Starlight Nights

And I said, "Oh my, what a marvellous tune"

It was the best night, never would forget how we moved.
The whole place was dressed to the nines,
and we were dancing, dancing
like we're made of starlight, starlight

Taylor Swift – Starlight

~ Night One ~

The club was as new as it was popular among the young people of Magnolia and everyone who was young and in mood for a party was there that Friday Night. Carpe Noctem as the club was called was one glittering and gleaming paradise with the booming music and the fancy dressed teenagers who danced and laughed with their friends. And in the middle of the club was Laxus Dreyar, bored out of his mind and in no mood to attend the stupid party any longer. But it was his friend's birthday and Evergreen would murder him if he were to show his discomfort on Fried's birthday. Talking of the birthday boy, he was currently chatting with some white-haired girl while Bixslow was leaning onto his friend while he talked to another white-haired girl but this one had her hair short and seemed to be generally more on the tomboyish side of life. Laxus snorted, attracting Evergreen's attention and the glare she threw him was anything but nice.

He turned away and made his way through the crowd until he went upstairs were the terrace was hidden under glittering snow. For some reason, the glitter annoyed him even more than the stupid music with its always meaningless lyrics and the predictable melodies. He sighed deeply. To him, and he knew a thing or two about music, a song simply could not be great if he could sing along after hearing the first few stanzas.

He was not alone on the terrace. A young girl, maybe a few years younger than him, sat on the railing, staring into the starry distance and sipping on her drink. She paid no attention to him but there was an air of sadness, bitterness and regret surrounding her. Laxus was terrible with feelings since he had been raised by his grandfather because of his father's crime (he had never figured out what Ivan – he had always called his own father by his first name – had done but from what his grandparents had let slip along the years, he had figured out that it was somehow connected to his mother, the woman he had never met) but he had not to be capable of reading people the way his grandfather read them with ease because there was a tear, shiny and crystal clear, on the girl's cheek and even Laxus knew that happy people did not cry in silence. They cried when they were laughing so hard that they could hardly stand it any longer and this girl was not crying.

She turned her head, looking at him with empty eyes before she nodded, acknowledging his presence but she stayed silent for a moment as she closed her purpleish blue eyes.

Laxus did not talk with strangers. It had taken his friends, Fried, Evergreen and Bixslow, months until he had answered or generally reacted to their questions. And yet, he found himself crossing the terrace and sitting down on the very same railing, holding out a handkerchief for her to take.

She accepted and smiled a faint smile into his general direction. "Thanks," she muttered.

He shrugged. "My grandmother raised me well," he stated plainly. "No gentleman would let a lady alone, sitting on a railing and crying while everyone else is enjoying the party."

She laughed bitterly. "Yeah, no gentleman," she agreed with him before she ran a hand through her curly hair. The gesture did not seem as flirty and seductive as it might have seemed under different circumstances. If anything, it seemed very frustrated and partly annoyed.

"Relationship trouble?" he guessed. "Not that it would be my business, of course…"

"He was not supposed to show up," she muttered, wiping away the tears she suddenly shed. "Not here, not today. It's really difficult to explain this but … of all the places where I would never want to meet him … this is Mira's party today. I can't go away – she would murder me but … dear Mavis, why today and why here?"

"Let me guess: your ex-boyfriend is here after you broke up with him, cheating might have been involved but I am not sure about that one yet. You are angry because he talked to you and your tears are not sad but angry tears," he concluded. "You want to leave as you said so yourself but you fear that Mira – your friend – might be mad at you … so you never told anyone what happened."

She nodded. "That was a brilliant conclusion," she said. "Not something I'd expect from someone who is dressed in designer clothes and speaks with a hint of Era-accent, betraying that he did not always live here in Magnolia," she added with an afterthought.

"You don't speak like you are from around here either," he shrugged. "Crocus, I gather?"

She nodded. "Exactly," she nodded. "But while you seem to fit in with the crowd down there from your clothes, I'd assume that you are more on the Rock'n'Roll side of life…"

"And classic rock, yeah," he confirmed. "That's not my music down there to be honest."

"Neither it's mine," she shrugged. "But, nah, it's the party because of Mira's success and so I will stay … even though I heard of a really nice club around here. That's where I am usually."

"Oi, Booze Chick," a tall, black-haired man with a generous amount of piercing declared as he appeared in the door. "Scarlet and Fernandez have been searching you for hours."

A short and petite girl with sky-kissed hair threw him a glare. "Gajeel, that's not even true," she scolded. "Erza and Jellal are looking for Lucy and Natsu but they are probably making out somewhere. Anyway, you might want to come back. We are leaving soon – well, if Mira manages to say goodbye to the guy she's flirting with right now. Remember how we promised your father that we would bring you home punctual because of tomorrow's events? No? Well, we remember."

"Time to say goodbye to the guy you met," the man called Gajeel said as he held out the coat he had been carrying. "We got to leave before a certain someone can change her mind of going."

"Alright," she said as she took the coat. "Goodbye, stranger," she added with a wave and along with her friends, she disappeared from the door to vanish amidst the dancing crowd.

"Interesting…" Laxus muttered – and realised that he did not even know her first name.