Title: HamStar Wheel

Description: Excommunicated from Fairy Tail, Laxus had no where to go… That was until the guild HamStar Wheel decided that they'd like to have him as one of their nakama. This is his story and misadventures in the guild HamStar Wheel.

Rating: T

Chapter Title: The Search Is Over

A/N: I had this idea, and I had to go with it. Usually I don't write things with OCs, but after thinking of this, I thought that it would be fun for a change. There will be cameos and bits with the characters from Fairy Tail, but this will be centered on Laxus and the members of HamStar Wheel. Where did I get that stupid name, you ask? Easy. I was thinking of the show Hamtaro. ^.^ Oh, and this is reposted, by the way. Due to certain circumstances, I took it off, but now it's back and will be staying.

Character Spotlight: Specializing in size changing magic, Tegan can take anything and make it bigger or smaller at will. Tegan's on a quest to find her dad, who is a member of a dark guild somewhere. She has a special soft spot for Anton, but he doesn't know and she doesn't intend on telling him anytime soon. The reason that she is at HamStar is because she found the location to be convenient. She's twenty-one years old and has been in the guild for a year and a half; she was the first official member. Despite her healthy appearance, Tegan has some problems with sickness.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, because if I did, Wendy would be a lot less annoying.

--

First Arc: Welcome to HamStar Wheel!

"I always knew I had the answer but I never understood the question."

-'A Lifeless Ordinary' by Motion City Soundtrack

--

Being alone was different. There had, his entire life, always been people around him. Scolding him, protecting him, worshiping him, hating him… all sorts of different emotions with that one thing in common.

Before being excommunicated, he had never been lonely.

Not that he was really lonely now, of course, but there was a sinking feeling in his chest whenever he thought of the fact that there was no where for him to return. No guild, no family, no home. Of course, he could have met with his dad in that man's dark guild, but he had no desire for that.

No, he had wanted to make the strongest legal guild that he could possibly make. He had wanted to do it for the good of the guild that he had cared about so much; there was no need for him to break the law to be with a father who obviously didn't care too much about him.

Sitting in a dingy little bar in the middle of nowhere Laxus took a sip of a frothy mug of beer and wiped the excess foam off of his lips. In front of him was a list of guilds; most of the names had been crossed out.

Fairy Tail

Blue Pegasus

Lamia Scale

Quatro Cerberus

Titan Nose

The list went on listing each guild that Laxus had visited and been rejected from. In the beginning of his quest to find a guild Laxus would have guessed that most of the famous guilds would reject him; though he was powerful, they knew how destructive he could be and they did not want to risk that. But even the smaller guilds had given him the same speech:

"Laxus, we're honored that someone of your caliber and skill would have thought of such a small guild like us, but we think that your talents would be suited elsewhere. You see, if something bad were to happen we don't have enough money and men to repair our guild and we would have to shut down. We wish you luck, but we just don't feel that you're suited for the lifestyle of someone at *insert name of guild here*. Maybe if you come back in a few years we can talk again."

Fifteen guilds, he had visited. And fifteen rejections lay heavily on his shoulders and weighing down his heart. It seemed that all hope was lost and his reputation was beyond repair. What he had done he had done for the guild that he loved, but instead it seemed like his actions would lead to his demise as a mage.

Wishing that he had spent at least some time of his life trying something else besides magic, Laxus drained the rest of his beer and motioned for a waitress in a short skirt to get him another.

It would be another long night; he might as well get prepared for it.

With a sudden burst of cold the door opened to a sound of many voices mixed together happily. A group of about eight teenagers moved a few of the small wooden tables together and spread out; there were no longer any open tables in the entire pub. If Laxus were still who he was a few weeks ago he would have been irritated and brooded about it in a corner for a while before leaving with a dirty look towards that kids.

The new and improved Laxus would not do something like that. Instead he calmly took out a book that he was carrying around with him and began to read.

It was book that his grandfather had recommended to him long ago; it was about how to use magic for the betterment of humanity. For a long time that sort of thing wouldn't have mattered to him at all, but now…

The door opened again, this time without all of the ruckus that the group of teenagers had made. Cold wind entered the pub, and Laxus shivered a bit. When he had packed his things at Fairy Tail he had not expected to have been traveling so long that the summer would be over; he didn't have enough money to buy a nice coat and it didn't look like he would be getting enough any time soon. If this kept up, he'd have to start traveling south before the bad weather set in.

Above him there was a shadow. "You can set the drink down on the table." The shadow laughed. Irritated, he looked up to see someone who was not the waitress. "What do you want?"

"There are no tables and you're sitting alone, mind if I join you?" The girl had almond-shaped green eyes and what would be put as birthing hips. Her curly and short black hair bounced around with each of her movements.

Sighing, Laxus nodded. "Go ahead." His eyes returned to the book that he was reading, but he was interrupted by the woman's voice.

"You look familiar; have you been in a magazine or something?" Laxus had been featured in magazines countless times since he was just a tyke, but he didn't really want this woman knowing who he was. Until he found a guild to stay at permanently he didn't need people to know that he was someone who betrayed his guild. "But you're not hot enough to be a model or anything."

Flinching, Laxus looked up at the woman who had a smile on her face. "That got your attention, didn't it? Feeling insecure today?" The waitress came over and placed Laxus's drink in front of him with a smile.

Noticing the new girl at the table she got out a small notepad. "What would you like, hon?"

At the mention of such a cute pet name, the girl's smile became quite a bit more sinister. "I'll have whatever you can find that's strong, and a lot of it." For a moment, she coughed into her arm, smiling apologetically when she was done.

The cute waitress gave the woman a pleading look. "Could you be a little more specific than that?"

"Scotch. On the rocks." The waitress nodded, scribbling furiously on her notepad and walked away. The woman shook her head. "It's always irritating when the wait staff is incompetent. Nonetheless, my name is Tegan Sarmina. And yours, you attractive man, you?"

Wishing this woman would shut up, Laxus gave her the first name that he could think of. "Fried Justine." The name of his former friend would be sure to go unnoticed by Tegan; Fried had never done magazine covers or anything silly like that.

Without warning, Tegan's eyes grew narrow, only showing a slight slit of green. "Really, Fried, you've changed quite a bit then." Her hand reached for a package that she had set down on the floor when she sat down. "Unless, of course, you're an imposter."

"Fine, how do you know Fried, then?" Maintaining his cool, Laxus took a sip of his beverage. "I didn't think that he had many relations."

Tegan began to laugh. "I don't." Putting down his chalice, he stared at Tegan. "But that's a good way to figure out if someone is lying about their identity, is it not, Laxus Dreyar?"

Before Laxus was able to answer there was a bang from the door. Once again cold air filled the pub. "Where is he?" Goons dressed in black started scattering about the pub, shoving and pushing the people who happened to be in their way. When they got to the table of teenagers and started to pull on an innocent girl's hair, Laxus began to stand up, but Tegan beat him to it, the long beige package in her hand.

"Yo, what are you trying to start here; these people have done nothing wrong." A foot wearing what looked like a heavy leather boot came down upon the table, and Tegan leaned against it, resting her arm on her knee. Quickly her eyes scanned the clothes of the men who were now laughing at her. A flash of recognition burst through her eyes. "Raven Tail, eh?" A smile formed. "You've saved me some time by coming here."

"We're not here for you, whoever you may be, missy." A goon said as his grip tightened on the hair of one of the girls. The girl shrieked. "We're here because we heard a rumor that Laxus Dreyar is in the area and we've been told to pick him up."

"Well, you're kind of missing your target. He's sitting over in the corner." Unenthused, Tegan pointed her thumb back at where Laxus was. "It doesn't take a genius to see the bright yellow hair and fur collar." The two goons nearest to Tegan looked at each other for a moment, then back at the woman, who was unraveling the package that she was holding.

Sighing, the man holding the hair of the girl let go. "Well, thanks, missy." With a bit of apprehension he began to walk over towards Laxus, but was stopped suddenly by a protruding piece of wood flying out in front of him. Knocking into it, the goon fell down onto the floor, clutching his stomach.

Surprised, Laxus saw that the piece of wood was rather elongated. His eyes followed it into Tegan's hands, where an axe head was present behind the place where here hands were. "Sorry though, Raven Tail, even if you want this kid, I need him more than you do." She paused and the piece of wood shrunk. "So don't you dare touch him."

As Laxus half-sat, half-stood confused as the three other goons from around the room and the one who had been standing by his fallen comrade began to circle around Tegan, they all shouted out insults and degrading things, but Tegan's smile just grew larger.

"Before we start this," She said as she put her axe across her shoulders. "I have a question to ask."

"We won't tell you why we want Laxus!" One of the goons shouted.

Tegan looked taken aback for a moment. "I don't care why you want him; he's mine. No, my question is something much more important." Across her shoulders the axe head grew larger. "Is there a man named Sebastian Sarmina in your guild right now?" The people in the pub were all running away at this time, letting the mages do their work alone.

"No." One of the goons said. The one who Tegan had knocked over got to his feet and began to creep up behind the girl. "There's no one by that name in our guild."

Tegan grinned. "Good." When her axe stopped growing, it was almost as big as she was. "Then I can fight full-out." With one swing of her axe, the goon that was planning a sneak attack on her was flung across the room and hit the wall with a satisfying thud. For a moment there was silence, nothing making noise besides the faint groan of the now unconscious thug.

One by one the thugs fell to her axe, though, she did not cut them. Instead she opted to use the side of it so they would not be hurt, only unconscious. When the last one was left, he laughed. "They didn't have time to use their magic, but you won't be able to escape mine." Pausing, he moved his hands slightly. "Bane gory crush!" He yelled and out of the air appeared a sword that hurtled towards Tegan. With a wave of her hand, however, the sword that should have hit her face, became smaller than an ant and clattered to the floor.

"Is that really all that you have?" Getting her axe ready to swing, she laughed. "Because that was an attack unworthy of such a guild as Raven Tail." With a whoosh, the axe moved and hit the man in the chest, making him fly across the room. "Home run!" Tegan shouted happily as she ran back to the table that Laxus was still frozen at.

The axe shrunk as she looked expectantly at Laxus. "Come on," she said as she grabbed her packages from the floor. "We should get going before the law comes. Don't want to get arrested, eh, Laxus?" When Laxus didn't move, she grabbed his hand and began to pull. "Come on, you lug. I went all this way to try to find you, the least that you can do is be at least a little cooperative. I mean, I did just save you from that dark guild."

Confused, Laxus finally relented and let himself be dragged by this girl. He noticed that on the back of her shoulder behind a green spaghetti strap was a guild symbol of a circle with another circle within it with little lines connecting the two of them.

Tegan dragged him out to the front of the pub where a car was running. "Get in there." She said as she gave him a push. Doing as he was told, he ran into the backseat of the car.

"Thank god you decided to show up, Tegan, I've been waiting forever. I don't have an unlimited supply of magic, you know." The irritated tenor voice did nothing but make Tegan laugh. "Where to, your highness?"

With a lopsided smile, Tegan glanced over to Laxus. "Well, I got the cargo, so it's time to go back to the guild, Anton." With a grunt, the car began to move at a high speed away from the pub.

"Okay, I've played along long enough," Laxus said as he put his hand around Tegan's small neck. "Who are you and what the hell do you want with me?"

Smiling, Tegan just let herself be held by him like that. "Now there's the Laxus that we all know and love. Tell me, how long have you been waiting to do this?" The only response that she received was a tightening grip from Laxus. Her voice a bit more strained, she continued to talk. "We've heard that you can't find a guild; your reputation is so bad that no one will take you. We decided to rectify that situation. Right, Anton?"

From the front seat the boy's distracted voice drifted back. "Don't drag me into this. I see you getting choked back there; I don't want the same fate. It was nice knowing you, Tegan. I'll put flowers at your grave every year." Sarcasm oozed from his voice, and Laxus could see why he and Tegan were partners.

Tegan rolled her eyes. "Anyways, we're from a new guild called Ham- could you please let go of me, or at least loosen up a little? It's really hard to talk like this." Though keeping his hand on her neck, he did loosen it a little. "Thanks." She paused for a moment to cough. When she was done she continued to speak. "We're from a newish guild called HamStar Wheel. Right now we're recruiting members, and my master expressed an interest in trying to get you." There was a small choking noise from her throat, probably the sign that she was going to pass out soon if he didn't let go.

"Why would he want me?" Laxus asked a bit dumbfounded as he released her neck entirely. There wasn't a single person in the magic community who didn't know how he had betrayed his guild. He thought that if a guild would even consider him, he would have to get on his hands and knees and beg to be expected; aside from dark guilds, he hadn't thought that anyone would openly seek him.

Rubbing her neck, Tegan shrugged in an awkward way. "I think that she thinks that she can change you; make you better." Trying not to be offended, Laxus continued to listen. "She's like that. But we're a legal guild with about twenty members, so we're not totally hopeless, and having you may be exactly what we need to make a bit more of a splash and get noticed and recognized. It would help the caliber of the requests that we get if we have such a powerful mage there…" Her voice trailed off for a moment.

The voice from the front popped back again. "Except for Subaru; he could probably kick even Laxus's ass…" With a frantic urgency he added, "not that he would have an easy time with it!" Fear oozed into his words, and it made Laxus smile.

"Yeah, but Subaru wouldn't do anything to actually get recognized; he'd rather just do low-profile things." Tegan sighed and pulled her legs up onto the seat and locked her arms around them. "If we were to have a few good mages who weren't afraid to get out there and get noticed then maybe we could finally grow a bit."

"Where is this guild?" Laxus asked, skeptically. If this place needed to kidnap him in order to get noticed, he wasn't sure that this was the sort of place that he needed to be associated with. There were still other guilds that he had not visited yet and one of them would probably take him; what made this place so special that he had to give up his chances at anywhere else. "What's it like?"

Leaning back in her seat, Tegan put her feet up on the back of the chair in front of her. "It's about a three days drive here if you're a normal human. With me at the wheel in my element, it's about one. So we'll be there in two…" Pausing, she yawned, followed by a slight cough. "As for what it's like… You were at Fairy Tail for a long time; you've never been anywhere else, eh?" Next to her Laxus nodded. "These two are pretty different. The people at HamStar can't afford to be as lazy as the people at Fairy Tail can. A lot of us are just trying to pay the bills, so the atmosphere can be a lot more serious than the people who populate Fairy Tail. It's a tougher life with less well-paying requests." Suddenly her head turned with a big smile. "That doesn't mean that it can't be fun now and then, however. Especially on Friday nights when Anton thinks that he can drink more than he actually can and-"

"Is this revenge for me not backing you up earlier?" A giggle met him in response. "You always say that it's cute when I get up and sing karaoke at the bar; that's why I do it." He muttered as the car made a sharp turn that made Tegan ram into the wall.

Sighing, Laxus leaned his head against the window. He had never heard of any guild being named HamStar Wheel, and was honestly hoping for something a bit more high profile. Then again, maybe it was exactly what he needed to make a new beginning. More and more it was sounding like this place wasn't as terrible as he expected it to be, and at least these two were honest about it. A new Laxus at a new guild may be good for his image; if he could make this place famous because of him, then maybe he would be able to move up to a better guild eventually while giving these people a bit of a better life.

"Shut your eyes, little Laxus," Tegan said as she pulled out a blanket from the floor and put it over her lap. "It'll be a while before we reach our destination, but once you get there you'll be run ragged. There are a few tests that the boss wants you to go through before she admits you. Eh, Anton?" A mutter of agreement came from up front, mixed with uncivil words about alcohol. Shutting her eyes, Tegan laughed quietly. "Good night, Laxus."

She talked as if the two of them were so familiar already, it was unnerving to Laxus. He wished that he had stayed in that bar and drank his beer and went off tomorrow to go to another guild that would reject him; now he was stuck on some crazy roller coaster ride of which he did not know the ending destination.

Soon she was asleep, the only noise in the car now coming from its magic powered motor. But for some reason, Laxus found that he couldn't fall asleep.

--

For the next two days the group drove, Tegan and Anton alternating driving in the front and sleeping in the back, with the occasional pit stop for food and use of the bathroom. It was cramped, dirty, boring and when Tegan talked, occasionally irritating. Laxus was just about to begin to regret coming to this place when they finally reached their destination.

It was not quite as ostentatious as Fairy Tail was, but then again, no other could surpass the tackiness of that place. But it was much smaller as well; it just looked like a plain old cabin with a huge glowing neon sign of the mark that Tegan had on her shoulder on the front of it.

When they neared the place a few people piled out of the building and onto the front lawn to greet them. The place where the guild was could be called picturesque. The small wooden cabin with grassy fields in front of it with a large lake on one side. It was amazing that they could get job requests here with it being so far away from any giant urban center; sure, there were a few towns nearby, but nothing too imposing.

Almost as soon as the car stopped moving Tegan jumped out of the front and ran over to the people waiting and jumped on top of one of them. Their cheering group included five people plus one other who leaned on the building in the shadows smoking a cigarette. "Are we there yet?" The redheaded Anton asked him irritated. From next to him Laxus heard a yawn; waking up and looking exhausted, Anton walked out of the car. Laxus followed suit.

As soon as his foot hit the grassy ground, conversation stopped. All eyes were on Laxus, and most of them were surprised eyes as well. There was not a noise in the area except for the small sizzle of a cigarette. That was, until the girl that Tegan had hugged said, "Well hell, ya'll actually got him to come."

Suddenly there was cheers and excitement mixed with a few not-so-kind words. A few more people trickled out of the building and the man who was smoking seemed to disappear. From around him came introductions that he could not understand or hear because they were yelled over each other and too quickly along with a few swears and insults.

Already they were treating him as if he were one of their own; was that how a guild was supposed to be? Vaguely he could remember the people at Fairy Tail smiling and cheering as their fellow mages returned from difficult missions unharmed, but he had never taken part in those sorts of things. Whenever he had returned to his 'home' it had been only to get a new request and mock the others who worked so hard there.

A regal looking older woman strutted through the doors of the building and all went silent. The gray hair on her head was pulled up into a tight bun and she wore a maroon business-like suit with gold earrings and a necklace of the same color. On her beak-like nose sat a pair of eyeglasses of black. "Laxus Dreyar?" He nodded. "Good. You've decided to accept my invitation. Introductions can come later; first, we need to test you and see if you are suited to my guild."

"And how will you be doing that, ma'am?" Laxus asked sarcastically, not liking the condescending way that she spoke.

The woman smiled revealing one golden tooth. "Easy, a battle, of course."

Finally, someone at the guild had begun to speak his language.

--

End of Chapter One