herself to smile again�"to giggle and let go. Happy immediately flew up out of reach, which sparked a whole new round of giggles from the girls and a good-natured jeer from Natsu.

Once the laughing died down, Roxanne continued her inquiries.

"Do you two remember how you became wizards?" she asked, looking back and forth eagerly between Natsu and Lucy. "I've been doing a ton of research on it, but everything I've heard conflicts with what others say. But you guys are wizards yourselves, so you must know, right?" Belatedly, she realized that she had no in-character reason to think that Lucy was a wizard at this point, other than her travelling with Natsu.

Luckily, neither of them seemed to think anything of it.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Roxanne, but I can't help you," Lucy replied. "I became a mage when I was a little girl, so I don't remember."

"I was born with my wings, so I can't help you either," Happy shrugged. "Sorry."

"I learned from Igneel," Natsu said, and then�" "He's a fire dragon, have you seen him?"

Roxanne was shaking her head even before he finished asking the question, eyes as huge as she could make them. "You learned from a real dragon?" she asked, awed. She'd almost forgotten that, at this stage of the story, Natsu's search for Igneel was actually his main driving force. Later on in the story, that motivation would fall by the wayside in the face of the greater dangers they faced�"although he would get answers, eventually�"but for now, he was still actively searching.

"Yeah," Natsu said, nodding. "I guess that means you can't learn the same way I did, unless a dragon teaches you. Though if you find one, maybe they'll know where Igneel is! Uh, anyway, sorry."

Roxanne pouted, genuinely disappointed. "Oh, ok. Thanks anyway. Do you know anyone who might be able to help?" She asked that of Natsu specifically. Because they knew that she had done research on Fairy Tail, it was safe for her to ask the guilded wizard.

"I do actually."

"Really?!" Roxanne perked up and became more energetic once again. "Who?!"

"His name is Gramps-"

"Makarov!" Happy interrupted, correcting Natsu as he flew between his friend and the child. "Gramps is his nickname, but his name is Makarov. He's-"

"The guildmaster of Fairy Tail! Of course! Would you please take me to see him, Natsu? Please! You're already taking Lucy, right? Can I come, too? I promise I won't be a bother!"

"How'd you know he's taking me to Fairy Tail, Roxanne?" Lucy asked.

"Because I don't see your guildmark, and you haven't been mentioned in connection to Fairy Tail so you must not be a member. Which means that you're with Natsu so he can put in a good word to Makarov for you, right?" She ended the sentence on a more hesitant note, as if it were speculation rather than foreknowledge.

"Good eye, kid!" Natsu exclaimed and held up a hand for a high five, which Roxanne gleefully reciprocated, though she had to jump for it. "You're right. I'm taking Lucy to Magnolia so she can join Fairy Tail."

"Great! Then it won't be much of a bother to bring me along, too? If that's okay?"

"I don't see why not. Lucy?" Natsu asked.

The blonde smiled, something fond in her eyes as she looked at Roxanne. "I don't mind at all."

"Me neither!" Happy piped in as he raised a paw.

"Then it's decided!" Lucy declared and Roxanne started jumping around in genuine happiness.

"Yay! Thank you so much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She hugged Lucy, and then Natsu, and then tried to hug Happy again, but he flew out of reach, causing Lucy and Natsu to laugh as Roxanne jumped up repeatedly trying to catch him.

"So, um, what now?" she asked at last, once they'd all calmed down. "Are we staying the night here, or are we leaving?"

"We've already missed the last train of the day, so we'll have to stay here tonight and get an early start tomorrow morning." Lucy explained.

"Great!" Roxanne smiled, only to blush as her stomach rumbled. "Oh, right. I guess I'm hungry."

"Yeah, so am I. Let's get some dinner." Natsu stated and Lucy nodded as well while Happy flew around… well, happily.

Roxanne followed the adults out of the room, practically drooling. Food sounded so good right then! She'd gladly eat anything they put in front of her, even if it was weird or, or something she didn't usually like, like fried mushrooms! She was eating, and that was that!

An hour later, the group returned to the room, full and content.

"Thanks so much for dinner, you guys. I'm sorry I couldn't help pay for my share, but once I can I promise I'll pay you back."

"Don't worry about it, Roxanne." Natsu replied as he plopped down on one of the two beds.

"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "We couldn't just let you starve. Oh, by the way, do you mind telling us how you came to be where we found you?" she asked as gently as she could.

"Oh. I guess not, since you've been so kind to me. It's only fair that you know." She replied and sat down on the edge of one of the beds as she recalled the story she had thought up earlier. She lowered her voice and scrunched her shoulders, looking down. She thought of Jacob and bit her lip, no need to feign sadness. She could almost imagine dark clouds of depression brewing over her head.

"I was born a few countries to the East," she began. “My mom was a college professor, and my dad was a police detective. We weren't rich, but we weren't poor either." She started off easily enough, voice only a little shaky. "But one night, while I was at a friend's house, a burglar broke in and killed my parents while they slept." She paused, hearing Lucy gasp and watching all three of them go pale from beneath her lashes.

It felt awful, wrong, to claim that her parents were dead. But they didn't exist here. It was the only thing she'd been able to think of to explain why she had no parents. Why she was alone.

She didn't have to fake the lump in her throat or the tears welling in her eyes. She had to force them away.

But she did it. She took a shaky breath, wrapped her arms around herself and continued her fabricated story.

"Then he stole everything. Everything that mattered. My mom's jewelry, the cash from their wallets and the jars, even the money I had in my piggybank! It was so mean!" She cried and slammed a fist angrily onto the mattress. She hated thieves. Not funny thieves, like Robin Hood or Kaito Kid, who never hurt people and only chose jerks for targets. She hated real thieves, the kind who took things that other people had worked hard for and loved, and didn't care if they hurt anybody to get what they wanted.

She took a couple more breaths, trying to calm down, and went back to her tale. She'd decided that this had to have happened a while ago, or it would be too fresh, too new for her to say the next words without breaking down.

"I was the one to find them the next morning," she whispered into the silence. "I called the police, but it was too late. For the next week, I stayed at my friend's house while funeral arrangements were made and the police did their investigation. But they couldn't find anything, not for weeks and weeks, so the case was closed and they gave up. But I couldn't�"I couldn't just stay there. I couldn't." She shook her head so hard it hurt, made her dizzy. "So, I opened the safe hidden under my old baby things in the attic and I took the money that was in there, and boarded the next train headed west." She paused again, feeling her eyes tear up again.

"I've always followed Fairy Tail. So I planned on going to Magnolia and trying to become a wizard and joining the guild. If I can't become a wizard, I want to get a job in town and work for a living. It's�"all the papers say Fairy Tail wizards break things a lot, but you help people too! You're strong, really strong, so no one's going to try anything in the town where you all live. It's safe. It's safe." She stopped again to breathe and hopefully banish the tears, but all she did was cry a bit harder. She didn't know much about Fiore as a country, but there were all kinds of monsters and strange beings in the story that had been amazing and interesting when it had just been a story. Now, the more she thought about trying to live here, on her own, the more she realized that she'd never be able to do it.

All she knew about Fiore, about Earthland, was what she'd seen of it in the Fairy Tail anime. Fairy Tail was all she knew. It was the only thing that felt real to her here, that felt like maybe it would be safe.

Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be lonely.

"Everything went fine for the first few days," she managed, trying to stick to her story even though her head ached and her nose was running and her eyes felt puffy. "But then, as I was walking from a train station to the road so I could catch a ride with someone, a group of bad guys knocked me out. When I woke up, all I had left was my clothes. All of my money, my food and water. All of it was gone!" She yelled as she started crying in earnest now, face buried in her knees.

"I tried looking around but they were long gone and even their footprints had been wiped away! So all I could do was face west and start walking. I walked and walked and walked and I couldn't find anyone and I was all alone and thirsty and hungry and tired but I had to keep walking. I had to. But then I couldn't walk anymore and I fell down and passed out and woke up again here and�"" She then broke down in earnest sobbing and was quickly embraced by Lucy while Natsu and Happy looked on, unsure of how to help this crying child.

Fifteen minutes later, Lucy tucked a sleeping Roxanne under the covers of a bed and brushed the hair out of Roxanne's face.

"Poor thing." she whispered with a sigh. "So young and already an orphan."

"Yeah." Happy agreed solemnly. "I guess we're all she has, huh?"

"Yeah." Natsu whispered as Happy nuzzled against Roxanne.

Looking at each other for a second, Lucy and Natsu silently left the room to let Roxanne sleep.