The city was much as it always was, equally as bustling and busy in parts as it was tranquil and quiet in others. At the guild hall, where the Master's youngest daughter was very diligently at cleaning up the many messes that sprang up throughout the day, none of the latter could be felt, but for the oldest, she knew nothing, but it.
Skipping out on the hall that day, Haven found a much better use of her time over with Gajeel's son Locke, where they enjoyed the rare stillness of the house. No one was around for once, other than the two of them, and Locke only played his music lacrima softly while they even more lightly with one another, in the darkness of his bedroom.
She'd only just gotten back from a solo job, Haven had, and was a bit shocked to find him still hanging around Magnolia rather than off on one of his own. He explained, at least a little bit, as they lounged in his bed together, about how he was really making some great breakthroughs, with his medical magic, and he talked so much about that, so often, that Haven mostly hoped he'd get it all out of him already. She didn't want to spend the entire day listening about it.
"We have to go, eventually, anyways," she told him as Locke only blinked down at her, resting on his side, head propped up in one hand. "To find Ravan."
He tried hard not to make a face. It didn't work.
"Why?"
"He's supposed to have my gift for me."
Locke only frowned, but said nothing on the subject. Not because he didn't have a lot to say. Because he did. Ravan giving his girlfriend a present was lame as fuck, but it was also her birthday and made sense, sure, but still. Haven would have rebuked anything he said on the subject though, so maybe it was for the best then that, as the pair on glared at one another, the sound of the front door of the house opening and closing was heard.
They didn't move because that would have been more suspect, anyways, suddenly jumping around and making all that noise. Besides, Locke's parents had some sense of privacy. His door was closed, so they wouldn't enter.
"Locke! Are you home?"
Especially his father.
"Yeah," he bellowed back to Gajeel as he and Haven only stayed put though their eyes were now at his bedroom door. They could hear the heavy thuds that only Black Steel could make as he went through the house. He was coming to the bedroom, but stopped at the door.
"Are you coming out with me trainin'? Or what?"
"Or what," Locke answered back and Gajeel growled at him for it, but was just as quickly stomping off to his own bedroom, no doubt to retrieve something or other, before right back out of the house.
"You're fucking loss!" he yelled back at him and that was that.
They were alone again.
Gajeel had to have known Haven was there. Of course he did. If he hadn't sensed her magic, he would have smelled her, but he seemed the most unconcerned with his son's current romance. Honestly, as the pair had edged into a year of it, he was hoping they'd hurry up and get into a big fight and just fucking break up. So Locke could finally really be done with the Dreyar girl.
It was bound to happen.
Until it did, he found it best to just ignore it at all costs.
Haven smiled up at Locke though, when his father left and he only leaned down to brush his lips against hers and, yeah, they had to leave soon, to go see Ravan, but not yet. Soon, but not yet.
The other teen was too busy for them, anyways, at the moment. He'd, once more, run into trouble with his motorcycle and was busy working on it as his brother sat by, offering assistance when need. It never seemed to be, but Kai offered it, regardless.
"What are you two doing? One a night day such as this? Nothing with your magic."
"Erza, we're kind of busy with something more important," Kai insisted as the woman returned from her afternoon training to find mechanical parts strewn all over her front lawn as Ravan tinkered, down on his knees, with something on his bike. "Way too busy for magic."
"One day you will regret it," she warned them, but she'd done it for so long by then, over half a decade, really, and even she sounded tired of it. Still, sweaty and gross from her training, she came over to stand above the boys. "At this point, Ravan, have you ever considered just rolling it to the junk yard?"
"Still not helping, Erza," the older of the two brothers grumbled.
"Oh, I have. Far too much." Turning, she started up for the house. "When you are finished out here, the two of you need to come in and assist in dinner preparations."
"Preparations?" Kai equal parts liked and feared the implication. "Just what are we having, Erza?"
But she was gone, off to shower off, and it was just the brothers again.
"I'm going out of town tomorrow," Kai mentioned eventually. "With Marin. Evergreen is going to some sort of specialty store opening and she's bringing us. And Ajax, maybe, but-"
"Shut up. I don't care."
"I have to go in for the morning shift though," his brother went on with a bit of a sigh. "So does Marin. We have to hurry through all the opening things. Then we gotta rush to the train station to meet Evergreen. It's a trade off though, I guess. It'll be fun to get out of Magnolia."
"If you're a loser who never leaves it," Ravan grumbled, annoyed that his brother wasn't bothering Erza now that she was home rather than continuing to do so to him. "I guess."
Navi was feeling the annoying little brother trope well that day. Her mother was out which meant she was the mother of the apartment and it was an especially dark nightmare that day. The twins were, above all else, rowdy and had been tussling when they finally woke up (other than Navi, the rest of the house seemed to only do that around noon, should her mother be out) which led to Lucky hitting his brother a bit too hard in the stomach and then Iggy was sobbing and hanging off Navi for most of the day, refusing to be around the others, even Happy, who took offense to this and stuck around Navi even more as Natsu, who'd only just returned form a job, moped around the house, not even finding the energy to go down to the hall that day. He only hung out with the equally as mopey Lucky, who was mad that his brother was being such a big baby.
"I was in the bathroom for, at most, five minutes," Navi found herself complaining when, after this, she returned to the kitchen to find it in a state of disarray. Natsu was sitting at the kitchen table, sighing down at his empty plate as the twins seemed to be in a competition on who could make the grosses thing in a bowl, adding things here and there to their each separate ones. She was half right, anyways. The rest of the competition was to see which Natsu would actually enjoy eating.
That one would be the loser.
"Just announce what you were doing in the bathroom, I guess, Navi," Happy snickered from where he stood on the counter, sucking on a fish while supervising the boys. "Five minutes, huh?"
"Happy," she complained, but just as quickly was shouting at Iggy who saw it fit to begin mixing his bowl with a spoon, vigerously, splashing all the contents all over the place.
"You guys," she griped at them all, "are making a huge mess. Mom will be-"
"Mom's not here," Lucky reminded her. "So it doesn't matter."
"Uh, yeah, it does, so-"
"Dad said we could," Iggy retorted and the man only sighed some, from where he was waiting for his meal.
"Yeah, Navi, what's the big deal, huh?" the slayer asked. "We'll clean it up."
But they wouldn't she knew they wouldn't. Because they never did. And she could leave it, yeah, for her mother to find, who would lose her shit over it and then make them actually clean up after themselves, but then Navi would feel badly, for making her already stressed out mother even more so and she'd just end up doing it. Because she always ended up doing it.
She didn't have to stay there and deal with it though. No, she had been sticking around that day, since the boys wanted her to, but if they were all going to act like jerks, then she had better things to do. Better places to be.
Like the guildhall.
It felt like a waste, when she first got there to find nothing of interest, but it would matter because she would be in the exact right place to run into the exactly wrong person.
But not right then. No. First, an accident had to occur back at Erza's house. There Ravan was, very deep in his mechanical troubles, when Haven and her stupid boyfriend showed up. He could sense them, as he always could with her, long before they approached as the air seemed to change ever so slightly when Raijin's oldest daughter was around. He hardly glanced up though, as they came to stand on the front lawn, Locke with his hands behind his head and Haven with hers on her hips.
"Well?"
"Well what?" he complained against the fabric of his dark red bandanna. "Haven?"
"Don't you have something for me?"
He was confused, but not for long.
Oh no.
Oh. No.
See, the thing was, Haven had been making such a big fucking deal about her seventeenth birthday, to everyone, honestly, but Ravan felt as if it was especially laid on thick around him. So he had to get her something. They'd never done that before, gotten one another gifts for their birthdays. Even as friends, like they were in current years. But Ravan wanted to, that year.
She'd be going out of town though, Haven warned him, the week of her actual birthday. She felt like she deserved it, to get away from Magnolia without a job being on the line and Ravan had a sinking feeling, whether she mentioned it or not, Locke was probably going to be involved in that somehow.
Which he didn't want to think about. At all.
So he offered to give her a gift a week early. And he'd planned on it. Honest. But...then his motorcycle got in the way. Twice over the past week he'd had to go and buy an expensive new part and, well, yeah, Erza was right, it was junk, but it was his. From his unwilling Master.
It wasn't like he didn't have jewels though, to get her something. He did. But he'd procrastinated to the last week and now it was the last moment, it seemed, and he'd just gotten so distracted. That was all. With his bike. Who could think about a dumb birthday when you had your bike on your mind?
Haven, apparently, who was giving him such a dirty look. He only rubbed his greasy hands on his jeans, Ravan did, as he tried to think of something to say.
"You forgot."
"Did not."
Locke only shrugged though, as the pair continued to stare at one another. He was actually glad with this development. It meant they could get out of there even faster.
"Then where is it?" Haven asked before, narrowing her eyes, changing it to, "What is it?"
"It's… I have to get it."
"Uh-huh."
"I do."
"Sure."
"I'm telling you, Haven-"
"He doesn't have anything for you, so can we just go? Please?" Locke's arms fell so that he could shrug. "It's okay to forget things, you know, Ravan."
"Shut up."
"You shut up."
"You-"
"If you don't have anything for me," Haven kept right up and ugh, they were so annoying, "then you might as well just-"
"I'll have it tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"That's what I said."
"You forgot."
"Why don't you show up tomorrow?" he challenged right back. "And see then?"
"Whatever." Looking up at Locke, she only asked, "Didn't you need to go to the market?"
"My mom gave me a list of stuff, this morning, that I had to-"
"You're such a loser."
"How is that being a loser? It's stuff for dinner. Do you not want to eat dinner?"
Ravan feigned getting back to his motorcycle as the pair went off, bickering as always. It was only once they were long gone that he rolled his still useless bike into the backyard, mind turning as he went along.
Great. Just fucking great. They were going to the damn market, on top of everything else, but who knew when? Who knew for how long? What if they caught him there, quickly trying to buy her something?
"I did plan to get her something," he griped at Kai when he explained his dilemma to the other boy. "But I just-"
"Forgot."
"No."
"Why are you so concerned with it?" Erza was tired of the conversation, clearly. She was trying very hard to prepare dinner with the aid of Kai. She had enough handicaps. Distraction was not on the menu. "Ravan? I hardly remember such things. Dates. They are meaningless."
"You always remember my birthday," Kai told her.
"There are very few, special dates," she corrected because it was true enough. "In my yearly calendar. That is all."
"Well, I guess that means that Haven's birthday is one of your special ones then? Ravan?" Kai snickered at him and wow, was he the one being teased for once?
Ravan was too annoyed with himself to even notice.
"I do think it is nice that you and the Dreyar girl are such good friends," Erza offered to her student as he came over to the stove. He'd been chopping vegetables for her and, just watching as she only took them so she could slide them into the bubbling pot on the stove, he had the same blank stare on his face as she spoke. "I recall a time when I worried you would never have any."
Was Erza teasing him now too? Frowning, Ravan only went back to the table as he pulled the bandanna that hung around his neck up, over his mouth.
"You guys," he grumbled against it, "aren't helping."
"Long are the days, I suppose," the swordswoman went on, "that you would much rather slice into the Dreyar girl that do something nice for her. And yet, here we are. Have years passed so quickly? Well, here we are then."
"Erza's sentimental," Kai continued to snicker as he continued on with his very important dinner duty. At the moment, it was standing over at the sink, scrubbing at potatoes. Out of the way. "But yeah, Ravan. How come you gotta get Haven anything anyways? And if you gotta, can't you just get something simple and easy? Like… Oh, hey, do you think if we went out and caught her family a bunch of fish for dinner that-"
"Stop," his brother ordered, "talking."
"A good gift," Erza decided to bring back some clarity to the situation, "comes from the heart."
"Yeah." Kai couldn't help it. Ravan and Haven's friendship always bugged him for some reason, but the platter of teasing he was being served up because of it made it so much better. "The heart, Ravan."
"I do not know what your brother implies-"
"I think," Kai continued to snicker, "you do, Erza."
"-but," the woman went on, "on such short notice, Ravan, I implore you to think deeply about Haven and her interests. There you will find the perfect gift."
"Hey, how do you think Locke'll feel?" Kai just wasn't going to let up. Not with Erza there to keep Ravan from pummeling him. "About you giving his girlfriend a gift from the heart?"
"It is nothing to be embarrassed about," Erza remarked, eyes still on the pot she was stirring, "Ravan. Kai. Are your gifts to Marin not from the heart? Are mine to you not? I have heart for my friends and guild members just as I have a romantic interest."
"You can just say Jellal," Ravan grumbled against his bandanna.
She could, sure. But she was lost in her lecture by then, far too gone to think of the man's name, even.
"The idea that relationships, in their ultimate state, should conclude with a romantic entailment is antiquated and wrong," the woman was going on. "Why is it that we assume that a friendship cannot have the same fulfilling qualities of a romantic entanglement? Have you ever considered that? Ravan?"
"No," he told her. "Because I don't know what you're talking about."
Most of her best quandaries were wasted on the typically apathetic boys.
"I'm gonna tell Marin," Kai carried right on, "that you're giving her sister a gift from the heart. And then she'll tell Haven and then Haven well- Hey!"
Ravan had had enough. Erza was too lost in herself though to glance over at the boys as Ravan refused to release his brother from a super painful choke hold. She did eventually tell the boys to go wash up for the meal and, well, Ravan had to release the by then crying Kai for that, but food was food.
Kai was all pissy at him though, after the meal, and Ravan took off for the guildhall alone. Which was fine. Kai had to get down early the next morning anyways, to go open up and then head out with his friend. She was there, actually, at the hall when Ravan arrived, but very busy tending bar. Must mean the Master wasn't around.
Ravan didn't have time to focus on her though that day. No. Erza told him to think of something, from the heart, for Haven. And though he didn't like the way she said it, she wasn't wholly wrong. If he was going to get something that was worth waiting the whole extra day, then he had to make sure that it was good. Or else she'd accuse him, once more, of forgetting.
Which, fine, yeah, he did, but whatever.
Haven wasn't around though, probably still out with Locke, and that was great because he just needed a drink, Ravan did, and then he could-
"Navi."
She tried hard not to look concerned as the other teen stood ominously before her table, but it was difficult.
"Ravan," she greeted back as he just stood there, staring at her, like the creep he was. "Hi."
He had a beer in hand, having already been over to the bar, but didn't move to drink it. How could he, anyways, with the cloth over his mouth.
"It's Haven's birthday next week," he said from behind it and Navi only nodded slightly.
She was good at that. Remembering things like that.
"Yeah, I was gonna get her-"
"I need to get her something."
"W-Well, I guess you do. If you want to. It's not like she'd reject a gift, I guess, but-"
"Today." He reached up with his free hand to pull down the cloth so he could finally take a sip of his drink. He sat down there, across from her, as he did this and Navi only stared up at him with uncertainty. "Tonight."
She'd been at the hall for a few hours at that point and was actually eating dinner at the moment. She'd go home soon. Why hadn't she gone home sooner?
"W-Well," she began, always one to at least try and be helpful (even to people she mostly wanted to get away from), "do you have any ideas? Or-"
"I can't go to the market."
"Then where were you thinking of getting something from?"
He only shrugged and she clicked her tongue and they were rarely alone together. Or around one another anymore. Haven and Locke still felt a need to at least spend some time with the girl as she slowly began distancing herself, but Ravan felt no draw to Navi at all. He'd once, in fact, felt the exact opposite. Now though, he mostly saw her as every other person in the guild.
Just there.
The hate that he held in his heart for the members of Fairy Tail had dwindled over the years to next to nothing. Short of Locke, who he had his own person gripes with, the boy, no, man, he was of age by that point, had problem with most people around the hall. They were just that. People. He didn't hate them, he didn't like them; they just existed.
Navi was one of those people in those days. Kind of useless, honestly, but hung around anyways, aimless and lost. Still, she knew Haven just as well as if, in a different kind of way, and she was the exact person who could help him.
Taking in a deep breath though, the girl didn't feel much like helping. How could she? When he seemed to have no idea what he even wanted?
"I guess," she said slowly, "that for Haven, if you needed to get something on such short notice… Well, I don't know, Ravan. I mean, what does Haven even do anymore? She just goes on jobs and trains. Maybe some spellbook or something? She could probably get all she'd want of those from Locke though, so-"
"Shut up." He was done with her then as he stood to his feet. "I know now."
"You could say thank you," Navi muttered simply as he walked away, but not loud enough for him to hear. Ravan's creep factor had mostly only ever manifested in minor ways, but she just didn't know him well enough to not have the misfortune of him trying to follow her home or something else nefarious. Which would suck more for him, honestly, considering she had the Salamander back at home, but whatever. "Freak."
But Ravan couldn't hear Navi anymore. Not as he went over to the request board to glance over it. Of course. Why hadn't he thought of it before? A job. One for just the two of them. A super intricate one. But not too long because she wanted to be back for her birthday. Yes. Surely, there was one of those up on the board. It's what they both liked to do, after all. Take jobs.
All the jobs up on the board though were super lame. And basic. And not at all something that he could force her to wait around for. Frowning, he took his beer with him over to the bar.
"Marin."
"Hmmm?" She had her head down, wiping at a spot at the bar, but glanced up when he came to stand before it. "Did you need something else? Ravan?"
"The jobs on the board suck."
"W-Well-"
"Don't you and Kai usually put up new ones? Are there new ones? How does it work?"
She sighed some, Marin did, as she saw her father come through the guildhall doors. Her Aunt Lisanna, who was definitely not shirking her responsibilities off on the girl, no way, took note as well and was rushing to get back by the bar as Marin from behind it.
"I guess," she told Ravan as she easily took his hand and started to drag him away, "I could go work on that now. You can come too, if you want."
She took him to one of the rooms in the back of the hall. No the Master's office, but rather another, tinier, less personal one. The waitstaff's.
"Here." Marin went over to a stack of fliers that sat on top of a filing cabinet before going to sit down at the desk. "If you just give me a minute, I can see if there's something more interesting in here."
He'd never seen this side of guild maintenance, Ravan hadn't, and just stood there, beer in hand, watching as the youngest Dreyar girl began rifling through the stack, separating them.
"Mom classifies them," the girl was going on. "As S-Class, SS-Class, or just regular. See? There's are the literal, mailed in requests. She marks the corner up here, on each one, with a classification, I take it, transcribe it onto professional, flier paper, so it all looks more uniform, and then separate them into rank. See? We're a bit behind right now, because there's just so many. Kai's supposed to help me, but-"
"Kai's a dumbass."
Marin made a face, but still only shrugged some.
Taking a longer swig that time, Ravan took to staring down at the requests as she quickly went through them. Most went, of course, in the regular category, which is probably what caused it to happen. The mistake. Marin was separating the rough, sent in copies so she could go back later and transcribe them. She would have caught it, when she went back to transcribe. Her mistake. But Ravan wasn't giong to give her that chance.
As she sat what was clearly marked S-Class in the regular pile, he jumped on it. Not even reading it.
"Can I take a job?" he was asking as he reached over to grab it, being certain that his palm covered the marking her mother had put in the corner denoting it's proper classification. "Before you, uh, write it on a real flier paper? Or whatever?"
"I mean, I guess. No one does because no one ever comes back here, but-"
"It's the one in Incidio Forest," Ravan said, quickly pulling that name from the letter. "Can you file me and your sister for that job?"
"Y-Yeah, I guess I can. Are you leaving right now?"
"In the morning. Can you tell your sister to meet me at the train station? Earliest train out." He quickly pocketed the paper before she had a chance to question him. "Thanks. Marin."
"Of course, Ravan."
The Master was waiting for him, Laxus was, as he left the tiny room where the man could tell his daughter was inside. Just glaring as he stood out there, in the hall. It was bad enough when Ravan hung around his older daughter. He definitely didn't like him around Marin.
But Ravan only greeted his master with something of a bow which was ignored by the man who only snorted. Just as quickly though, he was rushing back to the bar to close out his tab and head home.
Soon enough, he'd be having an epic adventure with his friend. You needed your rest, before that.
Navi wasn't going to get any rest though, that night, as she arrived home to find that the guys had done little more that day than what they were doing when she left.
"How do you guys make so many messes? And I thought you said that you were going to clean up?"
"Don't worry, Navi." Happy paused his very busy time piling all the blankets in the house in the living room, where he and the twins decided, with couch cushions and everyone's pillows, they were going to try and figure out just what the most comfortable mattress in the world felt like. If they couldn't build it, then it didn't exist. "We will clean up. And look, Lucy isn't even- And Lucy's coming in behind you."
"Hi, Mom!"
Both twins shot up from underneath the piles of blankets.
"You're home," they cheered, rushing to greet her.
Lucy was glad to see them too. And Navi was home. And Happy. And she could see Natsu there, on the couch. While the living room was a disaster, it mostly just need to be tidied up. She wasn't panicking. Yet. Navi knew it was coming. Because she was going to go into the kitchen and see-
"I cannot believe," Lucy loudly griped at them all, "that you would think it was fine to leave the kitchen like this."
"I don't see how you don't," Natsu grumbled as she made them all get down there to scrub away at the kitchen floor as she and Navi gathered up all the trash they'd somehow accumulated in the short few hours the girl was at the guild. "Seems exactly like somethin' we'd do."
"We would've cleaned it up," Lucky insisted though his mother only frowned at him. "Honest."
"We just got busy," Iggy was quick to add.
"I probably wasn't going to." Happy wasn't afraid of being honest. "Lucy."
"Yeah, I know, cat."
But Navi didn't see it the way her mother did. As a nuisance, but nothing serious. Her mother was used to it. She might even like it. Having the guys screw up around the house, so that she could rush in and fix the problem with them. It was the reverse of how it was out on jobs for them.
Her daughter didn't enjoy this side of things. The constant back and forth. It was fun, when she was little, like her brothers were now, because she was always paired up on the devious side, with her father. Not anymore. Not now that she had such a strong sense of, you know, knowing it was wrong to fucking destroy the apartment just for shits and giggles. She used to think the reason she liked her father so much, when she was a kid, was because he and her were so alike. But it wasn't true. She was much closer to being her mother. But the constant looking after the man had long grown old for her.
"It's nothin' to get upset about, Navi," Natsu assured her with a grin as, after Lucy found they honesty had emptied out their meager fridge in their gross food competition, the woman stormed off, cleaning she was going to bed. Which was hard to do with no pillows or blankets, but Lucy disappeared anyways, into the bedroom, and didn't come back out. The man could tell, as always, that his wife's attitude was shifting over to his daughter's and he couldn't deal with it, when they were both pissy at him all at once. "We'll get it all clean up, at least, by midnight."
"Yeah, Navi." Happy had a job now, to get the place back in tiptop order so that Lucy wasn't upset (he only liked to edge her close to upset; not topple her right over) and was very diligent with his scrubbing. "Three in the morning at the latest."
Which sounded great to the twins. They were kinda bummed their mom was so upset too, but at the same time, it was becoming sort of a game, the cleaning up was, as their father told them he'd buy ice cream tomorrow for whoever did the best job.
Joke was on them. As the judge, he'd definitely choose himself.
"What else do you gotta do, Navi?" Natsu asked and he didn't mean it, how she took it, but he still only shrugged some. "It's not like you go on jobs or nothing anyways. Nothing to get up for tomorrow for any of us."
"Except," Lucky reminded, "the best cleaner."
Except.
Still, it was sometime after midnight before they all fell into their beds and Happy had taken to sleeping with the twins more than Navi, which she preferred as, alone in her room, she didn't have his snores to keep her up. No, that night it was something else that bothered her. Kept her up.
But nothing kept Haven up, who slept with ease. Marin told her that night, when she and Locke arrived at the bar to drink and carry on after his mother's dinner, to meet Ravan before sunrise the next morning, at the train station. That must mean her gift would be waiting there.
Anticipation didn't keep the girl up though. Oh, no. It lulled her right off, where she could only dream of what great, grand thing she could expect the next morning.
"A job?" she complained when she found Ravan there, waiting, with it in hand. Locke was there too, which was annoying. Ravan tried not to let it show how much it bothered him and only tugged his bandanna over his mouth the second he saw the other guy. "I can get a job on my own, Ravan."
"Not this one."
"What do you mean?"
They were standing alone, he and her were, as Locke, at Haven's direction, hung back. It was actually a bit chilly that morning out and he was kind of hating that he'd even gotten up for that. A job. He was very annoyed as he bounced around, hands in his pockets, wishing he'd just stayed asleep.
"Look." Pulling it from his pocket, he showed it off to the girl who seemed rather unimpressed. "I snagged it before it even got tacked up."
"So?"
"So," he said slowly before gesturing to the top where, in her mother's pretty lettering, a giant S laid, "it wasn't officially S-Class yet."
"You… Ravan." She snatched it from him then with a heavy frown. "What did you do? Huh?"
"Nothing. I just asked for a job and was given one by your sister."
"You're going to get her in trouble."
"By who, Haven? Your parents?" He snorted. "Your dad doesn't even punish you guys. She's fine."
"But-"
"As a none S-Class member," the guy started, "I'm not allowed to take a job off the S-Class board. This wasn't tacked up there. It wasn't tacked up anywhere. It-"
"Does Marin know?"
"Nope." He was grinning, she could just tell, from behind his bandanna. "No one does. We can just go have fun on this job and not get in any trouble at all. What's to worry about?"
Locke, unfortunately, Ravan recalled as Haven called him over then. She didn't like to him though, showing off the S-Class marking and Ravan could only glare.
"You're going to get in trouble," he told Ravan who only glared.
"What do you care? Huh?" Ravan challenged the other guy right back. "It's not like you're going."
"Of course he's going," Haven interceded and ugh, was going, wasn't he? "Aren't you, Locke?"
They were both looking at him then and, given that there was no way that he gonna tell on them, but also not going to let Haven leave on such a dangerous mission on her own, yeah, he was fucking going.
"No." Ravan was absolute. "He can't. He-"
"Why do you wanna go alone so bad? Huh?" Locke asked back and bleh.
It was as Ravan was glaring off though that he noticed her, rushing right towards them.
"Navi," he whispered, causing Haven and Locke to turn.
"What are you doing here?" the blonde asked for the boys as the pink haired girl merely stood before her. "Navi?"
"I'm coming with you guys."
Ravan couldn't help it. He turned from them all then, rubbing his palms deep into his eye sockets. Why were they all so fucking annoying?
"How'd you know about it?" Locke asked, still suspicious about the whole thing.
"Well, Ravan said that was getting Haven a job for her birthday and then I heard Marin tell Haven to meet him here, at this time, so-"
"You guys hang out?" That time, Locke was questioning more out of surprise.
"No," both Ravan and Navi answered, not even glancing at one another.
But it made sense to Haven that, if they were, they'd have nothing else to talk about other than her.
Duh.
"Okay," Haven decided, smiling finally as she glanced down at the job in her hands. "You can come, I guess, Navi. And Locke. Ravan. We should all go, anyways. On our first S-Class job alone. Together."
"Our what?" Navi was hung up on that, but Locke noticed something else and as Haven and Ravan rushed off to get tickets for the train, he hung back for a moment, reaching out to snatch at the garment that hung from his friend's neck.
"Where," Locke asked, "did you get your father's scarf? Won't he be kinda pissy? You taking off with it?"
Navi only snatched the bit out of the guy's hand though, continuing on, after their friends. It had come about that morning when, after laying awake most of the night, she'd suddenly decided upon joining Ravan and Haven (and Locke, apparently) on their excursion. As she packed a knapsack and slung it over her shoulders, something held her up. She went and peeked in on her brothers and Happy before in at her parents, finding them all snoozing. Like they should be. Like she should be. But…
She just knew he'd awaken, her father would, as she walked slowly across the floor of her parent's bedroom, but he didn't. Only laid there, snores rivaling Happy's, as she carefully moved to snatch the special scarf his father had given him, all those years ago, that he never went anywhere without. She didn't know what possessed her, but she snatched it up, only wrapping it up around her own neck once she was far from the apartment.
Locke sighed though, kicking at the ground as the others went off. He knew what he should do. Stop them. They were making a mistake. All of them. He couldn't have known what would change, after they climbed onto that train. How things, irredeemably, would never be the same. Haven was ushering in adulthood the same way she did most things; far too fast, soon, and in the worst way possible. But like with everything, he would only go with her, always right there, hardly questioning and not putting a stop to things.
"Where are we even going?" Navi yawned once they all tumbled into their seats, her and Ravan beside one another and Locke and Haven across from them, the latter much closer than the former. "And what's that about S-Class?"
"It's a long story," Ravan grumbled with a glare out the window. Great. Just great. Now he was stuck with both Locke and Navi. Could the day get any worse?
"Incidio Forest," Haven breathed as she glanced over the letter once more though, eyes alight, she looked up at Navi and grinned. "But just stopping there. That's where the client is. But not the job."
"Then where is it?"
"I dunno."
"What do you mean?" She was leaning across the little space between them so she could stare down at the flier as well. "Where are we actually going?"
"To a town," Haven breathed as even Ravan felt his eyes drifting back to her, "with no name."
Ten chapters. More heavy presence of the adults in this one. We're setting the wheels in motion, guys.