Chapter One
I walked in to the building and I was shocked to see that everyone seemed to be fighting. Who knew that school could be so entertaining huh? As I walked past this guy with pink hair who was arguing with some half-naked guy, I heard the doors open behind me. Everyone stopped what they were doing and froze. I turned around to see that someone had just walked in. I'm not sure what the big deal is, but no one has moved since the door opened.
"Gray put some clothes on. Cana don't drink in the hallway. And you, tuck in your shirt."
I raise an eyebrow. Who exactly does this chick think she is? She's definitely a bossy one that's for sure. I look around and see that the half-naked guy, who I'm guessing is Gray, is hastily putting his uniform back on. A girl, Cana probably, threw away a half empty beer bottle. This is weird. Why are they doing what she says? She has to be a student. There's no way that someone that young is a teacher. Plus, no one tells me what to do.
"Who died and made you queen?"
Everyone turns around to look at me. Their mouths drop and I'm surprised when half of them scatter. It isn't until I look down that I realize that the bossy redhead is standing in front of me. She looks up and glares at me, placing her hands on her hips. I have to say that I'm not really that intimidated, maybe that's because she's a good six inches shorter than I am. That looks tells me that I'm standing on thin ice though, but how much can she possibly do?
"I would expect that as a new student, you would follow the rules. Am I wrong in assuming that?"
"Am I wrong in assuming that you're another student and therefore can't tell me what to do, Titania?"
People around me start whispering and I get the feeling that I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. I'm not afraid of shorty here though. She's probably a mage, but so am I. I'd rather not have to fight on my first day, but everyone else was fighting when I walked in. Maybe I won't get in trouble, but I'm not going to throw the first punch just in case. This would probably be a good time to stop with the sarcasm though. Red doesn't seem to like being called "Queen of the Fairies."
"You're new here, so I'll give you one more chance. Tuck in your shirt and comply with the dress code."
Oh this is getting good. I loosen my tie and unbutton my shirt. If having it untucked irritated her, this is going to drive her crazy. She closes her eyes and tightens her fist and I smirk and cross my arms. At this point I'm ready for a fight. It's been awhile since I've had anyone to fight with and some practice would be nice. After all, I'm kind of interested in what power the Queen of the Fairies has. It'd be nice if I knew what kind of magic she used though. Oh wait a minute… shit! Now I recognize her!
I jump backwards just in time to dodge a punch, but the follow up kick catches me right in the ribs causing me to double over. Before she can kick me down the hallway, I roll out of the way and jump to my feet. My ribs protest the quick movement, but right now I don't have the time to give in to pain. I've just pissed off the strongest girl at Fairy Tail Academy and she's ready to kick my ass. Dammit, I just had to pick a fight with one of the strongest students here didn't I?
I jump out of the way and barely avoid being cut in two. This isn't good. I've heard about her skill but I've never actually seen it in action. The nice thing is that our magic is a lot alike except I can't requip any armor. I'm not sure if I can requip as quickly as she can though. I guess I have to try though. I flip backwards and requip a simple broadsword to block her cut. She seems surprised, but only for a moment. She requips her armor and I gulp. Dammit, she's beyond pissed! And she's damn fast too!
I barely manage to block her blows. Choosing the broadsword was a bad idea, I can't counter nearly fast enough. She's got me on the defensive and I can't even move fast enough to try an offensive strike. I keep moving, but she keeps advancing. This is getting bad in a hurry. I jump out of the way, roll and requip a katana. This should be a bit better. Erza swings her sword at me and when I block, my katana breaks in two. Shit! I wasn't expecting that. I drop just in time to pass under the blade, but I can't avoid the kick to my jaw. I go flying down the hallway and land with a crash against the wall. Damn! Shorty can kick!
"I'm sorry about my brother. He can be a bit of a pain at times. I'll make sure that he wears his uniform properly from now on."
I look up and see my sister standing in front of me. Erza requips her school uniform and nods before walking away. Eri turns around and crosses her arm. She glares at me and I sigh. Now I'm really going to get it! If people think Titania is scary, they have no idea. Eri-chan is way scarier and we're twins!
"Why do you have to do that?"
"Do what?"
"Purposely get under people's skin. We're new here; can't you at least behave for a little bit?"
"Whatever."
I stand up and wince. Erza really does know how to kick. Then again I shouldn't have underestimated her. Even I'll admit that picking a fight with the Erza was a bad idea. I'm not usually one to admit when I've messed up, but pissing Erza off was definitely the wrong thing to do. Now I'm going to be walking around with bruised ribs all day. I guess I should be thankful; she probably could have broken every bone in my body if she felt like it.
Eri walks down the hallway and heads to her first class. I roll my eyes and walk in the opposite direction. We don't have any classes together, but that's probably not a bad thing. I doubt that any teacher could handle the two of us at once. Things tend to be interesting when we're stuck in a room together. It would just be chaos. One Imura in a room is enough, but two is asking for trouble. The door to the classroom is open, so I walk in. There's only one other person in the room right now, and frankly I'm terrified.
"Come sit."
I take a deep breath and walk over to sit down beside Erza. She reaches in to her book bag and pulls out a first aid kit. My eyebrows raises as I try to figure out what she's doing. Erza sets the box on the table and turns to face me. She untucks my shirt and then starts to unbutton it. My cheeks start to burn and I decide to exam the leg of the table next to me. Erza chuckles softly as she takes off my tie and pushes my shirt off. I'm not really sure what's going on, but I'm just hoping that she doesn't hit me again.
Erza opens the first aid kit and pulls out some pills. She hands them to me and hand me a water bottle from her book bag. I swallow the pills and keep my arms up as Erza starts wrapping gauze around my rib cage. This is incredibly awkward, but maybe it's only because she's the one that injured me in the first place and now she's treating my wound. That just seems completely strange to me and completely out of character based off of the hard ass redhead I've seen.
"Is that better?"
"Uh… yeah."
Erza smiles and bends over to pick up my shirt from the floor. She rests her hand on my leg and her hair tickles my sides. My mind starts going crazy because it can't decide between "Oh my god, this is completely terrifying," "Oh she's so sweet and maybe she's not a sword wielding demon after all," and "OH MY GOD SHE'S HOT!" I look away to try and hide the blush on my face, but I'm pretty sure she notices anyway. Erza helps me button my shirt and she ties my tie for me, but she (thankfully) allows me to tuck in my shirt by myself. I have a feeling that would have just been incredibly too awkward. My brains already almost ready to explode.
"I'm sorry about that. I can get a bit carried away at times."
"It's alright. I can be a bit of an ass at times."
"I'm noticing that."
"Hey!"
Erza laughs and I smile. Maybe she isn't so bad after all. I'm definitely not going to piss her off again, but at least I don't fear for my life anymore. This doesn't stop my brain from thinking that her laugh is absolutely adorable, but I can deal with that later. I'm not sure how I feel about thinking that she's cute. I'll need more time to think about that. She definitely is good looking though. I'm not sure how I didn't recognize her right away, but I'll never forget her now!
"Just remember to tuck your shirt in tomorrow."
"Whatever you say, Titania!"
Erza rolls her eyes and punches me lightly in the arm. I smile and mentally sigh. This is a good sign. At least she accepts my new nickname! Maybe we can be friends. I wonder if it's possible to learn how to requip armor. That seems like a nice trick to know. Then again, I'd have to come up with a different fighting strategy and I like my style already. Maybe I won't try to learn it. After all, it's kind of nice that she's the only one that can do it. I wouldn't want to ruin that and besides, there's no way that I can compete with the Queen of the Fairies!
"Hey! You're the kid that pissed off Erza! Nice to know that you're still alive."
"Elfman! That's not a very nice thing to say."
"Sorry, sis."
"Hi, I'm Mirajane. What's your name?"
"Uh… Imura Taikedo."
"Imura Taikedo? You must be Eri-chan's brother!"
"Yeah. That's me."
"Well it's nice to meet you, Taikedo."
"Nice to meet you too."
It's nice to know that my sister's already making friends. I'm not surprised though. She has a way with people and her personality is pretty contagious. Her personality tends to annoy me though. She's really nice one second and then really bitchy the next. Or maybe that's just to me. I'm not really sure because I never really associate with any of her friends, but with Fairy Tail Academy being so small it might be hard to avoid her friends. Although Mirajane seems nice enough and from what I've heard, she's a really sweet person. The cutest girl at school too, at least in some people's opinions. She is cute, but I'm still preoccupied with a certain redhead…
"Natsu! You owe me 1,000 jewels!"
"What?!"
"Erza didn't kill him!"
"Dammit!"
"Wait a second, did you bet that Erza was going to kill me?"
"I didn't, but Natsu did!"
I look around and see the pink haired guy from this morning. He was the one that was arguing with Gray. Well maybe I'll have to show him just how strong I am sometime. If he thinks Erza was going to kill me, he obviously doesn't know her that well. Then again, neither do I, but I'm new and the Erza that treated my injury wouldn't ever kill a classmate. She just seems too nice to do that.
"By the way, my name is Lucy!"
"Taikedo. Nice to meet you, Lucy."
"Nice to meet you too, Taikedo."
Lucy smiles at me before walking off to sit beside Mirajane and Elfman. I notice the keys dangling on her hip and I realize that she must be one of those Celestial Spirit mages I've heard about. The last time I checked, there weren't many of them left. At least not really good ones. I wonder how strong she is. She has more than one golden key (I think those are the important ones) which might mean that she's either strong or just really lucky. I guess I'll find out eventually. If the paper is anything to go by, FTA never stays out of trouble for very long. Although, I do hope that we can at least get through this week without any problems. I've already had my ass kicked once and I don't want that to happen again.
School is finally over! I walk out of the building and start to walk towards home. Eri is going out with Mirajane and Lucy so I've got the apartment all to myself for a few hours. I'm probably going to end up unpacking everything, but I actually don't mind. It's kind of nice to know that we can actually get settled in for once. It's been awhile since we've actually stayed anywhere and I think that Magnolia is going to be good for us. Eri's already making friends and I'm enjoying school for the most part. I do have Swordsmanship 101 with Erza to look forward to everyday!
I get to the apartment and see Eri, Mirajane, Lucy and Erza all sitting on the couch. Eri waves at me before going back to talking about her classes with Mirajane. I'm not really all that interested in the conversation so I decide to walk to the fridge for a snack. When I turn the corner, I see that Cana is standing at the fridge trying to find something. She's looking for booze if I had to guess. Unfortunately, Eri doesn't allow booze in the apartment. It's a shame really.
"There isn't any in there."
Cana turns around and groans. It makes me laugh. I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone that attached to alcohol, especially not someone that's around my age. Eri told me that she was eighteen, I think. That would make her a year younger than me, but still. Speaking of, someone mentioned that Erza is nineteen as well which makes me wonder why she's still in high school. I know why I am, but why is she. Hmm… Now I'm curious. Then again, I haven't known her long enough to ask, so I guess that question will have to wait.
"What are you looking for, Tai-kun?" Eri asks.
"Food!"
"We don't have any, remember? That's what we need to do tonight."
"Gah!"
I close the fridge and mope back into the small living room area. Erza chuckles at me as I flop down on to the floor. Eri rolls her eyes, but I ignore her. I'm tired and hungry and all I really want to do is eat and sleep so that I can nurse my wounds. My ribs still burn like no other and I'm pretty sure that tomorrow is going to be even worse. Right now I'm not sure if I'll be able to walk. What's worse is that I have Hand-to-Hand Combat tomorrow and Erza's in that class as well. Another time where she can kick my ass, and have permission to do so!
I close my eyes and sigh. It's been a long day, a fun day, but really long. Maybe I should have gotten more sleep last night. I didn't sleep at all actually. The only thing keeping me awake right now is the residual caffeine from the gallon of coffee I had this morning. Eri laughed at me the whole way to school. She thought that it was hilarious that I was depending on coffee to keep me sane. I think she was just being mean. It's not my fault that I was nervous and excited about school starting!
Someone sits down next to me and starts to run their fingers through my hair. I sigh and gently push my head against their hand. This has to be the most relaxing thing ever. There's just something about it that makes everything go numb and I love it. The only problem is that it makes me really sleepy and I don't really need any help in that department right now. Whoever is playing with hair is really good at it. Not too rough but not too gentle either. Just how I like it actually.
The person lifts my head up and then repositions so that my head is in their lap. This is comfortable, but I'd really like to know whose lap my head is in. I'm pretty sure that it isn't Eri. She doesn't usually play with my hair unless I'm really stressed out. I don't think it'd be Lucy or Mira considering I only talked to them once today. So that leaves Erza and Cana. I actually had two classes with both of them and Cana and I snuck out of school to go have a drink during lunch. I don't smell any booze though, so I'm guessing that it isn't Cana. Which means that Erza is playing with my hair and for some reason that makes it even better, but also unsettling. I'm not sure why though.
"Watch out, Erza. He'll fall asleep like that if you aren't careful." Eri warns.
"I'm not worried about that. If he needs to sleep, then he should. We did plan on being here for a while."
Wait a second. What's that supposed to mean? "Being here for a while" doesn't sound good. It sounds strangely like "sleep over" and that sounds really disturbing. Maybe it's because I'm the only guy in an apartment full of girls, but I don't know. Then again the idea that my two new friends, Erza and Cana, would be staying in my apartment sounds like fun, but sort of awkward at the same time. Sometimes I hate having a sister. I always end up being the only guy in the group and then things get weird. One time I ended being tied up and I was forced to wear makeup. I really don't want to repeat that situation.
"So what's going on tonight?"
I crack one eye open and look at Eri. She gives me a mischievous smirk and suddenly I'm terrified. This can't be good. What on earth has my evil twin planned? And why do I get the feeling that it's going to be really bad for me? That is not a nice look. That is a "We're going to torture you all night for fun" look and I am not excited! Maybe I should go to a bar for the night. I'm sure Cana would join me. I don't know if Erza would though. She doesn't seem to approve of Cana drinking so I doubt it. Hmm… this night is going to be rough.
"Some of the guys are coming over later and we're going to have a party."
Oh god. This can't be good. I'm almost one percent sure that this is going to be a night of Truth-or-Dare, Seven Minutes in Heaven (or Hell depending on who you get stuck with), and Spin the Bottle. This is definitely going to be a night that I'll never forget. If it goes wrong or if it goes well. My sister is the epitome of evil and I can't believe that we're related. How does she always manage to drag me in to this?
"You can have a beer or two if you want."
Okay. Maybe I won't remember this night after all. I guess we'll just see how it goes!