Staring out over the fields of Magnolia, Skylar couldn't seem to grasp the fact of what she saw hours earlier after returning to the guild after completing a 100 years mission in 9. A worn picture grasped in her hand, thoughts consuming her as it was now the last thing she had to remind her of him. Her neck now bare from the necklace she wore that had held his promise to her. Closing her eyes she began to try and process the events from earlier that day…
'I'm done. I'm finally home.'
Skylar made her way down the main strip toward the guild house. Her worn boots thudding as she walked over the stone streets. The shops lined with street, people moseying about, the smell of fresh baked breads and pastries clung to the air.
Stopping to look at the guild house, she couldn't help but smile at the fact she was going to see her old friends and the one she promised to. The heavy doors opening easily as she made her way in towards the bar.
"Holy shit. Tell me I'm seeing stars!"
Looking behind the bar to where the voice came from, Mira stood gawking in awe. The drink she had been working on now long forgotten as rounded the bar to pull her friend into a much needed hug.
"I can't believe you're home! You look amazing!" Mira muttered into Skylar's blonde hair.
"Yeah, I finished early. Thankful for that I'm ready to start settling down with —"
"SHE SAID YES!" A deep baritone voice shouted over the guild.
Letting go of one another, Mira and Skylar looked towards the second floor of the guild house where dark blonde haired mage stood looking down towards whoever was kneeled before her. Skylar looked towards Mira in question, quickly noticing the stricken look on her face. Cheers sounding throughout the guild.
"Mira, are you okay?" She asked trying to break her friend from her state of shock.
"No, no I am not. And you aren't either…" Mira's eye never left the second floor, her face tight with poorly concealed anger.
Skylar followed her gaze again to the second floor only to have her eyes stop on the figure finally standing from his knees. It took her a second to realize who it was…
"La… Laxus?" Skylar muttered breathless, all air leaving her body.
"Sky, I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry." Mira kept muttering under her breath, wrapping her arms around her newly returned friend.
"When?" "Why?" Skylar made eye contact with Mira searching her friend's face for answers.
"Lucy came to the guild 5 years ago… They didn't start dating till 6 months ago…" Mira said looking away from her.
"Mira! We need drinks to the second floor!" A voice sounded behind Skylar.
Turning around to see her long time friend and partner in crime — Bickslow. Stopping suddenly when his eyes met the confused midnight blue eyes of someone he didn't think he would see for another 10 years. Hand coming up to his visor to rip it from his head, his normally concealed green eyes searching the aura of the gal standing in front of him as if to make sure of who she really was.
Muttering an almost breathless "Fuck."
Skylar stood there, searching his face for answers. Hoping to find out that what she had witnessed was a dream or a joke. Watching Bickslow's body language as his shoulders slumped and the brightness of his skin and eyes drain. She sucked in a breath.
"No. No. No no no no" hands flying to her hair as if trying to bring herself back to reality. Her panting breathe only heard by her two friends around her. Leaning forward as if to catch her breath causing her necklace to slip from her shirt. Eyes focused on the ring dangling between her breasts. One hand leaving her hair as it now begins to clutch the ring between her fingers. Sucking in a breathe, as her focus becomes the act of not crying. Ripping the chain from her neck only to leave an angry red mark from the chain snapping. Skylar begins walking toward Bickslow hand out stretched.
"Tell him I say congrats, sorry I wasn't home soon enough. Not that he would have waited for me anyways like I have him. He can have my share of the house — I just need to get my things." Skylar places the ring into Bickslow's hand. Making her way over the the 100 year quest board behind the bar she snatches up one aimlessly not bothering to look at which mission it was.
Skylar made her way out of the guild hall and towards her house she had bought with Laxus to gather her belongings.
A crack of celestial magic broke the sound barrier as Skylar descended on the steps of what she could no longer call her home. Fetching the key she made her way in only to stop in the foyer and stare. Everything had changed. Her belongings no longer set out, pictures removed, furniture they had bought together gone. In their place, pictures of the girl and Laxus and furniture Skylar had never seen before placed about. Swallowing she made her way to the bedroom only to see the same thing as the living room — she was removed. Gone. He had removed her from their house, the home that they were to begin building together once she had returned from her mission. Making her way to the garage, she opened the door to find her belongings packed away forgotten. Opening the gateway to the Celestial world she began to move her things. Sighing, Skylar closed up the house and made her way to the old tree house from her childhood where her, Mira, Bickslow and Laxus would have sleep overs. Knowing that was the one place she was safe and could go.
-Guild House-
Almost in a haze Mira and Bickslow stare at one another, waiting for the other one to make the first move. Mira being the first to glance over at the board, gasping in shock.
"Oh. No!" Mira made her way to the board searching it, reading through the listings even though she had them memorized. Bickslow following her, fear radiating off of him. Mira's hands began pawing at the listings searching for the one she most dreaded, the one Mystogan wouldn't even touch. Mira's panic became tangible, Bickslow stared at the board in horror.
"She didn't!"
"Tell me she didn't!"
"Please Bixs you have to find her!" Mira became almost inconsolable. Collapsing to the floor in shock.
"She doesn't know what she had taken on!" Mira mutters to Bickslow. Head in her hands, trying to collect herself.
"Hey man — where are the drinks we need to celebrate!"
Turning around Bickslow stared at his friend and teammate. Unable to vocalize his feelings and what just happened. The only thing he could manage to do was hold his hand out face up, showing Laxus the necklace holding the ring. The very ring Laxus had given to Skylar years before, when he promised to wait and marry her when she returned from her mission. Laxus' eyes moved down from Bickslow's face to his out stretched hand. Squinting to make out the object in his friend's hand. Confusion being the first emotion coming over Laxus's face, then recognition following a mix between horror and shock. Laxus paled before his line of sight shot to Mira on the floor head in her hands.
"Mira —"
"Laxus you asshole. You fucking asshole. You heartless son of a bitch how could you?!" Mira sobbed into her hands. "She came home. She fucking came home."
Standing still in shock, Laxus stared wide eyed at Mira then at Bickslow's hand. Snatching the ring from Bickslow's hand he raced out of the guild hall towards the house, thunder clapping once the door shut behind him.
Bickslow stared at the doors to the hall, hands at his side.
"Mira we need to find her before he does. She'll kill him." Bickslow murmured. Picking Mira up from the floor he helped guide her to the back storage unit of the bar. Sitting her at her desk, he stood up straight leaning his head back to stare at the ceiling.
"Where could she have gone?" Mira questioned.
"Well she said she was going to get her belongings. So she saw the house… She saw that he had packed her things…" Bickslow confirmed. "She can't still be there…"
Pausing to think the two gasp at the same time — "The tree house!"
-Tree house-
Bickslow and Mira made their way through the woods that over looked the fields of Magnolia. Stopping to stare at the old tree house that the four of them would always play in. Mira grasped Bickslow's hand as they made their way to the base of the tree. Both noticing that the ladder had been pulled into the house.
"SKY!" Bickslow shouted up towards the tree house. "SKYLAR STAR"
The pair waited for a response. Holding each other, trying to understand the seriousness of the events of the night. Skylar with her eyes still closed fumbled with the latch to the tree house letting down the ladder.
The pair let out a breath of relief. Mira looked at Bickslow and nodded towards the ladder, motioning for him to go up first. He nodded and made his way to the ladder and began the climb, Mira shortly following.
Skylar stood at the entrance waiting to see her friends, the one remaining, the one who had not — in her eyes, forgotten her. Her mind only could focus on the fact that he had not kept his promise but they could. As soon as Bickslow breached the top of the ladder he brought Skylar into an embrace. Breathing in her scent, tears pricked his eyes. Mira glancing over the top of the floor, noticing the tall mage wrapped around the petite dragon slayer she smiled for the first time in a long few hours. Wrapping her arms around the sobbing celestial wielder. The three holding each other tightly as if Skylar was going to disappear.
"Sky, you can't take that mission. It's a death sentence. Please don't take it." Mira begged into her friend's hair.
"Why not?"
"Because Mystogan won't even take it. He said it's sure to get the mage who ever takes it killed." Mira responded.
"Not like that would matter… he wouldn't care."
"Maybe not, but we would. You just got back to Fairy Tail. You can't leave, we have so much to catch up on." Bickslow stated ruffling Skylar's hair. "Give us a month, please. Then you can take whatever mission you one, just not that one."
"Fine… One month. I can do one month." Skylar concedes.
Both Bickslow and Mira release their hold on the petite mage. Before taking a long hard look at her quickly noticing the changes that time made. Instead of the stick thin 17 year old with wild hair that sparkled in the sun and moon light which had been chopped into a long bob stood a 26 year old woman who had matured into her features, her hair reaching the small of her back, her plump lips a light shade of rose, long dark lashes framing her midnight blue eyes. Her guild mark on the back of her neck had faded. She had grown into her beauty gracefully.
"SKYLAR!" Shouted a voice from the ground beneath the tree house.
"I can't be around him right now… I can't do it. Please tell him I'm not here. Please." Skylar panicked as she looked towards her friends.
Mira and Bickslow both nodded, Bickslow stuck his head through the opening. "Hey man, she's not here. We can't find her either."
"DAMN IT! Fuck dude, what am I going to do?!" Laxus asked in distress. "Lucy doesn't even know about her. How is Skylar going to forgive me? Dude, I don't know what to do, I don't honestly know what to even say to either of them." Running his hand through his hair making it go this way and that. Bickslow made his way down the ladder, facing the tall blonde dragon slayer. Laxus paced back and forth contemplating what he should do next cursing himself.
"Lax, you're going to have to tell Lucy at some point, and you're going to have to explain to Sky. They both deserve an explanation, you'll just have to wait for the outcome once you've made amends." Bickslow stood with arms crossed shaking his head.
"I know, I know. Fuck man, I messed up. I waited for so long for her to come back, so fucking long. It felt like she was never going to come back. Her letters stopped making me feel better, getting them felt like a curse. It felt like I was tied to someone I couldn't have anymore."
Bickslow signed, trying not to roll his eyes. Laxus stopped pacing and stared at the seith mage. Shaking his head at the dragon slayer as Mira made her way down the ladder towards the men.
"Mira what should I do?!" Laxus cried indigent.
"Laxus, you need to decide who you want to be with, you just proposed to Lucy after we both told you not to. We warned you not to start a relationship with her, told you to stay away from her. She knows about Sky, she just doesn't know that you had promised yourself to her. For that who knows what she's going to say — only she does. You're going to have to work really hard to gain back Skylar's friendship and trust. It's up to her if she wants anything to do with you now, and honestly if I were her I would avoid you like the plague…" Mira shook her head at the frustrated blonde standing before her. "What you have done in excusable. It's down right horrible. You should have been forth coming with Lucy and you should have waited or gotten in contact with Skylar…" shaking her head as tears formed in her eyes. "I can't even look at you after having to witness her reaction this afternoon, as for her letters… HOW COULD YOU THINK OF THEM AS A CURSE!" Mira stalks towards Laxus with her hand raised.
The resounding sound of a slap filled the air, Laxus's eyes shot to the old tree house in recognition of the sound.
Alright, so here we go. Lets give this a shot, hoping to read all your responses and suggestions of where to take this.