It's a day just like any other at the Fairy Tail guildhall: full of life and roughhousing as a manic guild-wide brawl has broken out. The day has just broken into twilight, the sun's glow the only faint light watching over Magnolia as clouds begin to roll in, the scent of rain flooding the streets. A hooded figure approaches the sizeable wooden doors of the guildhall, only feet away, gazing upon the purple letters positioned just above them. With the stranger's face hidden from sight, a soft, feminine whisper breathes out, "I've finally found you… Fairy Tail…"
Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Night
The shadowy figure steps up to the twin oak doors and raps on the one to her left with a determination unlike any other. No response. A second attempt is made and yet there is still no answer. The stranger sighs heavily, now deterred from her objective. A thought of procrastination fills her mind just as she's about to turn and head back in the direction she came, with hopes of a better shot tomorrow. When suddenly she hears a large crash and within milliseconds is thrown across the ground, a heavy weight plowing straight into her.
"Damn! That kinda hurt!" the unknown female hears from the weight that just seconds ago viciously accosted her. She looks up, her weathered forest green hood falling back around her hair, to see a young man around her age in absolutely nothing, his head adorned with black, unruly hair, rubbing the back of his head, she is unable to see his face. As if planned, he begins to turn around, "hey, man! The hell are you doing just standing outside of Fairy Tail like a lump of-" he halts mid accusation as he realizes it wasn't a man he fell into, but in fact a young woman approximately twenty years of age, if he had to guess.
"Shit!" he scrambles to stand up and reaches out to help her up. "I'm sorry about that," he begins, scratching the back of his head with his other hand. Raising a weary eyebrow he asks, "You okay?"
The female stares stunned and bewildered at this man who just came out of nowhere at incredulous speed and hit her with his entire body, about to accuse her of loitering, and then apologize suddenly as he gathered himself. She hesitantly takes his outstretched hand, not once looking away from his dark as night blue eyes. "I'm fine, thanks." she states, uncertainty written across her delicate features as he helps her stand. Her Alice blue eyes fall to his right pectoral muscle and they instantly light up, "you're from Fairy Tail!" She exclaims with hope etching itself into her eyes and broad smile.
"Well yeah. I did just come crashing out of there on top of you, because of some flame-brained asshole and a gorilla "manly" man who neither know how to butt out of other people's business!" she notices the latter of his statement wasn't directed at her but rather the gaping hole in the door leading into Fairy Tail. He turns his attention back to her, "what were you doing out here just standing around for anyway?" he asks casually, still not taking any notice to his absent attire.
The young woman tries to keep her eyes on his, or the scenery around them, not desiring to look any further south than his toned abs, "um, well," she begins with a hint of awkward laughter in her voice, "I tried knocking, but no one answered. I was hoping to speak with your guild master if he's in today…" She trails off, a neon red blush spread across her entire face, as she has accidently glanced south, if only for a split second.
"First of all, you don't 'knock' in Fairy Tail. Secondly, yeah, he's here. And really, it's nothing to be embarrassed about," he states with a raised brow, still unaware of his lack of clothing. The female then turns to him in a crazed astonishment, her left eye twitching slightly.
A smile creeps onto her face, unable to keep from finding the situation nonesuch but amusing. She raises one hand promptly to her face, her dainty fingertips barely meeting her subtly amused lips as she raises her other hand a bit, her index finger and middle twirling around in spirals and zigzags in a vain attempt at directing the attention downwards in his direction. Her eyes look anywhere but into his as a petite blush dusts her cheeks, her jaw tightening with every second that passes turning her smile into a pursed grin. The male still has yet to catch onto her airy attempt to enlighten him of his blatant nudity. As he isn't accustomed to females acting quite so nonchalant when it attains to his bizarre stripping habit, he hasn't the slightest clue as what to think of this strange woman's behavior and what it's supposed to mean, 'Is she doing some sort of hand puppetry?'
Only mere seconds pass further along and the young woman realizes that the naked male before her is still quite naked. Her odd gestures cease and her lighthearted facial expression distorts and morphs into one of apprehensible puzzlement, raising an almost worrisome eyebrow, "uh, dude? Are you seriously that unfazed by the bree- ah!" Her sparkling pearly blue eyes widen, her hands clasping one another over her mouth as she gasps with mortification. "Oh my gosh… I'm so sorry," a tiny smile tickles the corners of her lips as she makes the connection and decides to now just give the poor guy hell. After all, he was about to accuse her of loitering outside of the guildhall like some creep, not to mention he is taking his sweet time to acknowledge the validity and reasoning behind her non-verbal cues. "Are you…" she trails off, lowering her still clasped hands to hover just over her busty chest, now donning a believably pseudo-sympathetic air about her, "are you paralyzed… Below the waist?" She moves her right hand to motion to his lower-middle bodily region, encompassing his business, for lack of a better term, without diverting her inspection upon his readying expressions.
Gray's eyes practically bulge from their sockets before giving her an exasperatedly uncouth glare, 'What the hell is this chick talking about?!' He thinks crossly as he slowly begins to move his head down in order to look at what the hell was on him that she must be thinking about, yet can't help keeping his hardened stare on the female. His gaze finally detaches from hers and grapples with the realization that this entire time it was he who was the ass.
She chuckles lightheartedly into her fist, and further realization dawns on him that she knew he – in fact – was not unable to use his God-given glory. "Shit! I'm so sorry," he stands firmly planted where he is and sees her fist still slightly covering her amused smile, now heartily laughing into it. He pulls together the best straight face he could manage after fully embarrassing himself in front of a prospective new guild mate, "would you mind loaning me your underwear…?" he trails off questioningly, warranting a name from the female.
"Christine." She smiles empathetically at the poor guy before her. "I'm sorry about before, but seriously. You had it coming," she chuckles again and then suddenly gains a determined and thoughtful look directing nowhere in particular, "and though it has always been my sworn duty to help any lost soul in any way shape or form in their time of need," she pauses for a moment holding her fist still to her heart, a deep pink tint to her cheeks, "I'm afraid I am unable to be of any help in this certain instance…" her eyes shift to the ground below her and her hand falls before she looks back up at him with an apologetic expression, halfheartedly attempting to smile.
He looks at the female before him in disbelief, 'She was actually going to do it? No chick ever even gave it a thought… Or is she just messing with me again?' He internally debates. 'Wait!' "What does that mean?"
The young woman known now as 'Christine' looks on, dumbfounded, 'Is he stupid or something?' "Uh, how do I put this simply," she states in mock difficulty, "I'm not wearing any, nor do I have any on my person."
The young man slowly nods, his eyes gaping, looking over her form, as her cloak fell behind her and is only holding on around her neck with the delicate hot pink ribbon tied together from long ago. He notices for the first time her features- her voluptuous yet perky breasts (definitely out-boobing any female he's ever known, including the females in Fairy Tail), her noticeable hourglass figure, her porcelain heart-shaped face, her beauty mark on her left cheek, adjacent to the bottom of her perfectly rounded nose, her incomparable icy blue eyes, her long, cascading ombré pale-honey blonde curls softly changing into a platinum blonde, almost white, at the tips, and lastly her plump, almost pout-y pink lips. For all intense of purposes, she was stunning, like the first rays of sunshine peeking through the dark clouds after a long, torrential downpour. 'Almost like an angel…' He notes mentally, in practical disbelief.
Christine clears her throat with a deep blush spreading further across her cheeks, fully aware of his lingering eyes, "so, any chance you'll tell me your name? Since, you know, we've become so acquainted and all," she smirks innocuously.
Her voice snapping the raven-haired young man out of his wandering thoughts, he adverts his eyes away from hers, a small almost unnoticeable blush creeping across his cheeks, ashamed of his intrusive ogling, "uh, oh, right," he turns back to face her, regaining his composure, "Gray. Gray Fullbuster." She gives him a kind smile, her eyes having lost themselves in making such a genuine expression. "Hey, so, you said you wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?" Gray asks nonchalantly.
Christine's eyes almost pop out of her head she's opened them so quickly, "yes! That's right!" she answers, her smile having grown into that of a full-fledged grin, nodding her head.
"Well, come on. I'll take you to Gramps." He nods his head towards the doors as he makes his way back, just so happening to find his boxers hanging from a broken fragment of the door. He looks back to see she hasn't moved and holds a worry-stricken expression on her face as she looks to the guild's name hanging above the doors. He gives a faint smile, clearing his throat to get her attention, "we don't bite." He chuckles, "unless you want us to," a flirtatious smirk now present across his lips as his eye brows cock themselves towards her. She shakes her head, freeing the worry from her mind, giving Gray a chuckle in return as she approaches him and he opens the doors to the unrelenting chaos inside. Christine's eyes go wide as she turns to look at Gray for some sort of clarification. He responds with a small chuckle to her amusing expression, "You want to join Fairy Tail, don't you? Well this is it."
He begins to make his way through the hustle and bustle that doesn't cease or falter for anyone, not even a newcomer. Christine follows closely behind him, falling more and more behind as people keep pushing and shoving, knocking her around with them. Gray looks back to see Christine has officially been swallowed by the sea that is his guild mates and goes back into the violent crowd to fish her out. He sees her trying to gently push an enraged Elfman off her as his attention is currently occupied by an angry Nab, and keep her footing as she's being pushed even more into Elfman's back by both Macao and Wakaba's backs. He can't help the laugh that escapes his lips as he watches her struggle to be polite and also stay alive, not to mention seeing the multitude of facial expressions she switches between. Gray finally goes in and takes hold of her hand and pulls her away from the three men unintentionally pinning her down. "If you want to be a member of Fairy Tail you'll have to grow a backbone and fight back, even if they are your guild mates," he states with an entertained smile as he blocks a flying chair from hitting them with his other forearm.
Christine just nods with a determined and focused look, "backbone. Check." Gray successfully pulls Christine from the cloud of dust and smoke that is magic and the users of which and releases her hand as soon as he feels she's pulled herself together from the tugging and his tight hold. She notices he stops a moment and picks something up – realizing in seconds it's his pants as he swiftly pulls them on. He leads her towards a bar where a bantam old man sits cross-legged atop the bar counter, with his arms folded and eyes closed. She then sees a stunning young woman who looks no older than herself behind the counter preparing dishes of food on a large brown platter. The first thing Christine notices about her are her bright, almost innocent deep oceanic blue eyes, 'Wow… She's so pretty…' The woman's hair is white, almost silver, and cascades in waves down her back and over her shoulders with a small ponytail holding up her bangs, 'Hmm… That's an interesting hairstyle.' Christine then turns her attention to the elderly man with white as snow hair and a strange jester/animal-ear looking hat in stripes of orange and electric blue sitting atop his head, while he wears a rain jacket in the matching orange color and a white t-shirt beneath it. She can't help but tilt her head to the side and squint a little with a slight furrow to her brow; Looking at the old man feelings of Déjà-vu flood her memories, but with nothing coming to mind she decides to shrug it off.
The minute they approach the counter the young woman looks up with a winsome smile that immediately brightens more, if possible, the second her eyes land on Christine, "Oh, Gray! Who is this?" Her voice is sweet as sugar, just as her personality seems to be. The master peeks out of his left eye to see the new face behind the Ice-Make wizard as well.
"Hey, Mira. This is Christine," Gray motions to the blonde with a reserved expression, indicating to Mira that the female doesn't seem to be someone Gray knows very well, and more than likely just a girl looking to join their guild. Christine smiles warmly showing off her grin lines and tiny dimples, tilting her head to the side as she does so, and gives a diminutive bow. "I found her just standing outside the doors anxiously contemplating whether to come in or not," he smiles jokingly as he glances over to Christine to see her quip her head around to him with offence in her eyes and protest on her O-shaped lips. She sees he was giving her a hard time and snaps her mouth shut, softening her expression into a playful glare and side-scrunched smile-pout. He turns his attention back to the whitette and pocket-sized master, "I thought I would introduce her to Gramps, out of courtesy, you know?" His gaze adverts to the side as he runs his hand through the back of his hair, purposefully avoiding eye-contact.
Mira giggles tenderly, "Well I hope you didn't scare her with your peculiar stripping habit, Gray!" she chuckles as she walks back into the kitchen behind the bar before Gray can defend himself.
All the while Makarov looks into the young woman's soul, 'I was wondering when her presence would make its appearance here once again.'
The new-comer's face heats up as suddenly she feels his intense gaze upon her, bashfully wringing her hands under her cloak as her head tilts down and her eyes peek up at the man at the bar. Her right eye is shaded further by her side swept bangs, but the two can tell her line of sight is focused directly on the small master, "If it isn't too much trouble, yes, I would like to request to join Fairy Tail. Oh!" as if a light bulb clicks above her head she whips open the right side of her cape, regaining her composure and begins rifling through her cross body purse for something. The purse looks no larger than a composite reference textbook. Christine pulls out a white envelope, apprehensively approaches the master and hands the letter to him with a frail bow, "I was given strict instructions to give this to you upon my very arrival. Though, I'm told to have you read it in the privacy of your own company," she states with a stoic expression but wide and wondering eyes.
Grabbing hold of the letter the master inspects the parcel, dread filling his entire soul and being while he eyes the girl up and down with a raise of his brow as if evaluating her ability and potential from there, "hmm. And I suppose you possess magic, correct?" Asking the obvious and receiving her nod of agreement he proceeds, "can you guarantee that you will not abandon your duties as a wizard of Fairy Tail nor betray any one of its members?"
"Yes, but of course."
With one last once-over, 'it very well seems that the child has no recollection of her history here…' He beams goofily giving a thumbs up, "welcome to Fairy Tail!"
Author's Note: Welp, there it is, guys! The first freaking chapter! FINALLY! I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, though... Maybe it's my constant need for perfection in everything that I do, or maybe the idea that nothing I do is ever good enough. Ha ha ha, hm, well whatever it is, here it is. The second one should be up soon, say, within a week or so, if life decides to give me lemons. Oh! And speaking of lemons… *evil smirk* Future chapters will most certainly contain lemon-y goodness between two specific dirty birdies.
Gray: What'd you call us?
Me: Dirty. Birdies.
Christine: *whispers* I think she's trying to rhyme and sound funny at the same time…
Me: QUIET, NAVE! YOU WILL BOW TO MY EVERY COMMAND!
Gray: Geez, who's got your panties in a bind? … Oh, that's right!
Me: SHUT YOUR MOUTH! NO SPOILERS! ,
Christine: Wow, Gray. Way to make the author hate you. -_-
Natsu: When do I get to come in?!
Me: Next chapter, I promise! We should seriously go, though… Before we scare off the few readers that I have! T~T
Oh, and this story is rated M for later chapters. Children and audiences: be advised.