[adminapproval=11329234] Emily was a very sympathetic person and it was not out of the realm of possibility for her to go above and beyond the call of duty for her friends and the people she loved. Though there was a lot happening in her life right now, she was determined to get to the bottom of the peculiar behaviour of her friends. She loved them too much to allow them to be in pain of she could help them, even though she was suffering a minor headache right now, she'd never feel right knowing she might have been able to help her friends and then not even asked. Even if she couldn't help, maybe she could lighten the load a little. Her friends had always helped her when they found her baking or if she needed help with a class. Now was the time for her to repay that kindness in whatever way she could even if that meant tracking them down and virtually stalking them to figure out what was wrong. She was starting to get disheartened by now, though. She'd been searching for Tressa and Gajeel all day, skipping the food in thhe great hall to continue her search. She knew Tressa liked to be alone when something was bothering her and so the Great hall was not the place she would be, but usually she and Gajeel were always together so she hoped that by finding one, she would easily be able to find the other.
Emily was at the point where she was going to give up and call it a day. She'd been slowly starting to feel better, even though her brother still wanted nothing to do with her, her week had been going well and everyone seemed to be happy. Logan was recovering well after the incident at the ball. She regretted not being there to help, but she supposed things happened sometimes and she was glad that Ailsa was there in any case. She made her way slowly into the Student Lounge, a last ditch effort to find either Gajeel or Tressa. She didn't actually expect either of them to be in there, but sometimes it was the last place you looked and so she was both surprised and horrified when she found her friend curled up in a ball in the corner, clearly crying. Emily gasped and immediately ran to her friends side. She'd never seen Tressa cry before and this was clearly a big deal. "Tressa! Oh gosh! Are you okay, what happened?!" Emily pulled Tressa into a hug, kneeling in front of her and petting her head gently. This was not what she expected at all. She'd been acting strangely, definitely, but Emily just thought she'd had a fight with Gajeel or something, which happened often. That couldn't be what she was crying about, surely?
It had been nearly three months since the death of her father and yet Tressa was still just not over it. She usually managed to remain stoic in class or whenever she ran into Emily and the others, but up in her dorm and late at night, Tressa's mind raced back to the moment her neighbour forcefully stopped her from walking into her own house. She'd been so angry! She'd screamed and kicked and cried and scratched, she didn't understand why he was telling her she couldn't go inside. It was nearly Christmas and she wanted to see her daddy. She'd flown home especially for it, she wanted to be with him and celebrate, but... eventually she'd calmed enough for Mrs Sullivan to explain what had happened. Tressa had always considered her father to be a very fit and healthy man, he played professional football! Alas, Tressa was now fatherless and there was nothing she could do about it but cry, scream and complain to the heavens. She knew it wasn't going to help the situation in the slightest, but maybe she would feel a little better. She didn't necessarily think so of course, but sometimes things came to the point when you had to tell yourself these things in order to keep going.
Tressa was heading to library when it hit her, the feeling of melting into a puddle and living the rest of her days as a smudge on the castle stonework. She ducked into the closest room, the student lounge which was mostly abandoned by this point. The rest of the people quickly left when they saw her face and Tressa's eyes started watering as she quickly threw herself into a corner and held herself together as best she could. The pain welled up inside her like a never ending storm and she found herself wondering if it was normal to feel this way. She was an orphan. Tressa had lost her mother when she was still a baby. It didn't hurt that she lost her. She never even knew her mother, but her daddy? He was the only person in the world that was her daddy. She'd never get another one. Where was she going to live? What was she going to do now? Did she even still get to retain an education now that she was parentless? Tressa didn't know and right now she didn't care, she just wanted her father back. The sound of someone calling her name startled her slightly, but she did not move from her ball. Her back against the wall and her head on her knees, a position she'd retained since her tantrum days. "Emily..." She didn't know what else to say. How did you tell someone that you weren't whole anymore? Instead Tressa clutched onto the little comfort she could get from Emily, the smallest of care she'd been shown since the death of her father. She'd not told anyone, nor had anyone bothered to ask, but that was her Emily, everyone's healer.
Emily only held her friend tighter as she was greeted with a weak call of her name. This was unacceptable! Tressa couldn't be sad! She was always playing soccer, or yelling at Gajeel not to make fluffy muffins (a sentiment that Emily greatly supported) or walking Logan to classes and such. This wasn't right. Emily continued to pet Tressa's hair as the girl continued to cry into her arms. This was not the sort of thing she would expect, not from someone as strong as Tressa. She'd done a lot for people and she was always on top of her game. There was something very wrong and Emily was determined to get to the bottom of it even if it took her right through dinner. She shushed and rocked her friend (well, as best she could given the position they were in) and wondered would could have possibly caused this much distress. She'd not said anything at all, though she'd been a little off since being back from Christmas break, perhaps something happened? "Tressa, it's okay. I want to help you however I can." She said, her voice soft. "What do you need, tell me and I'll get it."
The feeling of a warm hug helped, if only a little. Tressa was happy in the knowledge that Emily would help her however she could and that made her feel at least a little bit better. She settled comfortably into Emily, her face buried into her younger friends robes. She'd expected to be alone during this, but she was comforted to be with someone, even if she couldn't yet talk about what the problem actually was. She just wanted Emily to stay with her and pet her hair like she was doing now. It reminded her of what her father used to do, which only served to make her tears come faster, but she was dulling the pain, at least just a little bit. "No... it's okay." She said as Emliy asked her what she wanted. "I don't need anything. Just, just stay here please. Just don't move."
Emily did as she was told when Tressa told her to just stay where she was. Emily could understand that. When she was upset she just wanted hugs from her mother and she would curl up into her mothers lap and just cry, of course she'd been about eight the last time that had happened, but she'd never seen Tressa cry for some much as a broken toe or anything like that, so seeing her like this was a real shock. She nodded her head as her friend asked for comfort and squeezed her a little bit. She would stay here as long as Tressa needed and that would include all night if she had to. It was true that the Gryffindors had a curfew now, but Emily would vouch for Tressa, she was in distress, she couldn't possibly be expected to remember the curfew in this state. Admittedly though, Emily very much did want to sleep and found that she was dozing a little as she continued to hold Tressa as she cried. The sobs were starting to die down though, so she was sure she would be settled very soon. "Just talk when you can, Tressa, I', here for you. Tell me whatever you want." She said, "I want to help if I can."
Gajeel had been a little early for dinner in the Great Hall in hopes of finding Tressa. He hadn't seen her the whole day and it just felt wrong. It seemed as if they kept missing each other that day. Sure, they had classes together, but it seemed that after those classes, he would suddenly lose sight of her and he was back in that game of tag with her. He partly wondered if she was still mad about him on those last batch of fluffy muffins he baked which ended with a mess in the kitchens and she had disappeared. But those little banters of them never really lasted. Because hours later, the pair of them would be playing sports every which way. Or he'd ask her to fly around the Pitch with him. But this time, he couldn't find her, and it was bothering him greatly. Dinner was supposed to start in a few minutes but still, the tuft of hair that he wanted to see was not present, so he had calmly left the hall without so much as a bite, strangely noticing that their Hufflepuff friend was nowhere to be seen as well.
Gajeel had decided to check rooms that Tressa usually went to when they didn't have class as he would make the Gryffindor Common Room his last destination. He had just passed the library and took a peak at the Student Lounge before heading to the fifth floor. It was then that he heard crying, he couldn't handle crying people, so he had been about to leave. Until he heard Emily's voice. The Gryffindor frowned and stepped into the room, his features set into a frown, his eyebrows furrowed as he trudged into the room in search for his Hufflepuff friend. "Em?" he called out. And he caught sight of the two figures at the far side of the room. Both of them he was all too familiar with. "Em? Tress?" he hurried over to them and knelt in front of the two girls, worry evident within his normally stoic features. He knew not how to handle situations like this, even if he had two sisters himself. "What happened? Who made you cry? It's okay. I'm here, we're here," he said nearly panicking. How was he supposed to handle this?! Merlin! "Oh sh*t, was it me? I'm sorry Tress. Oh Merlin. I'm sorry, okay? For whatever it is, I'm sorry," he wanted to take her into his arms. Cradle her and get her to stop her tears. But if she was mad at him, then there really wasn't anything he could do. But tears really didn't fit her and he never wanted to see her cry like this if he could help it. Like ever.
Emily continued to stay with Tressa as she cried. Emily was never very good at helping when she didn't know what the problem was, so her first order of business was to try and figure out why one of her good friends was so upset. She'd never seen Tressa this way before and she wished she could help because it hurt her to see her strong friend be like this. She looked up when she heard her name, a voice she knew and saw another of her friends, Gajeel, making his way towards them. Emily knew that he wasn't the cause of this breakdown and she shook her head at him. "It's not you, Gaj, I don't know what's up, but it's not you, I know it." They fought all the time and it had never garnered this reaction. She was sure that if it had been Gajeel, he would know and so the fact that he was so worried made it obvious that he was not the problem. Now they just had to eliminate everything else as a possibility before finally coming to the issue. Tressa was too hysterical to speak apparently, so they were going to have to do something. "Did she say anything to you? Do you have any ideas?"
Gajeel couldn't stand the sight of Tressa being like this. He cared for her a great deal, even greater than the rest of their little group if he was honest with himself. She would only come second to his own blood family, so the sight of her like this, it was setting him off. He didn't like not knowing what to do, especially when the people he cared about were hurting. And that was what's happening right now. Tressa was hurting. And it was severely frustrating him that he did not know the reason. Nor did he have any close idea. Things had been going fine between them and although she had been acting different and weird as of late, he had just pushed it off as her needing space away from him. After all, it was undeniable that he frequently was the bane of her frustrations within the castle. And that was what led him to think that this whole thing may be his own fault. What if she had been hiding all that anger from him and now that it just all burst out? The things that Emily was claiming was something that he wanted to believe. That it was not him that caused this. But if it wasn't him, then what? Or who? Biting his lower lip, a hand reached out towards his fellow Gryffindor and moved her hair, trying to get it away from her hair and straightening it out or fixing it as best he could. He didn't know what he was doing to be honest. But hey, it wasn't like he was used to being comforting! He shook his head at the questions thrown at him by the Hufflepuff before looking worriedly at the hysterical female. "Hey Tress. I'm here. I'm sorry, okay? I'll be here," he had no clue if those were the right words to say. He just hope that they were.
Emily moved over slightly so that Gajeel could get in closer. She was really worried, she'd never seen Tressa like this. All her own problems seemed so small compared to whatever was going on with her friend and she was determined to help in whatever way she could. She ran her fingers through Tressa's hair, humming softly. She hoped that her she could get out of her hysteria for a long enough time that she might be able to explain what was going on, because at the moment Gajeel and Emily had nothing to go on. "Take your time, Tressa, we're here when you need us. We're not going to leave you, no-one's going to leave you."
It was very soothing, having her friends here for her. She was glad for it, she needed the strength that their presence provided her. She didn't know how she was supposed to tell them about her pain, it was just something inside her, like a hole that would never be filled. An emptiness where the smile and greeting of her father once was. She'd never have that again and the worst part was probably not being there for him when it happened. He'd died alone and she didn't even get the chance to say goodbye. She wanted to reassure Gajeel, help him to understand that this was not his doing, either of them. But there were no words, only tears. So she stayed where she was for a while, listening to the sounds of there voices, the feel of their hands as they played with her hair or pet her head. It was a good feeling, she supposed she understood why people often did it to kids. It was nice.
She could tell that it was starting to get late now. Most of the people who had come in whilst she was crying had walked straight back out again. She was grateful, she didn't want everyone to see her like this. She sniffled as the tears finally stopped, but stayed where she was for a few moments before lifting up her red face to see both Emily and Gajeel looking at her, concern on their faces. "Thanks for staying with me. And I appreciate what you said Emily." about how no one was going to leave her. She only wished it hadn't already been proven wrong. "My dad died. I'm all alone and I don't know what to do." The tears quietly seeped from her eyes again as she rested her head on Gajeel's shoulder.
It seemed as if Gajeel had been waiting forever for any form of response from his fellow Gryffindor. He was not used to waiting. He was not the most patient man after all, but for her, he would wait if she needed time. And it was blatantly obvious to anyone that would see her that she did. So he did his best to give her the comfort, space and time she needed although it had been surprisingly difficult to do. And then, for what seemed like hours and hours on end, her sobs finally stopped wracking her body and her tears had finally stopped and he was still there, trying to keep her hair away from her face. He gave her a small encouraging grin as she finally sat up and thanked them. But then, she dropped that bomb on them. On him and Emily. He was shocked and he barely kept his jaw from dropping before she placed her head on his shoulders. His arm wrapped itself around her waist trying to pull her in closer while his free hand stroked her hair as he processed the information. Her dad died. It was hard enough for his sisters that they were living away from their parents after the divorce, so he could barely imagine how Tressa was feeling right now. "I may not know how you feel Tress. And I may be a d**k at times, but one thing I know is that you'll get through this. And you're not getting through this alone. I'm here if you need me," he whispered and he knew that he meant every word that he said.
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