Tears are words the mouth can't say nor can the heart bare.

― Joshua Wisenbaker

Chapter 1: Layla's first job

"Igneel...Igneel!" Layla Dragneel shouted as she ran through the guild hall, she continued pushing through the brawl that her own father had started and ran over to her older brother, who was sat at the bar with Marvin Dreyar and Cadence Fullbuster.

Fourteen year old Igneel had his mother's blonde hair and calm personality however had his father's dark eyes, as he didn't really get the hang of Dragon Slaying magic he learnt his mother's instead, allowing his younger sister to take after their father in more ways than one.

Like her mother, fifth teen year old Cadence had dark blue hair, however had mastered the same type of magic as her father, since she couldn't master her mother's water based one.

Fifth teen year old Marvin Dreyar, had his mothers sapphire eyes, whilst inheriting his father's blonde hair, however the oldest of the Dreyer siblings learnt take over magic rather than adding to the ever-growing number of dragon slayers.

Igneel laughed at his younger sister's appearance, only this morning their mother had attempted to make Layna appear to look like a girl, by placing her wild salmon hair in hair ribbons and forcing her to wear a dress only the hyper active twelve year old to turn a once yellow dress into a dusty gray one and for her wild hair to hang loose on her shoulders.

"Look!" Layna exclaimed excitedly as she pulled at the collar of her dress, revealing a fairy tail guild insignia, just below her collar bone and the same colour as their mothers.

"You know Layna, that's going to become an awkward place when you're older" Marvin pointed out as he tried to stifle a laugh.

Layla tilted her head to the side in confusion and narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean, Marvin?" She asked

Marvin suddenly turned red, causing the two older teenagers to laugh, leaving Layla even more confused.

"He's talking about when you get boobs!" A voice shouted, Layla turned around to find her best friend and fellow tomboy, thirteen year old Ebony Redfox.

The dragon slayer in training had inherited her father's wild dark hair, which she held in place in a high pony tail and a slightly lighter complexion to his own, with her mothers hazel/gold however much to her displeasure she also inherited her height.

"Ebony!" Cadence hissed as she gave her friend a playful nudge.

"Well he was too chicken to say boobs; it isn't like the girls here are walking around with their tops off..." Ebony paused for a second to turn back to Cadence "Well except you"

Cadence groaned, and Marvin almost fainted.

Unfortunately for her she had inherited her Fathers stripping habit; her parents' had hoped that she would grow out of it when she passed her toddler years, however that wasn't the case.

"Eww, Cadence took off her clothes again!" Rowen giggled, causing Wendy to quickly cover her young son's eyes.

"See, Layla, I told you that this guild is crazy" The raven haired mage smiled as she placed an arm round her younger friend's shoulders.

Layla flashed a toothy grin

"Isn't it wonderful?"

Her focus quickly landed on one of the tables, where her other friend, eleven Gale Redfox was sat alone reading; like his mother the younger Redfox sibling had developed a love for books, allowing himself and Layla to become good friends.

Since his older sister had found it easier to learn their father's magic, Gale decided to learn tier mothers.

"Hey little brother!" Ebony shouted, causing her younger brother to roll his eyes.

"You know, Ebony we are the same height, in fact I may be a few inches taller than..." the blue haired boy started only to be stopped by his sister's low growling

"You better stop there, or Mom and dad will only have one child..." Ebony growled, causing Gale to chuckle then turn his attention back to his book.

"Gale, watchya reading?" Layla asked in a singsong voice as she took a seat opposite the blue haired boy.

Gale's crimson eyes moved their focus from the book to Layla as he placed the book down on the table.

"Just a book on metals..." He stated

Ebony's eyes lit up as leant over the table to get a closer look at the book.

"Do you have anything new at your house that I can read?" Layla asked a smile on her face.

Gale shook his head, causing her smile to fade.

"Sorry, Layla, you've already read all the books at our house..."

"Ohh.." Layla sighed, the salmon haired girl spent most of her time either at the guild or at the Redfox's residence and had already read all of the book in their possession.

"Quit moping already, and let's go and see if Fullbastard has learnt anything new!" Ebony exclaimed as she pulled Layla by the arm outside of the guild, Gale turned his focus back to his book.

Like his mother, thirteen year old Jaden Fullbuster had learnt water magic; he stood practicing the new spell that his mother had taught him on a tree, a drop of sweat fell from his dark hair and ran down his face.

"Fullbastard!" A voice shouted

Concentration ruined, Jaden turned Ebony and Layla; Layla was a year younger than him and to his understanding wasn't allowed by her parents to officially join the guild until she mastered some type of magic.

However that never stopped the salmon haired girl from attempting to fight the water mage.

"What do you two want?" Jaden asked, as he folded his arms, he concluded that it must have been something good since Layla had that same toothy grin on her face and Ebony was wearing that scary looking grin, that said 'I know something that's going to piss you off'

"Guess who joined the guild today" Ebony said, the scary looking grin still spread across her face.

He turned to face Layla, who's toothy grin was so wide it looked as if she was about to explode.

"Let me guess, it's you Layla" Jaden said with a straight face, causing Layla to giggle and clap her hands like an infant who had just discovered the joys of peek-a-boo, he sighed as he concluded that Layla Dragneel had the mentality of a five year old.

"Yeah, I joined today" She said as started to fiddle with the collar of her dress, only to be stopped by Ebony.

"Okay, I think we had enough flashing for today"

Jaden raised a brow in confusion

"Don't you know you're own sister?" Ebony asked causing Jaden to nod in understanding.

"I want to go on a job!" Layla said excitedly as she hung by her arms from a tree.

"On your own?" Ebony asked "You know that your parents wouldn't let you"

Layla jumped down from the tree, landing on her feet with liquid grace.

She gasped as her attention landed on a cluster of purple flowers, she picked up one , with a smile.

The smile she wore on her face instantly caught Jaden's attention, it was a smile he had never seen before.

It wasn't the usual toothy grin she wore this was something genuine, something pure, something... beautiful.

"Azaleas!" She gasped, this girl never ceased to amaze him, here she was covered in a rainbow of dirt , her hair messy and wild, and then suddenly she decides to stop and be a girl for five minutes to pick flowers.

"Yeah whatever your favourite flowers, now back to the subject!" Ebony sighed, causing Layla's mouth to form an 'o' shape before she could remember where she left off.

"Not by myself, with my brother and my friends..." Layla pointed out.

"hm, Igneel would only go if Holly does" Jaden pointed out in thought, as he tried to forget the smile Layla had.

"Yeah because he has a massive crush on her" Ebony said with a laugh

"No doubt Cadence will want to go" Jaden sighed as they started to walk back to the guild.

"We don't need so many of us, I mean I'm strong as hell" Ebony said with a smile, causing Layla to giggle and Jaden to roll his eyes.

"What can you do, have you seen your size?!" Jaden exclaimed as he reached to open the guild doors.

"What did you say?!" Ebony growled a dark aura appearing around her.

Jaden flashed a grin

"Ebony he said..." Layla started

"I didn't hear you form all the way down there" Jaden said with a laugh "How about you grow a few inches and say it to my-"

Jaden was cut off by Ebony punching him with an Iron fist, causing him to slam through the guild doors.

"You better apologise for that Fullbastard!" Ebony shouted as she proceeded to turn her other fist into iron.

The two young mages ended up in a mess of limbs on the ground, Layla thinking it as a game, decided to join in too by randomly punching the both of them with flame engulfed fists.

"To think that she just joined today and she's already in her first guild brawl..." Lucy sighed as she sat next to Levy who was also watching the action.

"They grow so fast" Levy said with a sigh

"I think that's enough!" A voice shouted, before an arrow landed in between the three mages, just missing Jaden's head.

They all turned to see Holly Fernandez, bow slung over her shoulder, dark blue bangs covering her eyes.

Like her mother, Holly learned re-quip magic except she specialised with bows and arrows rather than swords.

The three instantly froze.

"Who started this?" She asked her voice icy and it chilled the three of them to the bone.

Layla instantly shuffled away from Jaden and pointed at him.

"L-Layla!" He gasped, his skin a ghostly white from fear.

"Yeah it was Fullbast-" She paused as Holly sent a look of death her way "Fullbuster's fault, he started it"

Holly loaded her bow with another arrow, getting ready to strike at Jaden.

As much as she would have liked to see him hurt, Layla decided that she actually needed a live rival.

Taking a breath she decided to do something nice for the water mage and save his hide.

"Holly want to come on a job with me?" Layla asked, the distraction worked and caused Holly to place her arrow down and turn to face the salmon haired girl.

"Why not?" Holly asked "Who else is going?"

"Ebony, Jaden, Cadence and Igneel" Layla said smiling, the mere mention of the celestial mage's name caused Holly to blush.

"I don't know..." Holly said, unaware that Jaden was making a quick getaway behind her.

"Please..." Layla said with a pout as she pulled a puppy dog face, instantly causing Holly to resist and accept the offer.

Layla happily dragged Ebony over to the request board for the two of them to choose a job.

"Are you sure about this one?" Lucy asked as she read the request for the umpteenth time.

"Mom, don't worry with the five of us, Layla will be fine" Igneel said with a smile as he wrapped his arms around his younger sister.

"What do you mean me?" Layla asked as she wriggled out of Igneel' hold "I can take care of myself"

Lucy smiled down at her daughter, placing a hand under her chin so she could look at her.

"You know, Layla, this is your first job and I just want you to be safe"

"But Mom, I'm going to be with Omni-Chan and Ebie-Chan, they are really strong" Layla pointed out.

Jaden smiled at his Aunt Lucy, he remembered when he went with his sister, Igneel and Holly for his first job, his mother had acted fine about it in front of the guild, however Jaden felt as if there were a set of eyes watching him and could detect a magic similar to his own throughout the duration of the job.

Lucy turned to Natsu, who nodded at her with a smile.

"You can go but you" She pointed to Igneel "Make sure she stays out of trouble"

Igneel nodded his and started to get up, the others following him out of the guild, before Layla left she turned to Juvia a toothy grin spread across her face.

"Don't worry Auntie Juvia, I promise that Jaden will get home in one piece"

Juvia smiled for she knew that Layla Dragneel always kept her promises.

Igneel was almost out of magic energy, the creature that they were sent to apprehend had already destroyed half of a small town and in an attempt to prevent it from doing further damage, himself, Holly and Cadence lured the creature away from the town whilst Layla, Ebony and Jaden evacuated the civilians.

The creature was stronger than they had originally thought, already Holly had fired multiple arrows at it only for them to have no affect on it's tough skin.

Igneel had summoned Aries, who was using her wool to hold the creature back and give the mages some much needed respite.

"We can't keep this up, I'm already low on magic energy" Cadence said between pants.

Igneel nodded in agreement, he didn't know for how much longer he could keep Aries in the human world.

""Maybe if the others came back..." Holly started

Igneel shook his head

"I don't want the other's involved too much, this thing is strong" He sighed

And besides he promised his mother to keep Layla out of trouble.

"Hey guys!" Layla shouted as herself, Ebony and Jaden ran up the hill towards them.

"Jaden, what are you three doing here, you were meant to evacuate the civilians" Cadence hissed

"We did that and besides we wanted to help" Jaden said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Fine but she stays back" Igneel said as he gestured to his younger sister, who folded her arms with a pout.

"It's for your own good" Holly said sweetly as she placed a hand on Layla's shoulder.

Layla gave the older girl a soft smile and then watched with a sigh as she rejoined the others to subdue the creature.

Igneel collapsed to the ground once Aries had disappeared back to the spirit world, the wool wall disappearing with her.

The creature took a step forward, getting ready to attack once more, however Cadence quickly entrapped it in an ice cage, using all her power to make sure that it stayed for as long as it could.

"Igneel!" Layla gasped as she ran over to her brother

"Lay, I'm fine..." He said between pants, causing her to frown.

Layla opened her mouth to speak once more however a shattering sound grabbed all their attentions, followed by a roar and then and ear piercing scream.

"Cadence!" Holly shouted as she ran over to her friend, Cadence struggled to stand, after taking a hit from the creature for she was severely injured.

"Layla, stay with her!" Holly shouted causing the salmon haired girl to quickly crawl over to her injured friend, you were never asked twice by Holly Fernandez.

Holly then turned to face Igneel, who had now summoned enough energy to get back into the battle.

"You okay to fight?"

She already knew the answer, for Igneel was a Dragneel and they never backed down from a fight.

"Of course" He said as he flashed a toothy grin and picked up one of his keys.

"Then get over here!" Holly shouted, causing Igneel to quickly summon a spirit that would help them.

Holly fired one of her arrows; it went straight into the creature's eye causing it to howl with pain.

She quickly dodged its claws before they could hit her, allowing Ebony to stab the creature with her arm that she had turned into a sword.

"Look they're winning!" Layla said excitedly to Cadence who smiled back with half closed eyes.

"Of course, we're Fairy Tail..." She said before she winced with pain.

Layla watched as the mages held their own against the creature and smiled at all their efforts.

She gasped as the creature picked up a tree, about to use it to hit her brother while he tried to get up, without thinking she opened her mouth.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

A large amount of fire escaped her mouth, burning the creature and causing it to drop the tree, Igneel turned to face her with an appreciative smile on his face, causing Layla to return a toothy grin.

"Look, I'm out of arrows" Holly panted, her knees weak all she wanted to do was lie down on the ground.

Layla quickly pulled the unconscious Ebony out of the creature's way before it could crush her, placing her next to Cadence.

"I have no energy left to summon a spirit" Igneel sighed placing Sagittarius' key back into his pocket.

Jaden currently had the creature in water lock however the young mage didn't know how long he could hold it.

"Maybe we could-" Holly started, only to be cut off by the creatures' screeching.

The force of the creatures' screech sent the mages flying in different directions.

Jaden was sent to the floor, whilst Igneel and Holly were sent flying into the forest.

The creature snarled, baring it's teeth in front of Jaden.

"Jaden move!" Layla shouted, only to receive a grunt from her friend.

"I can't!" He shouted back.

The creature raised it's clawed hand ready to strike.

Jaden closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.

Layla stood and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

The impact never came.

When Jaden opened his eyes, what he saw was much worse.

He screamed yet no sound came out of his mouth.

He crawled over to her, her breaths and heartbeat quiet, red stained her once yellow dress.

He looked up and saw the creature standing over them, clawed hand raised, teeth bared.

"You bastard...!" A voice shouted

He saw a flash of black before a sword like hand pierced itself through the creature's stomach.

It screamed once before falling to the ground with a loud thud.

Revealing Ebony who stood behind with its black blood staining her hand and her tears staining her face.

"It doesn't hurt that much..." Layla whispered, as she placed her hand against the gaping wound the creature had left.

"You need to stop talking..."Ebony said, her voice thick with sadness.

"Where are Igneel and Holly?" Jaden asked, he remembered them getting thrown back by the monster, but he figured that the older mage would want to be by his sister's side.

"Lay-Chan, you need to stay awake!" Ebony shouted, no longer trying to hold back her tears.

Layla opened her mouth to speak, only no words came out, she slowly closed her eye lids, which caused Ebony to squeeze her hands tighter in an attempt to get her to open them again.

"Lay-Chan, please..." She pleaded, her voice sounding like a pleading child.

"Layla..." Holly shouted as her and Igneel walked over, her arm draped over his shoulder for support.

"Igneel, she's slipping..." Ebony sobbed.

Even without dragon slayer senses the silence was enough to hear the 'song of death' as Layla's heartbeat became weaker and her breaths short and un-even.

Igneel had fallen to his knees, Holly was crying into his chest, Cadence was now awake and comforting Ebony while Jaden sat and only with his thoughts.

All he could think of was the way she smiled when she found those azaleas, a silent tear rolled down his face once he realised that he would never see that smile again.

Just wondering what you guys thought of that

Should it be placed into the fiery depth never to be seen again?

Please tell me what you think

JustAnotherFairy :)