I love this one to pieces, still. One of the better ones I've written for the Armada. But please keep in mind that I wrote it before it was actually revealed how they met.
Evergreen limped forward, sweat from heat and exertion pouring down her face, fogging up her glasses. "Come on, Evergreen," she growled under her breath. "You've got this." She shifted the heavy weight on her shoulders.
A weak laugh came from the man she was supporting. "You should just leave me and go, Ever."
She scoffed, and glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "Not a chance in hell."
He laughed weakly, but it soon turned to hacking coughs. When they subsided, he wheezed. "I think we're already there, Ever."
Much as she would like to, Evergreen could not argue with him. Because no matter how much she tried, no matter how much she grunted and groaned, and hauled his dead weight...
She could not outrun a forest fire.
How had things devolved into this? How had they ever gotten into this situation? How could the job have gone downhill so fast?!
In the end, she supposed that they had vastly underestimated their foe. They should have noticed sooner, she thought bitterly. They should have noticed the bomb.
And now the forest was burning, she couldn't find Freed or Bickslow... and Laxus was too injured from shielding her in the blast to even support himself. It was a small miracle that he'd even survived at all - though only long enough to burn to death.
Oppressive, the heat from the surrounding flames pressed into Evergreen's skin. Its scalding touch left great red streaks, and her every movement only worsened the agony. Her eyes were dry, but sweat pooled in her lower back, in her palms. Holding onto Laxus was becoming more difficult by the second.
Dampness touched her side, and she flinched at the sensation. Then she cringed, upon seeing the dark red seeping out of Laxus's side.
"Ever... This is an order. Drop me, and save yourself."
"Shut up or I'll turn you into stone." Briefly, she contemplated doing just that. But another blast of heat swept over her and she knew that even doing that would not be enough to save Laxus or herself. Enough heat could crack even stone. But if it came to that, she'd take the chance. If only to save him until someone else could undo the petrification. And there would be someone. Someday. Freed could do it. Presuming he was still alive, anyway.
Laxus was quiet for a long moment, and all Evergreen could hear were the roaring, snapping flames and his heavy breath on her cheek, his chin digging into her shoulder.
Letting out a weary laugh, Evergreen began to speak. "Do you remember, Laxus? When we first met?"
He grunted in agreement, his movements becoming more sluggish as he continued to lose blood.
Evergreen continued, "It was in a forest of stone trees." Petrified, ancient, those giants had stood. In a grove long dead, the young mage had felt safe there. "I was running away from home. I'd petrified someone for the first time." Contrary to the common belief, Evergreen's eye magic was her true magic. She had learned the prettier, flashier fairy spells to hide her shame, and her friends had adopted eye magics of their own to shelter her.
What did she ever do right to deserve such wonderful people in her life?
"You were on a job. And you found me there."
"Then you turned me into stone," he chuckled.
That brought a smile to Evergreen's face. "I did, didn't I? You were pretty scary, and you surprised me. I thought I was all alone. But then I realized what I had done - again. I tried everything I could think of to undo the spell."
"You did."
"I did," she agreed. "It took me days." Long, tear-filled, desperate days. "But then, when you were free, you weren't angry at all. You forgave me."
Laxus snorted. "My own damn fault for letting a kid get the drop on me in the first place."
She paused, her chest heaving as she fought to fill her lungs with the dry, ember-filled air. Her muscles trembled like a newborn deer's, threatening to drop both of them to the ground. Her lip trembled, and she bit it to still its movements. She tasted blood. Readjusting Laxus's weight, she gathered her willpower and placed one foot forward. And then the next. Until her progress was resumed, though at an even more sluggish pace than before.
"It meant... a lot to me..." Evergreen panted, her vision starting to swim. She blinked back against it, trying to focus. "You took me back... to the first person I turned to stone... and helped me undo the spell. And then... you took me... to Fairy Tail. To my new home. To new friends. To new family. So there's no possible way... I will ever... leave you behind!"
She would hold in her heart the memory of that stone forest until the end of her days.
Evergreen nearly stopped in her tracks again.
A stone forest.
Fire could crack and burn a piece of stone.
But a forest of it would smother it.
Her footsteps slowed, and then halted. Gently, she set Laxus down. His eyes were glazed over, and he didn't even seem to register that they were no longer moving forward.
Was that even possible? Could she petrify an entire forest, while leaving herself and Laxus intact? Eye contact was necessary for her magic to work under normal circumstances, because that was where she had concentrated it when she had trained. If she... pushed the magic in her container outward, though...
She gently cupped Laxus's cheek, and then let her hand drop to her side.
Evergreen knew she had to try.
Even if the act burst her stone heart.
Later, when Bickslow and Freed found them, Evergreen was barely clinging to consciousness, and Laxus was in dire need of medical attention. But they were both alive, amongst the serene grove.
A new stone forest.