Requested by: IzzyLuner

Note: I'm so sorry it took so long, I've been really busy meeting up with old friends and stuff and sort of lost track of time... But I'm doing it now!

(I was playing Ni No Kuni 2 earlier, that's why... lmao)

(Its been so long that I've got the remastered one now... whoops, sorry)

Summary: Oliver finally returned home after his quest in Ni No Kuni. Yet everything seemed to be different.

Oliver knew the truth. He was the one who had changed.

|NI NO KUNI|

Being back in Motorville was... strange, somehow.

The times he had travelled back before were fine, normal, even. He had known that he was going to rescue his mom, and everything would be okay.

Except - except that's not how it happened.

Rather than saving his mom, he'd learnt the truth about her.

Learnt that she had no soulmate, had risked her life using two spells at once, gone to the future and had given birth to him.

Oliver knew that Allie hadn't wanted him to go to the other world so soon. It was clear in the way that she had raised him - she didn't want any harm to come to him.

Yet - she had sacrificed herself for him, hadn't she? She must have known that after that, Oliver would be faced with the choices of going to the other world.

Allie had raised him as a kind-hearted, loving boy, and he had always stayed that way. He didn't think he'd ever change. He didn't think he wanted to.

Life in Motorville seemed kind of... dull now. It was as if all the excitement he once got from it had been vanquished, taken to the other world instead.

And, when he was on his quest to defeat the Dark Djinn (his soulmate), he had always enjoyed his little trips back to Motorville.

He enjoyed being able to see Myrtle and Phil again, and being able to solve their problems - even though they didn't know that it was him.

He enjoyed seeing Miss Leila and seeing her cat (who honestly made him laugh, thinking about King Tom).

He enjoyed the change in scenery - but he preferred the other world.

He couldn't really stay in the other world. Not forever.

He'd grown up in Motorville, hadn't he? He couldn't leave his childhood home behind, as much as he wanted to stay in this magical world forever.

Of course, he still made trips there - and enjoyed all the time he spent there.

Those times were few, once school had started.

The farewells were always tearful with Esther. She didn't know when she'd see him again.

|NI NO KUNI|

"Promise me you'll come back soon," Esther said, waving at him tearfully. "I want to see you! We can talk about your school, and your friends - maybe you can even take me to Motorville again and I can see some of your classes!"

"I don't know, Esther," Oliver gave a small laugh, "my classes are really boring. I'll definitely come back though, for sure!"

"Oh, I'll miss you, Oliver!" Esther cried one last time, flinging herself into his arms before she regained herself a bit, giving him a small smile.

"Swaine and I thought we would go and see if we could capture some more familiars," she explained. "And Marcassin said he would come too - to be a 'buffer' between me and Swaine. Honestly..."

"You'll have to show me them when I get back," Oliver encouraged. "I'd love to see them. I need to go now though, Esther. I've got homework, and as sad as it is, I've already left it for a while and it's due tomorrow. I promise I'll see you soon!"

"Goodbye, Oliver!"

|NI NO KUNI|

Marcassin had stopped being all 'kingly' and so formal with him, happily lounging around with him and discussing spells.

Swaine had attempted to teach Oliver the fine art of crafts, but after Oliver's first attempt to make a gun completely and utterly failed, he conceded to the fact that Oliver might not have it in him.

He saw Cassiopeia as well, as often as he could.

He loved spending time with her, her motherly actions making him feel warm, but at the same time she didn't replace his mother.

He also enjoyed seeing the moments when Pea would really shine through her personality, which mainly happened when he showed her all the amazing things that had happened while she was... away.

He checked on her a lot as well, making sure that she wasn't falling again. She couldn't fall down to the darkness again, couldn't choose that path.

Oliver hated himself for even considering that could happen, but it really, really could.

|NI NO KUNI|

It was finally time for Oliver to bring back some of his friends from the other world to see him.

They hadn't been back at Motorville for a while - it had been a rather long time since he'd defeated Shadar, he realised.

But still, it was the final day of the school year, and he was determined to make it count.

Sure, he could spend the whole time with Phil, but the boy hadn't been spending all that much time with him recently.

He could hang around with Myrtle, too, but she was still catching up with people, she had her own friend group.

And, honestly, it was fine.

Oliver would rather spend his time with his other friends. He hadn't seen them for such a long time since school had started being harsher on them, so he was excited to see them.

He used the Gateway spell and instantly travelled to the other world where he last was.

The Fairyground. Huh. He'd forgotten that he had seen Drippy last.

His appearance didn't go unnoticed in the slightest.

The first people who saw him - considering he had travelled close to the stage - were Smiley and Surley.

"Ollie-boy!" Smiley exclaimed, giving Oliver the big grin that always seemed to be on his face.

"Hey," Oliver greeted them. "Is Mr Drippy able to come around with me today? I haven't been here for a while..."

And at that moment, Drippy jumped up from the crowd.

"Over here, Ollie-boy," he shouted, jumping up while waving his arms frantically.

"Hey, Mr Drippy!" Oliver grinned, running up to him. "Hey, I was wondering if you'd like the day off to come spend some time in Motorville with me? It's my last day of school."

"'Course I will," Drippy said. "We best go get Esther and Swaine then?"

"Yep! Esther's wanted to come for a long time, so I figured today's the day and all..."

|NI NO KUNI|

After Oliver had rounded up all of his friends, taking a long while (he would have used the Travel spell, but it made him feel a bit nauseous), he told them what was going to be happening.

"It's the last day, which means there shouldn't be much working. Sometimes there's the odd teacher, but it's okay, generally it's just debates."

Oliver knew he looked a bit insane, seeing as nobody could see Drippy, Esther or Swaine so they all thought he was talking to himself.

(Marcassin would've come, but he still had duties to do. He promised, though, that next time Oliver came that they'd spend the entire day together.)

He was fine with that.

"Okay, I need to go put my stuff away," Oliver said, gesturing to the lockers, "and please don't start moving stuff around again, Mr Drippy. Last time you did that the school had to be evacuated because they thought it was haunted."

"I said I was sorry, didn' I?" Drippy exclaimed indignantly.

Oliver, seeing Phil, walked over to him, smiling.

"Hey, Phil. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay! Summer begins today, loser," he cheered, clapping Oliver on the back. "We can start on our project again. Maybe even do some extra things to it."

Phil gave Oliver a wink as he walked off and Oliver grinned.

"Definitely," he shouted over, before turning back and shoving his bag in his locker.

Bouncing on the balls of his feet, he grinned.

"Phil and I have been working really hard on something for quite a while," he explained. "The last time - well, it went kinda wrong. We're gonna make sure it works fine this time, though!"

"What is it?" Esther asked, clearly seeing the sadness in Oliver's eyes as he spoke.

"Oh, it's nothing. C'mon, let's go!"

|NI NO KUNI|

For that entire day, if Oliver was honest, he had done no work. It's not that he didn't want to - not that he did - but it was the fact that everybody was intrigued by everything.

He didn't mind that, either.

He could tell that Myrtle was confused, looking over at him often.

She could hear the voices of the other world, couldn't she? She couldn't see them, though. That must be difficult.

"Drippy, no!" Oliver shouted, realising his mistake once everybody looked at him. He flushed, but still ran over to Drippy and took him away from the bookcase, whispering into the fairy's  ear.

"Mr Drippy, I've told you!" he scolded quietly, glaring at the fairy. "If you move things around, people are gonna notice something's up. I don't care if it's a book about fairies, all you do when you read them is criticize them, and I don't wanna hear that again."

Everyone was still looking at him. Oliver, his face red, picked Drippy up and calmly walked out of the classroom before he ran, heading for the toilets.

It was a safe place, right?

"Sorry, Olly-boy, I wasn't thinking right, you know?" Drippy said, his face growing into a disgusted look as he spoke the word 'sorry'. "It's too tempting."

"I know, Mr Drippy. Its just... well, everybody thinks I'm strange anyway."

Esther and Swaine had creeped in after Oliver. He hadn't yet noticed.

"It's nothing bad, not at all, its just that... People have noticed. They've noticed, like Denny and Phil, that they felt angry one moment and fine the next, and that I was there.

"Them and Rusty, Myrtle's dad, have noticed something's up. I - I don't really know how to explain it.

"They said they had these weird dreams, where I was there, performing spells and fighting against this monster that had come from their soul or something.

"Obviously, that's true, that happened! But what can I say in response? They all had these dreams, they know I'm not normal.

"They notice when I'm gone the whole weekend as well. People are used to seeing me running around all over the place, gathering the groceries and all that, but now I don't.

"Myrtle's the only one who kinda knows what's going on."

Oliver shoved his face into his hands.

"I've changed, Mr Drippy. I thought everybody else had changed, but it's just me! Just... just me. And I don't know what to do with it."

"Oh, Oliver," Esther whispered, patting his back softly. "We'll be here if you ever feel that way, okay? I know that your friends here don't know what's going on - so we can help. We knows both sides of you."

Oliver smiled up at them.

Maybe he had changed. Maybe something inside him had changed, but he'd always be Oliver.

Ehhhh I hate endings but oh well.

Hope you enjoyed this little... thing! Heh :)

Bye!

- RomioneAndHinny

(I'm so sorry it took so long.)