Moved To The City

The mood in the guild hall of Lamia Scale was oddly cheerful and enthusiastic. It's not like they are a gloomy bunch or anything, but they are certainly nothing like Fairy Tail with all the continuous laughter, parties, fun and fights. They do like parties and having fun whenever they can, but on an average day they are more calm and collected. They prefer just enjoying each other's company in a more silent way, than the Fairies do. So when you can feel and hear the excitement lightning through the walls of Lamia Scale from miles away, you can be a 100% sure that whatever is going on, it's worthwhile. Gray, Wendy and Carla felt the same way as they were walking toward the guild. They were sent there by Master Makarov to apologize as one of Natsu's brawls made the whole guild explode with fighting spirit which, as usual, resulted in half of the town's square being destroyed. And considering that the Summer Parade was coming, it just made things ten times worse. So, groups of 2-3 people were sent to every possible organisation and location to apologize for the destruction caused and to pay the costs of the repairs. Lamia Scale was the one in charge of the opening ceremony, so making Gray and Wendy do the hard work seemed the most appropriate thing to do as they were the ones having good friends at the guild. Maybe they won't be so mad at them, Makarov thought.

'They seem to be in really good mood, don't they?' asked Gray finally in a not-so-interested tone, just to break that awfully awkward silence.

'Mmm' nodded Wendy with a small smile in her face. 'I heard that Lyon-san and Yuka-san were on a quite long mission somewhere up north and just returned recently. Maybe they're celebrating their return.'

'You heard that from...?' asked Gray curiously.

'Oh, Sherria-chan told me. We met in the park the other day. She seemed really excited about it' she replied happily.

They became quite good friends since the Grand Magic Games, thought Gray smiling at the young dragon slayer. Seeing her being happy always brightened both his and Natsu's day.

'Maybe they're not going to ask much about why exactly you guys destroyed half of the stage they raised for the Summer Parade' added Carla ironically making both Gray and Wendy feel guilty, again. And so they made their way to the huge building in silence.

When they reached the door to the main hall, they could definitely hear the guild master's voice but couldn't really make out what she was saying through the murmur of all the other members. As they entered the hall they immediately realised, what all the fuss was about. Or rather, who was it about. They saw the back of an unknown black-haired girl sitting at the bar talking to some of the other members. A new person just joined Lamia Scale, which was kind of odd as a) most of the mages of Fiore were already in a guild, b) being one of the strongest guilds, Lamia Scale rarely had any new applicants (just like all the other big and strong guilds in Fiore). Gray was sure she had to be really strong if she's already a member. This was probably not the right time to let his thoughts run wild but he just couldn't help his curiosity taking over.

'She must be a big deal if she just...' started Gray, but was almost immediately interrupted by Lyon semi-greeting him and Sheeria embracing Wendy.

~v~

News spread quickly and the arrival of a new mage, who was instantly accepted to Lamia Scale, made everyone curious about the newcomer. Thankfully, the Summer Parade was imminent, so people will have a chance to check out her. The fact, that she was a female mage made things much more interesting, especially for the likes of Ichiya and his freaky, good-looking comrades. As there was only an hour or so left till the opening ceremony, more and more people appeared in the square and the nearby inns. Some of the guilds, like Fairy Tail and Sabertooth booked some of the places a couple of weeks before so they could celebrate the festival together. So when they arrived, after the usual greetings and orders, they started gossiping about the new mage, like their lives depended on finding out things about her. Obviously, Natsu and Sting were the most excited about the possibility of a good fight with her; Cana started to tease Juvia about the new girl snatching Lyon away from her, making Juvia blush hard and protest that her heart (and body) belonged to Gray-sama and no one else; Rufus talking about the possibility of some sweet memories to make with her...

Soon, members of other guilds appeared around them, telling about the things they've heard about her, mostly starting with 'They say' or 'I've heard' which made believing them excessively harder. Gray and Wendy were the ones with the most reliable information about her, and they only saw her back, so the guessing game went on until the festival's opening music started. The opening ceremony was incredibly entertaining, with flashy lights, creative use of magic, music, dancing, but the new girl was nowhere to be seen. Well, she just arrived, so no one really thought that she will be participating in the ceremony but still, everyone was waiting for her debut on the stage. The only ones who didn't seem to be bothered by that were the little exceeds, as they were dazzled by all the lights and colours and by all the fish, of course. Carla was sitting in front of Wendy, silently enjoying the music, wiggling her tail slightly, Lily sitting next to her munching on a huge fish Gajeel just brought him, while Lector and Happy were all over the place. And Frosch, well...

'Frosch!' Rogue said while looking around nervously.

He stood up from his place scanning the area looking for his little friend, but found nothing. Shouting would be no good as nothing could be heard because of the loud music and the rambling and singing of everyone. Following Frosch's scent might be a good idea but with all the food courts around he might lose the already faint scent easily, but it worth a try. With this on his mind, Rogue slowly made his way through the crowd. The ceremony has already ended, making him a bit more relaxed as he may now hear Frosch's voice if he's being close to the little exceed. Being lost in his thoughts, he hardly noticed a short girl making her way toward him, but when the smell of Frosch intensified, he finally noticed the exceed sitting in the arms of the aforesaid lady. She was wearing a simple purple T-shirt with some tight ripped jeans and black buckled ankle boots. Her black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and she had a lot of earrings. Not as much, as Gajeel has, but Rogue could count at least six or seven of them. Finally relaxing a bit, he smiled at his little friend and then looked at the girl with happiness and guilt in his eyes. Her look was not mad or questioning or anything, she seemed really calm and nice.

'You see, I told you he's gonna find you' said the girl to Frosch while lifting the exceed to the height of Rogue's embracing hands.

'Fro thought the same, too' said the little exceed happily.

'Thank you, for helping Frosch out' said Rogue while hugging his friend. He felt he should apologize or at least try to talk himself out of this embarrassing situation. Losing Frosch, again... 'I hope we didn't cause much trouble. I should've been more careful, really.'

'No problem' smiled the girl. 'All that matters is that everything's fine now, right?'

Rogue just stared at her not knowing what to say. She raised her right eyebrow almost simultaneously with the right side of her mouth, wondering what was going on. She didn't break the eye contact the whole time, though. That made Rogue feel really weird, kind of reassuring, kind of disturbed, maybe. He didn't really know. Her eyes... Her eyes were light purple, but you could see all kinds of shades if you observed carefully, and Rogue did.

'Rogue' he bursted out finally, making the girl's eye open wide for a moment. After realising what his intentions were, her expression went back to the calm and soothing she had before. 'Um... I'm Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth.'

'Nice to meet you, Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth. I'm Lacie Andrews from Lamia Scale.'

'She is new in town' Frosch added.

'The one everyone is talking about' Rogue murmured without thinking.

Lacie was not particularly surprised hearing that. Lyon and the others told her that people might get really excited when they learn about her arrival so she was prepared for, well, anything. Or at least she thought so.

'Really? Are you included in everyone?' she asked playfully, sliding her hands into her pockets and tilting her head slightly to the right.

Rogue snapped out of his thoughts, yet again, realising he said things out loud. Things he should've kept for himself. He had no idea what to say now, and he started to feel uncomfortably hot and embarrassed. He opened his mouth while trying to think of a good way not to make things worse when she interrupted.

'Don't worry, it's okay. Lyon said people might act weird around me. Being new in town and all' she explained. 'I'm prepared for all kinds of weirdness.'

Rogue let out a sigh after the reassuring words. Before he could start to talk again he heard a familiar voice shouting something about cats getting closer to them. It was Millianna running toward him and Frosch, followed by Kagura slowly walking behind the crazy cat lady. Frosch jumped out of Rogue's hands running toward Millianna. Rogue was looking at the mages of Mermaid Heel and then Lacie again. She didn't seem to be really interested in the ruckus they were making; she was barely looking at them from the corner of her eye turning her head maybe halfway toward the girls.

'Rogue' Kagura greeted him when she got close enough before taking an indifferent look at Lacie then focusing back on the dragon slayer.

That didn't go unnoticed by Lacie, but she decided to be friendly with the other girl.

'Kagura, Milliana, it's good to see you' said Rogue politely.

'Is that another fan girl of yours, or what?' asked Kagura in a monotonous voice not even bothering looking at Lacie anymore.

Rogue's jaw dropped from the sudden question being afraid his new 'friend' might be offended by the not-so-kind attribute she was given. Instead, Lacie started laughing really hard while closing her eyes and covering her mouth with her left hand. Kagura was extremely surprised by the girl's sudden reaction, but it just made Rogue shyly smile at the ground.

'Oh, wow' said Lacie trying to stop laughing. 'You must be a really popular man, Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth.'

Kagura looked confused partly because of the formal denomination, and partly because she had no idea, who this unknown girl talking to the Shadow Dragon Slayer could be. But when she realised who she might be, it was already too late. The girl continued talking.

'But I'm afraid I should go now. It was nice to meet you, guys' she said grinning widely at Kagura. Then she turned around and started walking toward the stage lifting her left hand in the air while still talking. 'Take good care of Frosch... and your fangirls.'

They could still hear her chuckles while she was walking away. And there they stood, Rogue watching Lacie disappear in the crowd, Kagura still being stunned, and Frosch and Millianna having no idea what just happened.

'Don't tell me she was...' started Kagura.

'The new mage' Rogue finished. 'Lacie Andrews from Lamia Scale.'

~v~

There was something weird about that girl, but Rogue couldn't really tell, what it was. Shortly after their meeting with Kagura and Millianna, he brought Frosch back to where their guild members were, listening to Frosch about how nice Lacie was (mainly because she bought some fish for the exceed in distress).

'Where have you guys been?' asked Sting excitedly. 'You missed the big eating contest!'

'Is that so' said Rogue uninterestedly still thinking about the new Lamia Scale mage.

'Natsu proposed to have a contest between our guilds. The winner guild members can ask anyone from the losers to do something really embarrassing tonight' cheered Lector.

'And our Lady won!' exclaimed Sting happily.

Lucy could be heard from the background asking Yukino about how Minerva was able to eat even more than Natsu without breaking a sweat. Natsu was lying on the floor looking like he was about to die, while some members were either anxiously or excitedly chatting and waiting for the punishments from the Sabertooth mages. Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe left even before the game could actually begin and Master Makarov decided to flee shortly after he saw Natsu almost pass out from all the food he ate. Of course, Gray and some others were about to kick Natsu's ass. Not really acknowledging their guild's victory, Rogue started to talk.

'I met the new girl' he told Sting.

'Fro met her, too' added Frosch happily.

'Really?' Sting asked with his signature wide grin on his face. 'So what is this new girl like?'

And so, Frosch started telling the tale of getting lost, being found and finally reunited with Rogue, then Rogue continued telling Sting about the rather embarrassing Kagura-incident and how Lacie reacted to it. Then Frosch rambled about wanting to play some more with Millianna, but no one really listened to that part of the story. When Sting heard enough of the encounter with Lacie, the games began.

During the night, members of other guilds also gathered around Fairy Tail and Sabertooth, some looking for a certain mage to talk to, some just checking out the funny things the Fairies had to do. Nothing too serious, but enough, to make them feel uncomfortable around other people. Probably Erza had the worst fate, as she had to act friendly to Ichiya when he was around. Which happened a lot as he and The Trimens were hitting on (annoying) Fairy Tail and Sabertooth girls for quite some time now. She had a really hard time being nice to him, her eyes burning holes in Natsu for his damn ideas. Cana was really mad as well because she was not allowed to drink till the midnight fireworks started. However, everyone's favourite was Gray and Natsu wearing each other's clothes for the rest of the night. Even though the sizes fit almost perfectly, they just looked ridiculous. And seeing them fight each other like this seemed even funnier.

As the punishment games went on, Lyon and Lacie were just strolling around the temporary base of the two guilds. Ichiya, sniffing the air a couple of times, turned his head toward the newcomers, his eyes shining.

'What a refreshing scent' he started walking toward the Lamia Scale mages, followed by Eve, Hibiki and Ren. 'A perfume I've never smelled before.'

Most of the mages froze, watching their encounter with the new wizard. Lyon became slightly irritated seeing them but being interested in Lacie's reaction, he decided not to interrupt. Lacie watched the four men with an expressionless face. Ichiya stopped right in front of her, sniffing her profusely, the three other guys standing behind him, admiring her. After a few second, she looked at Lyon and asked:

'What's up with the old man and the creep trio?'

Ichiya and his men fell to the ground after hearing her question, defeated. The others listening were either shocked at her reaction or trying to hide their smiles and laughs. Erza seemed especially proud of Lacie, as she was able to handle Ichiya and his band so carefully. Lyon tapped her shoulder chuckling, proud of her comment.

'Well, the old man, as you called him, is Ichiya-san and they are Hibiki, Ren and Eve' he said pointing at each men on the ground. 'They are all members of Blue Pegasus and usually just…' stopped Lyon once he saw Juvia sitting at a table near them.

In a split second, he disappeared from Lacie's side, sweet-talking to Juvia. Noticing where Lyon's gone Lacie smiled to herself then looked back at the Blue Pegasus members in front of her. A dark haired guy was just about to walk past next to her mumbling something about Lyon, when she heard another guy shouting and saw a table flying toward her and the passer-by. The one throwing the table was a screaming pink-haired guy a couple of meters away from her, looking at the other boy who probably left him in the middle of a conversation or something. Lacie didn't really know what this was about, but this seemed like the start of something fun.

'Astral phase' she murmured lifting her left index- and middle finger to her mouth then pointing them down, slightly to the left.

Before Lyon, Rogue or anyone else could react, the table was directly in front of Lacie and behind Gray. Instead of directly hitting Lacie, the table simply flew through her, crashing into the back of Gray, knocking him to the ground. Everyone's jaw dropped at the sight of the scene, except Lyon who already knew about her powers. Lacie released her magic and turned back to check on the poor boy.

'Gray-sama!' shouted Juvia running toward him, followed by Lucy, Erza and a laughing Natsu.

'Are you alright?' asked Lacie holding out a hand for Gray to grab onto.

After shrugging off some pieces of the broken table, he looked at her with a weird look on his face, letting her help him get up.

'Wow! How did you do that?' asked Natsu excitedly when he got there. 'It was awesome!'

'Well, I just used my magic' answered Lacie simply.

When the others arrived, Erza promptly scolded Natsu for being reckless and rude to the new Lamia Scale mage. They checked on both Gray and Lacie, asking if both were fine. Juvia hugged Gray tightly looking daggers at Lacie, to the latter's amusement. Master Makarov arrived soon, apologising for Natsu's actions. Not that it really bothered Lacie. When the excitement and all the questions died down, Rogue decided to 'step out from the shadows'.

'So were you really prepared for things like this, huh?' he asked suddenly, making the Fairies jump in surprise.

'Where did you come from?' asked Gray.

Lacie looked at Rogue with a wide smile on her face.

'Depends. Are you referring to helping out a lost exceed in a frog suit, being called your fangirl, being smelled by a weird old man, having a table thrown at me or constantly losing my couriers for all kinds of reasons?' asked Lacie smiling.

Before Rogue could react to the seemingly rhetorical question, he was interrupted by the start of the fireworks. They could hear Cana shout in happiness as she made her way toward the nearest alcohol filled barrel. Everyone was watching the beautiful shapes the fireworks created, different animals, the logos of the guilds or just some undefinable shapes. However pretty they were, the only thing Rogue could see was Lacie's face lit by the various colours exploding over the city sky. He suddenly heard Frosch asking him to be lifted to have a better view. Rogue looked down at his little friend, smiling, and crouched down so the exceed could climb on his shoulders. Standing up, he watched the fireworks with Frosch who was really amazed by the sight, commenting something about each shape. Watching the whole scene, Lacie's heart skipped a beat seeing the dragon slayer's kind and caring smile, secretly wishing someone would look at her one day the way Rogue just looked at Frosch. Chuckling at her stupid thoughts, she decided to take a walk on her own while the others were distracted by the fireworks.