The building was full of cheer and bright spirits as the two guilds partied together. There was no true reason for the impromptu party, which was taking place at the Sabertooth guild hall. The defensive mages would claim that the party was celebrating the friendly relationship between the former enemies, while the others would say they were just partying for party's sake. Nonetheless, the atmosphere was rather pleasant, and while a few scuffles had broken out, it was altogether quite calm. As it would not be a Fairy Tail party if there was not some fighting involved.
It became late quickly, and the party-goers exhaustedly agreed to simply stay at the Sabertooth guild hall. There were dorm rooms hidden in the 'maze of a guild hall' (as Gajeel grumpily stated), so the Fairy Tail mages scrambled to claim rooms and roommates. The guild hall, formerly filled with loud, happy sounds, settled into quiet slumber.
Rogue Cheney thought he was the only one awake, truthfully. Sting was snoring up a storm (honestly, the exuberant mage was just as loud asleep as he was awake), and Rogue had always seemed to suffer from insomnia. Unfortunately, Rogue was not the only conscious mage, as an intruder had stepped into the hall. The tall man stepped around the corner with malicious intent, only to stop short as he saw the shadow dragon slayer taking a slow long-after-midnight stroll through the building.
The two mages stared at each other, startled into statues by the other's presence. The intruder reacted frantically and briskly, casting an unstable spell at the dark haired man, who was just coming out of his exhausted funk. The strangely orange colored spell slammed into Rogue, smacking him directly on the chest. If he had no magic, he would have been thrown backwards. Instead, he wavered where he stood, a perfect example of surprise and shock on his face. A few seconds passed and the dark mage collapsed onto the floor, stilling into sleep. The man who had cast the untested, and frankly new spell, let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding. The man was, in actuality, quite terrified of the shadow dragon slayer, and would not stand a chance against him.
In that state, anyway.
However, it was not the man's day, as Natsu had decided to pull an early morning prank on his best friend, who was not amused to be awoken by ice water and find spiders in her bath. Now, Natsu was racing through the halls with an exhilarated, yet slightly nervous expression on his face. Lucy had woken up Erza in her rage (the redhead had been the celestial mage's roommate, after all) and now he had two angry women on his tail. Ah, I'm so screwed, he told himself in acceptance. He was only drawing out the inevitable.
"Woah! What's going on here?!" He screeched to a stop, widening his eyes at the scene in front of him. If he wasn't mistaken, that was Rogue collapsed on the floor with a dark figure bending over him. There was a flash of silver, but Natsu got distracted when his face was ground into the carpet.
"Natsu Dragneel, did you or did you not place spiders in our bath?" Erza hissed, narrowing her eyes at the helpless dragon slayer. Lucy was right behind Erza, but her rage depleted when she saw the situation. The man had noticed them, and in a split second decision, cast the exact same spell on the three Fairy Tail members.
"Er-" Lucy started to call out her friend's name, noticing the man cast the spell. The orange streaks spun towards the mages and rammed directly into them, hitting all three dead on. "-za…" She finished, a woozy feeling coming over her. Erza and Natsu noticed something was wrong too late, and they faded into unconsciousness. A muscle on the intruder's face twitched. This was not how this night was supposed to go. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out mission.
"What the hell is going on out here?" Grey groaned while opening his door, unknowingly exposing himself to attacks; as being assaulted was the last thing on his mind, he was vulnerable. He had originally opened the door from the loud noises clashing outside his dorm room. Juvia silently opened the door across the hall, wondering the same thing as her beloved, though she went unnoticed by the intruder. The man mentally groaned and swiftly cast the same spell on the unsuspecting ice mage.
"Wha-" He stared at his bare chest where the orange spell had struck him, astonished that he had been hit. Juvia widened her eyes at the sight of Grey falling to the floor, out cold alongside the rest of the mages.
"Grey!" She screeched, turning to the man in fury. "Water lock!" The spell instantly materialized at her words, surrounding the man in dark water. He froze up, confused, frustrated, and instantly afraid. Suddenly remembering an important bit of knowledge that had been drilled into his head by the higher ups, he reached into his overcoat and pulled out a small lacrima crystal. Murmuring a few words as best he could while surrounded by liquid, he proceeded to drop the lacrima, which innocently rolled out of the water lock. It activated in seconds, filling the hallway with magic nullifying orange smoke. Juvia coughed, her spell no more. The smoke slowly faded away, dispersing throughout the rest of the guild hall and becoming ineffective, but the man was already gone. Juvia stared in utter despair at her friends and her friend's friends unmoving on the ground. She felt a tugging desire to fall to her knees and cry out, but she shoved that desire away and rushed to Grey's side, frantically feeling for a pulse. There has to be a pulse.
To her relief, his heart was beating strong and unhindered beneath her fingertips. A quick check on the others told her that they were all alive as well, and seemingly only sleeping.
An hour later, Juvia had alerted everyone else of the problem and the entire building had awoken as a result of the events. The five mages who had been attacked were resting in the infirmary, though they had exhibited no negative symptoms. A few select mages stayed with their close friends while the rest of the two guilds either attempted to get a few more hours of precious yet restless sleep or spoke quietly with one another in the Sabertooth cafe area.
The atmosphere had settled somewhat when morning came, a calming quiet blanketing the guild. Well, in the cafe area, anyway.
In the infirmary, it was chaos. While the mages who had not been attacked were not watching their friends, a rather startling transformation had happened.
"Why are they kids?!" Sting yelped when he rested his eyes on the small form of his best friend. "Why is Rogue a little kid?!"
"Grey is a child as well!" Juvia wailed, dismayed since there was no way she could marry a kid.
"What in the-?" Levy stared at her blond friend, who was -for the first time- smaller than the bookworm herself.
Other noises of astonishment and bewilderment sounded around the room, and more people filtered in from curiosity. News spread like a wildfire as to what had happened. Confusion spread, chaos ensued, and fights broke out. It was Fairy Tail, after all.
Rogue stirred. Something had happened, but he wasn't sure what. He could tell instantly that he was not in his usual bed, nor was his… well, sister seemed to be the appropriate word, but she was not his biological family. Nonetheless, he felt around the foreign mattress for a bit before concluding that she was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even a note to put him at ease, and he knew she always left a note, if she left at all.
His eyes shot open and he bolted upright, the passive expression on his face hiding his inner turmoil. To his surprise, he seemed to be in an infirmary, though he couldn't feel any wounds or sickness. There were a lot of people in the room, and four other beds. The people were staring at him. Their eyes bore into his own and the silence was deafening. He shrunk backwards into the pillows and backboard. Who are these people? What are they doing? Where is she?
"Rogue?" He turned his head at the sound of his name. A tall blond man wearing a strange fur vest thing with suspenders was the speaker, and recognition sparked in Rogue's head. He let out a sigh of relief. Perhaps this was just a misunderstanding, and she was just out getting groceries or something, and left Sting to watch him. Yes, that had to be it.
"Sting, why am I in the infirmary?" Rogue finally asked. Relief flickered across Sting's face, and he sat down on the bed, still facing Rogue.
"You were hit with an unknown spell and got knocked unconscious. You're the first of the five to wake up." Sting explained, grinning that his best friend was awake.
"Hm." Rogue let out an noncommittal noise, trying to remember getting hit. All he remembered was lying down in her bed, snuggling into her side- no, snuggling is for little kids, he was simply lying there. Anyway, he fell asleep next to her like always, in their house like always, after visiting Gajeel like always. His thought process brought him back to his original question: where is she?
"I'm glad you still have your memories, Rogue. That would suck if you got turned into a kid and then lost-"
"What are you talking about?" Rogue stared blankly at the dragon slayer, who stumbled to a stop when he comprehended Rogue's statement. The blonde's expression grew worried, that much was obvious. "I don't remember getting hit with a spell, but I've always been this way, Sting." The room collectively took a breath, and Rogue furrowed his eyebrows. Everyone was being so weird, why was everyone acting so weird?
"…What do you mean, Rogue?" Sting finally asked, staring at the small version of the other half of the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth.
"What do you mean, Sting?" Irritation leaked into Rogue's tone, and he searched around again for her. Oh, there she is! Rogue's expression melted into relief, and Sting raised an eyebrow at the sudden change in expression, and he turned to try and find what caused the benign look on Rogue's face.
"Levy!" Rogue called out, a small smile settling on his face and he pulled back the covers and lightly landed on the floor. He pattered over to her as she turned around at the sound of her name, confusion evident on her face. Rogue gave her a rare smile and waited for her to embrace him as she usually did, smiling into the side of his head and not letting go until he complained that she was suffocating him. He waited… and waited…
But she only stared at him in growing confusion. She was there for her close friend, Lucy, and had no reason to believe Rogue would speak to her. But he had, and he seemed to… know her.
"Er, hello, Rogue." She smiled awkwardly at him. His face fell a bit, smile dropping in confusion, but he initiated the hug nonetheless. Maybe she's just tired, that's all. He buried his face into her shoulder, being only a bit shorter than the small script mage. He let a small amount of emotion seep into his voice, letting go of his pride for a few moments.
"I missed you," He mumbled, hugging Levy tighter. She widened her hazel eyes, gaping at him and the surrounding mages with a mystified expression. Juvia, who was standing next to her, gazed at the two with a puzzled expression. None were more confused, however, than the muscular light dragon slayer, who was also quite indignant that his best friend had chosen a mage he barely knew over him, albeit being in a rather strange predicament.
"Rogue, what's going on?" Sting finally burst out. The red-eyed boy blinked up at his blonde friend before allowing a contempt look to cross his face.
"Why are you questioning me, Sting? You're the one being all weird. Levy's like my big sis, obviously you know this." I never want to leave her side. He thought to himself, subconsciously tightening his grip on the bluenette.
Sting stared in astonishment at the small form of Rogue, wondering what had happened to his best friend.
Hey, wait. Wait a second, what's going on? What's happening? I'm sleeping, or not sleeping, I don't really know, but something's not right, something's going on, I don't-
Oh. OH, I remember, something is coming back to-
AHHHH! WHAT… WHAT IS THIS PAIN, THIS FEELING? FIGHT IT, NATSU, FIGHT-
…
It's… it's gone. But… no! My memories? What's-
Hmm.
…
Everything is white, white, suddenly it's all black, what's going on? Who am I? Where-
A light? It's getting brighter… look, an image! A moving image, with a boy in it, he has pink- no, salmon hair, it's, wait. That's me, that's me, right?
There's another person, he must be my… oh! I remember everything now! He took me in, we're brothers now, and I… I remember!
"WHOA!" Natsu sat straight up in his bed with a loud exclamation. The mages in the room startled, turning their attention from the child version of Rogue -who still had his arms wrapped protectively around Levy- to the child version of Natsu. He, unsurprisingly, had made a much louder entrance than the quiet shadow dragon slayer.
"That was a weird dream, bro!" He laughed obnoxiously, closing his eyes briefly and beaming. Everyone relaxed, believing he had his memories, and that something strange had happened to Rogue, and Rogue alone.
"Natsu, what do you rem-" Master Makarov started, only to be interrupted by the same boy he was addressing.
"Hey, what am I doing here?" Natsu ignored the Master's almost question and examined his surroundings suspiciously. "I don't remember getting hurt. And I don't feel hurt. If I hit my head then my head would hurt, right? Oh hey, where is…" He trailed off, the mages around him left blinking as they took in his rapid fire speech. Natsu ignored their blank faces and continued to search for something, and his face lit up when he found it. Or rather, found him.
"Sting! I found you!" Natsu let out another laugh as he launched himself at the bewildered dragon slayer, who caught the pink haired boy just in time. Natsu nuzzled his nose into the crook of Sting's neck, humming a bit happily. He was a bit of a simple minded child, and did not realized how adorable he appeared. If he had known, his 'manly pride' would have kicked in and he would have beat up whoever called him cute.
"U-uh, hey Natsu…" Sting stuttered, peering at his former idol wrapped in his arms. Natsu grinned toothily up at him, appearing as if he smiled any wider his face would break.
"Sting! What adventure should we do today?" Natsu enthused, hopping down from Sting's bemused embrace. He promptly jumped onto one of the beds, successfully -yet unknowingly- waking the occupant, and leapt onto Sting's shoulders. The blonde dragon slayer stumbled a bit and righted the impulsive fire mage, who now had his legs wrapped around Sting's shoulders and his tiny arms clinging to the man's head.
"Well, neither of them seems to have retained their memories. From what they are saying, it almost sounds like they have different memories in place of the lost ones. And they also seem to each be partial to a certain mage, though I cannot say that for the others. There may be different symptoms for the others." Levy started musing to herself, absentmindedly running her fingers through Rogue's dark hair. The perceptive child stared up at her with his big red eyes, a bit of confusion taking over his expression.
"So… Natsu likes me, and Rogue like you?" Sting clarified. He always thought the short bluenette made things more complex than they needed to be. He preferred to keep his opinion to himself, however, especially after seeing the footage of Rogue's brutal defeat against Gajeel. That man was terrifying, though he would never admit it.
"It seems so, anyway." Levy smiled softly down at the shadow dragon slayer, already liking the boy's quiet nature and intelligent eyes.
"I'm cool with this!" Sting announced, swinging Natsu around a bit on his shoulders and beaming. "This'll be awesome, at least until we can fix it of course!"
Natsu laughed a laugh that was eerily similar to Sting's. Or maybe it was the other way around, nobody really knew at that point. "Whatcha talkin' bout, Sting?"
"Nothing' important. Let's go on an adventure, okay Natsu?" Sting felt his heart swell. This was too fun. He had never had to take care of a child before.
"Okay, bro!" Natsu grinned happily when a loud groan interrupted his joy.
Grey had been having a nice sleep. There were no dreams, nightmarish or otherwise, and he had been quite peaceful.
That is, until a certain dragon slayer decided to use him as a trampoline. Figures.
He groaned loudly to announce his wakefulness. He wasn't sure what events had lead him to be in a foreign bed in a strange room with Natsu of all people in it. The ice mage was ready to give a certain flame-brain a piece of his mind and he opened his eyes and sat up.
However, he was not expecting to be the center of attention and have many others staring directly at him. His face flushed and he snapped, "What are you morons looking at?"
Natsu snickered. "Are you sure you-know-who would like your, um, 'vulgar language'?"
To everyone's surprise, Grey blanched and quickly examined his surroundings. When he didn't see who he was looking for he let out a breath of relief, then turned his angered expression to a certain fire mage. "He's not here right now, flame-breath."
"Yeah? Well-" Natsu's next insults fell on deaf ears as his words registered in his mind: He's not here.
"I have to find him," The ice mage muttered to himself.
Him? Confused glances were exchanged at Grey's choice of words. That was when an until now quiet bluenette decided to make her presence known.
"Grey, it's Juvia!" The water mage held her breath when the shirtless boy turned his attention to her. Would he…?
"Why are you talking to me?" He stated bluntly, simultaneously answering the memory question and breaking Juvia's heart. He recoiled when dramatic tears started dripping from her eyes. "Ah! Don't cry! Why are you crying? What did I do?" She beamed at him.
"Ah, Grey is so considerate, even as a child!" She attempted to embrace the small, raven-haired boy, but he wiggled out of her arms and jumped onto the next bed, successfully giving Lucy a rude awakening.
"Hey!" The small girl whined, shoving the ice mage away. "I was sleeping!" Her indignant tone sounded throughout the room. Grey ignored her, searching through the throng of people. She promptly ignored him and tried to fall back asleep.
His face grew irritated. "I need to find him! Where is he?" The boy leapt down from Lucy's bed, marching to the door and pushing through people. Instead of stopping him, they parted, curious as to where he was going.
"Where are you?" Grey raged, storming into the cafe area, turning many heads. He needed to find him.
"Oi, why is Grey a kid?" Gajeel laughed at the small raven-haired boy. Grey glared at him and crossed his gangly arms.
"Where is he?" He asked viciously. Gajeel laughed harshly again and said, "Who, kid?"
"Agh!" Grey stomped his foot childishly and stalked over to the bar.
Juvia started explaining the situation to the confused mages in her vicinity.
"Their memories are gone?" Rufus mused to himself, vaguely interested. Yukino spoke animatedly with Juvia, both of them ignoring their surroundings.
"Oi!" Grey shouted from the top of the counter. The ice mage had clambered up there to find him, and luckily, he had. Grey was staring directly at him. And he was ticked off, too. "Where were you? I can't have to find you every time I sleep, you know!" Mages around him searched for the person he was speaking to. Cana? Elfman?
Grey muttered to himself and hopped down from the counter, stalking over to him. He slammed his foot down on his, and he let out a startled yelp and stared down at the glaring boy.
"Why did you leave me alone?" Grey narrowed his eyes with crossed arms in an aggressive stance.
"Excuse me?" Rufus stared down at his former opponent, now a small boy.
"You as-" Grey slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes suddenly widening with an oh crap look. He brought his eyes up to Rufus's, appearing like he was expecting retribution for almost swearing. Especially for almost swearing at Rufus. When he received none, he brought his hands back down to his side in confusion, but did not think on it for long as relief swept through his body. "You said you would stay! It would be a pain to have to find you every time I fall asleep, you know!"
"Grey, what's going on?" Makarov stepped in front of the infuriated boy who had caused a rather indignant look to appear on Rufus's face.
"What's going on? What are you talking about? He's my guardian, that's what's going on! Is your memory leaving with age, old man?" Grey snapped, straightening aggressively. Silence greeted the ice mage's quick words and vicious tone until a certain bluenette spoke up.
"Grey, along with all of the others so far, seem to have different memories and an attachment to another guild member. Rogue and Natsu have also woken up, and Juvia believes Lucy is awake as well." Her gaze fell on her love, thoughts turned more serious as she assessed the situation. She was worried for a whole different reason; what if the mages never turned back?
Bewildered gazes were exchanged after Juvia's clarification, and Rufus stared at Grey with an uncharacteristically lost look on his face.
"Ugh." A groan permeated from the small figure on the infirmary bed. Lucy was exhausted, for some reason, and had unavoidably been woken up. She wasn't sure if it was Natsu or Grey, but the one of the two were usually the culprit for all of her grievances. Well, them and her guardian, she supposed.
"Lushy! Guess what guess what guess what! I'm going on an adventure with Sting, wanna come?" The energetic voice of her best friend filtered through her tiny ears, and she sat up with another groan, clutching her head. Once again, the mages in the room waited with bated breath, wondering against logic, hoping against hope, that she had all of her memories.
"Sorry, Natsu, but you know what she said about your adventures." Lucy apologized, staring at the onyx irises of the fire mage. Her big brown eyes blinked out the sleep in them as Natsu's face simultaneously fell and indignant.
"Our adventures are not stupid or dangerous!" He protested, leaning into her face in the heat of the moment and staring unblinkingly at her. Lucy was not amused, and merely raised an eyebrow at her friend's antics.
"Her exact words were 'foolish and treacherous things, they always come back injured'." Lucy recited, eyes pointed upwards as she remembered. Her gaze turned back to Natsu's. "I had to explain it to you three times!"
He huffed, leaning backwards in defeat even though he almost told her that he only needed it to be explained to him three times because he wasn't listening to her the first two. He never won arguments, especially with Lucy. He prefered a more violent approach, but nobody would catch him dead in a fight with the celestial mage. Not just because she was his friend, no, he fought his friends usually more often than enemies, but he was utterly terrified of her guardian. Though he would never say so, and usually stood up to the unassuming woman (more like verbally assaulted for no reason) for Lucy's sake, even though it was not appreciated by said celestial mage.
"By the way, where is she?" Lucy searched the room similarly to the other now-child mages, and she didn't seem to find who she was looking for, like Grey. The girl let out a sigh and hopped off her bed, Natsu trailing behind her for a few steps while protesting. She stalked out of the infirmary in pursuit, and Natsu halted right before the threshold, as if he could not physically pass it.
"Sting! Come on we gotta save Lucy!" He struggled with himself in place, as if he were itching to follow his best friend -in adulthood and now fake memories- but simply could not.
"Er… Natsu? Why can't you go save her without me?" It wasn't that Sting wanted to shoot the boy down, but he was puzzled and curious, wondering why the salmon haired crazy had not bolted out the door after Lucy.
"Because! You have to come with me!" Natsu argued, eyes bright with yearning to exit the infirmary. The fire mage thought for a moment before adding a "Please?" as Lucy had told him it was polite and people would help him more if he used the magic word.
Sting melted under Natsu's ignorantly adorable expression and a small smile overtook the light dragon slayer's face for a moment before transforming into his usual beam. "'Course! Let's go save your friend from… wait, who are we saving Lucy from again?"
"Her guardian! She's scary and can put out my flames!"
Lucy searched the room frantically, not seeing her. Where is she?
"Oh, hey Lucy! They were right, she is a kid now…"
"-Luce! Oh my goodness-"
"Pfft, about time you arrived loser, your guardian's over here." Grey's cocky voice cut through all the others and Lucy turned towards where she heard her icy friend's arrogant tone. She brushed off the insult and instead brightened considerably when she saw the water mage in her sights.
"Juvia!" She cried out happily, wrapping her stubby arms around the bewildered bluenette's waist. Juvia blinked at the blonde embracing her and realized that she was one of the guardians in the memories of the turned mages. And not for Grey, as she may have liked, but for Lucy, one she formerly thought of as a love rival before maturing and realizing the intimate relationship between the celestial mage and the fire dragon slayer, though the mages themselves had not realized it quite yet.
"Hello, Lucy." Juvia patted the girl's hair awkwardly, but it seemed to be taken well, as Lucy gave the water mage a bright smile before turning to Grey with a stern gaze. The mages surrounding laughed to themselves as they realized Lucy still had her abrupt change of expression and emotion.
"I'm not a loser. Plus, I never thought you would dare to speak like Natsu with your guardian so close," Lucy stated matter-of-factly, nodding towards Rufus with a determined air. She knew how to stop all of her friends in their tracks, and had all the technics down. For Grey, all she had to do was mention Rufus, and…
"He doesn't care how I talk anymore," Grey said aloofly, waving off the blonde airily. Lucy raised an eyebrow and inwardly panicked. Would she have to revert to mentioning Natsu whenever she was insulted by the ice mage?
"I may not appreciate unknowingly becoming you so-called 'guardian', but if I am to take charge of you, then the words coming out of your mouth will not, and I repeat for those of short memory, will not hear foul words escape those dirty lips of yours. Do I make myself clear?" Rufus suddenly spoke in his lyrical tone, peering at the small raven-haired boy in the eyes. Grey himself visibly squirmed, trying to keep his gaze even with the tall memory-make mage, but he turned his eyes to the floor and mumbled a small, "Yeah, whatever."
Mages surrounding the two children were stunned into silence. Not only had Rufus spoken to his former rival, but he had ordered him around. More shocking than even that, Grey had bent to Rufus's will. Not in their history of knowing the raven-haired man- well, now boy- had he ever backed down and listened to someone he quite literally rivaled in battle- and won.
The silence broke slightly when Sting and Natsu came down the stairs guns ablazing joyously, Natsu cheerfully greeting his small friends. The boy had obviously moved passed saving Lucy, though everyone thought it was strange and hilarious that the fire mage was scared of Juvia of all people, and was happily parading around the room on Sting's shoulders.
The entire room froze when an ear-splitting shriek split through the guild.
No… no… something's not right… I can't sense them, I can't sense them at all! Erza continued to flail and thrash against the mages that held her down.
"Let… me… go!" She screamed against their arms and bodies. Her body started glowing, signaling she was requipping, and the mages froze, sweat dropping nervously. Her everyday armor appeared and the sword with it, which she whipped out with lightning speed and slashed around, successfully ridding herself of others. With her limbs now free to move, she sprinted out of the infirmary, leaving many confused, bewildered, and wounded mages to chase after her.
I need… I need…
Her gaze darted from corner to corner, examining the hallways and rooms as she passed them. She sensed a large multitude of magic power down the hall to her left, so she concluded there must be mages there. They might be mingling with other mages, but she knew deep down they weren't. She could sense their magic among others since she could use magic. But she had to see with her own eyes before her hope was crushed.
Erza burst into the room, gaining the stares of the Fairy Tail mages and the Sabertooth mages alike. Her eyes fell on Lucy, Natsu, and Grey (Rogue was still in the infirmary with Levy) and they narrowed dangerously. The three tiny versions of themselves gulped, shrinking back into their guardians. Rufus awkwardly placed a hand on Grey's shoulder in an attempt to comfort the boy.
"Where are they?" She snarled, turning to aggression in her fear and confusion.
"I don't know!" Grey finally squeaked out, shielding his eyes.
"I haven't seen them!" Lucy continued for Grey, hiding her face behind Juvia's legs.
"They aren't here!" Natsu finished, shivering behind Sting's head. Erza froze, the tip of her sword drooping to touch the wooden planks. Her vision swam precariously, and she clenched and unclenched her empty hand to make sure she could still feel.
They aren't…? They… have to be… where…?
She wavered and fell to her knees, the metal of the sword clinking when it fell to the floor. She stared at the wood underneath her fingertips, willing the floor to give her some sort of answer.
"They… they…" She muttered at the smooth wood.
"Erza?" Mirajane said kindly.
"Where are they?!" She screamed at the pale-haired woman, staring into Mira's eyes. The bartender paused, taken aback by the tears starting to form in her left eye.
"Who?" She asked, smiling her trademark smile.
"T-they… my g-" Erza coughed suddenly into her hand, then continued. "My guardian…"
"Your guardian isn't here?" Mira thought to herself for a moment.
"No!" Erza yelled, her voice echoing throughout the room. "No! No! Augh!" Her gutteral cry ripped from her through and chilled the hearts of those who heard it. The three children mages stared in empathy at the redhead, but offered no suggestions.
"Lucy? What do you suppose we do?" Juvia asked the blonde who was still clinging to her legs. The celestial mage turned her big brown eyes towards Juvia's blue ones. Without hesitation the girl opened her mouth and said, quite plainly, "You have to find her guardian."
Erza's cry grew louder and Mirajane widened her eyes.
"Somebody! Get a communications lacrima and contact Jellal! Tell him to get her ASAP and that Erza's in trouble!" She stood, instantly in action. Erza's shriek quieted when she heard his name.
"Je… llal?" She questioned, gazing at Mirajane, who looked quite like an angel to Erza at that moment. Because if Jellal came… then her guardian would be there…
"That's right sweetie, Jellal's going to be coming soon, okay?" Mirajane patted Erza on the head, her motherly nature coming out. Erza was silent, which was better than screaming her head off and attacking everyone in sight.
Hope…
Time passed, and Erza was sitting at a table alone. Anyone who came near her received a reprimand and a sword to the throat, so the mages let her be. A few of the Fairy Tail veterans were reminded of when she first joined the guild, before Grey had noticed her and started bugging her because of his big head.
A sudden commotion sounded from outside the Sabertooth guild doors and Jellal burst through them dramatically. He keeled over for a second but popped right back up again, sweeping his gaze across the lobby.
"I got your message, something absolutely terrible happened to Erza, right? I got here as soon as I-" He stopped when he gaze fell on Erza in child form. Ultear and Meredy stepped through the guild doors in a much quieter fashion, sighing at their guild master's obvious obsession with a certain requip mage.
"They all have these guardians, and we think-" Mirajane started explaining. Erza turned around in her stool, her darkened eyes lighting up when they landed on the group at the entrance of the guild.
"-it's you." Mirajane finished. Jellal took this in with a blink.
Erza lept off her stool and sprinted towards the group intently. Jellal got on one knee to embrace her opened arms, ready to comfort the sad looking girl.
She ran straight past him and wrapped her tiny arms around Ultear's legs.
Jellal felt like a beacon had appeared above his head, reading ignored. He slowly turned his head around to see a bemused Ultear staring at the girl with a lost expression adorning her face.
"Her guardian… is Ultear?" Mirajane exclaimed.
When you have things to do but you write instead... and when you write but don't write the story you need to update but write an originally-going-to-be-a-oneshot...
(I'll have a chapter per character, then anything else y'all want, I guess. This was kinda imprompu so)
Favorite, follow, review! (Review actually idk what I'm doing *sheepishly laughs*
-Leaf ^-^