AN: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!
Hey! ^_^ Please enjoy this 5th advent calendar ficlet! ^_^
Gajeel shoved the controller under his bed as a shadow passed under his bedroom door. He quickly snatched up his textbook and flipped it open, only just in time for his younger brother to waltz into the room. What did the jerk want now? He ignored his brother as he pretended to focus on his textbook. He had a test tomorrow and he did not need his brother interrupting him.
"Hey, Gajeel, you playing that game again?" Natsu grinned as he leaned forward to get Gajeel's attention.
"No, I've got a test tomorrow." Gajeel growled back as he brought the textbook closer to his face.
"Heh, yeah, right! It's still on your TV, Metalface!" Natsu laughed loudly, earning a shout from their father downstairs.
"Shit!" Gajeel hissed as he grabbed his remote and flicked the TV off. "Just go back to yer own room, Flamebrain." He grumbled, already dreading his brother's comments.
"You're such a geek!" Natsu snorted as he grabbed the textbook. "What's your test on anyway?"
"None of yer business." Gajeel returned as he snatched the book back. "What do ya want anyway?"
"Nothing," Natsu hummed as stretched his arms up above him before resting his hands on the back of his head, "but Dad's looking for you. He says he's going to unplug your TV if you keep wasting all the electricity."
"There's no way in hell I'm using as much damn electricity as he says I do! Tell him to fuck off!" Gajeel snarled as he kicked Natsu in the shin angrily.
"Go tell him yourself, freak." Natsu snapped as he kicked Gajeel back before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.
Gajeel glared bitterly at the door - internally cursing his brother - for a few moments before flicking the TV back on. He had spent the last week trying to find the Fire Dragon Mage again. He had come across him by accident when he had wandered into a bar instead of his guild. He had been about to walk out the bar when he had spotted the Fire Dragon Mage pulling fancy stunts for a Light Fairy. Light Fairies were rare enough, but no-one chose Fire Dragon Mage anymore. When Dragon Mages were introduced as more than just level bosses, the only option was a Fire Dragon Mage. Gajeel could count on one hand the number of them he had seen since the last expansion pack came out two years ago before the company decided to stop making new ones.
He figured he would go say hello to the guy and ask how long he had been playing, but he had accidentally knocked a guy into him. The Fire Dragon Mage was clearly not impressed by some random guy interrupting his light show. The next thing Gajeel knew, he was waking up in his cottage with a Water Fairy hovering over him. He had met her a year earlier when she had wiped out an ogre he had just accepted a mission to kill. She had let him take the item he needed with the request that he left her the rest of the items. Since then she had taken to checking in on him. If it was not for the fact that Water Fairies had a healing ability he would have asked her to leave him alone. As it was, he woke up sooner after someone had lost their patience with him. Normally he won the fights, but not this one.
Damn fire was super effective against his iron.
His defence was through the roof so it took a lot just to scratch him, but with fire attacks? His defensive bonus meant nothing and he was stuck with just his level stats. He had managed to build a decent attack stat, but that meant nothing if his opponent KOed him in one punch. He was glad that the characters respawned in their homes. He had been grateful of RainLadyJL having a weird habit of checking in on him that time. According to her, the Fire Dragon Mage had knocked his health down to zero...which was twenty-five points below conscious. Without healing abilities, it took half an hour to regain one damn health point. Once his character regained consciousness, he could use a potion though.
"BlackSteel?" A quiet voice whispered.
"RainLady." He yawned as he put his headset on and checked his watch. He could still manage another hour of searching without waking up dead in the morning.
"Salamander is back in the pub next to the guild." The woman's voice explained, earning a grin from the studded giant.
"I'll meet ya there." He grinned evilly as he tugged at his tongue piercing with his teeth.
He tapped R2 and his character doubled over in what looked like agony. Two large lumps began to form on his back, pulling the back of his jacket tight, before two inked-iron plated wings burst free from his clothes, ripping his jacket free of his body in the process. His character leant back and gave an almighty roar into the sky as his skin became covered in shiny iron scales. Gajeel took a moment to admire his gigantic, webbed wings as they glinted darkly under the moonlight. He had spent five years getting them this powerful and there was no way he was going to lose an aerial battle! They were thick enough to withstand any attack and strong enough to get him halfway across the known world in ten minutes!
"Think ya can keep him there for four minutes? I've come a bit far out looking for this guy." He mused as he ran the metal ball of his piercing across the edge of one of his canines.
"He is talking to the Light Fairy."
"Good." Gajeel smirked as his character lifted off of the ground.
Within minutes, Gajeel was hovering outside the pub. According to his 'assistant', the Fire Dragon Mage was inside. Gajeel hit circle and his character launched a roar through the roof of the building, only this time it was not one made just of sound. He had just slaughtered almost everyone in the pub with a tornado of iron shrapnel! RainLadyJL walked out of the pub unscathed courtesy of her invulnerability to his attacks. Salamander followed her out with the Light Fairy in his arms.
"I will heal her." RainLadyJL offered, confusing Gajeel for a moment before he realised that the Fire Dragon Mage had began speaking to her. "Juvia will take good care of Lucy, Natsu."
Natsu?
Gajeel ripped his headset off and hit L2, sending his character in a direct flight path home. He could hear RainLadyJL calling to him in confusion but he ignored her. He knew a 'Natsu' and a 'Lucy'. He also knew a 'Juvia' who spoke in third person too. He had stumbled upon his brother and the idiot's group of friends on the very game that the idiot took the piss out of him for playing. Gajeel began to laugh, not bothering to keep his voice down. Oh, this was going to be fun!
Gajeel quietly stood up and left his room, careful not to gain either his father's or Natsu's attention.
"Where the hell did that bastard go?! Luce can't stand after that attack! I'm gonna kill him!" Natsu's voice ranted on the other side of the door.
"What ya playing?!" He exclaimed as he suddenly swung his brother's bedroom door open with a huge, sadistic grin across his face.
"SHIT!" Natsu shouted as he involuntarily jumped two inches off the floor and landed still in his cross-legged position. "What the fuck do you want, Metalface?!"
"Just thought I'd come check on my baby brother." Gajeel sneered as he sauntered into the room with his hands in his pockets. "Is that Fairies and Dragons ya're playing?"
"Tell anyone and you're dead." Natsu glared as his knuckles turned white with the pressure he was putting on the controller.
"Not how it works, moron." Gajeel grinned as he leaned forward so that his face was inches from his brother's. "Stop giving me shit for playing a game that ya play or I tell Dad about how much electricity I'm actually using."
"Deal." Natsu growled, his face a little paler than before.
"Who said I was finished?" Gajeel hummed as he dropped down next to his brother on the floor. "Get me into shit at school again and I tell everyone that ya play as a Fire Dragon Mage in Fairies and Dragons."
"Why is what type of Dragon Mage I am important?" Natsu frowned suspiciously at him before glancing back at the screen.
"Because no-one uses it anymore. Its ability is attack-boost which warrior-types also have, only the warrior-types have a higher percentage boost." Gajeel answered as he took the controller out of his brother's hands and started looking at his character's stats. "Yer stats ain't half bad for yer level, but ya must have gotten a critical hit earlier to do so much damage." He mused as he noted his own bad luck. "Why's Blondie a Light Fairy? The only reason they introduced them was so that there was something to beat the dark-types? Is she a Light Fairy just so that she can heal ya? Most people go for the water even though the ability isn't as good because it's affective against more than just one type."
"I never asked why Luce was a Light Fairy...I only started playing to have an excuse to talk to her." Natsu admitted awkwardly before ripping the controller back out of Gajeel's hand. "Now you've got your stupid blackmail material, why don't you go back to your own little world?" He glared, making Gajeel grin.
"Pass me the other controller." He ordered, putting his hand out.
Natsu warily passed him the other controller and Gajeel turned it on. The console began to whirr and the screen split neatly in half as it gave Gajeel the option to login or play as his brother's guest. He rapidly tapped in his code and found his character standing in front of his house with the inked-iron wings still coming from his shoulder blades.
"IT WAS YOU!?" Natsu roared as he suddenly jumped to his feet.
"Gihe, what are big brothers for?!" He goaded as Natsu stood fuming over him.
"You bastard! You hurt Luce!"
"NATSU DRAGNEEL, DO NOT DARE USE THAT WORD!"
"Gihe, we playing or not?!"
"Stupid Metalface..."
"Flamebrain."
