Set LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG before the start of the series in a time before the Celestial Gate Keys were even made. There's tension in the Spirit World over if they should make contact with Earthland or not so a civil war may be about to start.
Pairing: Leo/Aries
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
Protection
Aries sat on the grassy hill and looked out to sea as the wind gently blew. Her eyes were closed as she felt the Sun on her face and the smell of the salty air. Her pink hair corkscrewed around her shoulders and her pink fluffy scarf floated in the wind. Her outfit was a white fluffy dress that had a slit up the front with a pink fluffy trim and pink fluffy cuffs around the bottom of her sleeves with a pink ribbon tied into a crisscross pattern on her front. Underneath she wore white trousers with pink fluffy trims around the bottom and bare feet.
There was a rustle as someone walked up to her from the bottom of the hill. She knew who it was when they sat beside her and began messing with her hair. Aries opened her eyes and looked at Leo as he sat beside her. She smiled and ruffled Leo's crazy ginger hair. He laughed and tugged at one of her horns to get her to stop.
"Okay, enough friendly teasing. What did you find out?" Aries asked him.
Leo groaned and lay back in the grass.
"Troops are being assembled and the rumours of war are becoming more than just that," he said "Honestly, the Spirit World is on the verge of a civil war,"
Aries sighed.
"I was afraid you were going to say that," she said before curling up with her arms around her knees "Why are so many spirits against the idea of making contact with Earthland?"
Leo sat up and looked at her, his ginger hair being blown into his eyes. Her shoulders began to shake as tears began to run down her cheeks. Leo put his hand on her shoulder and she stopped. Aries looked up at him with tear stains on her cheeks. His face was stoic but his eyes told her everything she needed to know. She threw her arms around him and cried into his shoulder.
"Leo... I-I'm scared..." Aries admitted.
Leo put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back to look at her. She looked up at him and saw the serious look on his face. He had his right hand on her shoulder and moved his left hand against her cheek. Aries looked at him with worry but he reassuringly smiled at her.
"Aries... how long have we known each other?" Leo asked with a slight laugh on the end of his sentence.
"Over 400 years," she responded.
"How many times have we nearly been killed during our misadventures?" he asked.
"More times than I can remember," Aries said "What's your point?"
Leo suddenly pulled her into his arms and held her close to him, causing Aries' cheeks to turn a light red.
"Aries..." he said with a serious voice "I protected you then and I'll protect you now. No matter what, I'll always protect you... even at the cost of my own life,"
Aries was surprised by his words but she smiled and rested her head against his shoulder, her eyes sliding shut. At the time, she hadn't fully understood the severity of what he had said. She didn't know that, thousands of years from then, he really would nearly die protecting her.
I figured the Spirit World had its own sense of time and 400 years is like a thousand in Earthland time. Hey, when characters are immortal and from another world, you can mess with time as much as you want :3
-Noto