This is a brief Flare x Lyon friendship story that Eien ni Touko asked me to write after I joked that their ship name would be Flareon. It takes place after Tartaros' defeat, and Fairy Tail's disbandment.
While I was writing this, a song came on that I had never heard before but was created by two of my favorite artists. My jaw dropped as I listened to it, because I feel like it fit what I was writing perfectly. So I greatly suggest it as mood music for this fic. The song is "Glow In The Dark" by tyDi feat Kerli. CHECK IT OUT. The music video for it will break your heart, too. In many ways.
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, or the song mentioned above.
Rusty locks of hair trailed along the windswept snow that the dusted aquamarine ice. Unbound, they flowed freely all around a young woman sitting atop the glacier. Puffs of warm breath in the still air were the only sounds that disturbed the silent night. Blue, silvery moonlight danced across the icy expanse, reflected by the snow and wavering along the surface of dark, jagged rocks.
The aching cold pressed in on the woman with the rusty hair, the only colour to stand out amongst the shifting blues and silvers. It seeped through her crimson cascade of hair, wound its way into her thick winter clothes, and buried under her skin to reside in her very bones.
Unconcerned, she tilted her head back to observe the panorama of stars – swirling and twinkling in the abyss that lay beyond the sky. Beyond the airless, icy dark the spheres of fire cast their light to her distant world. What lay even further, past those flickering orbs? She couldn't even begin to guess.
Her lungs burned with every intake of the frigid air – a sensation she was not accustomed to as a flame mage. The chill crept from her lungs to spread to her spine and extend its tendrils through the parts within her untouched by the cold that sat without. She merely breathed deeper, relishing the intimate touch of winter.
The woman with the rusty locks of hair, streaked with moonlight and bejeweled in the fine, icy crystals an earlier sigh of wind had woven within the strands, might have remained in that single position for the entire night.
"Oh," a voice arose from some distance behind her, "I did not realize anyone else ever climbed to this glacier."
She turned at the slight scuffling that accompanied the man's footsteps as he approached her. "I did not think I would encounter another in this place, either," she breathed out the words in a wispy tendril in the boreal night.
Smiling, the newcomer reached where she sat upon a dark stone. "Do you mind if I join you?"
Shifting away to make room upon the rock, the woman shook her cinnabar hair. "I don't mind."
"My name is Lyon," he introduced himself. "Lyon Vastia. What is your name?"
"Flare," she replied. "Flare Corona."
Reclining, the man grinned at her. "It's nice to meet you, Flare. So what brings you up here? If you don't mind me asking."
The child of flame rolled the question around in her mind for a while, pondering her answer. "Blondie once told me I could see forever hiding behind the stars. I couldn't find it, no matter where I searched – so I climbed as high as I could to get a better view."
Instead of teasing or belittling the woman's odd reason, Lyon seemed to consider it. "Did it work?"
Flare returned her upward, the galaxies and constellations there reflected in her rust-coloured eyes. "I'm still looking."
"I understand."
Surprised, Flare glanced at her companion, appraising the stranger. His hair glowed with the same effervescence as the moon-dusted snow all around them, and in his eyes the ice dwelled, too.
Not intimidated in the least by the intense stare being directed at him, Lyon continued to regard the beautiful woman before him with the same kind gaze he had from the start.
"Why have you come up here?" Flare asked him at last.
A little sheepish, he admitted, "It's my thinking place. I like it for the quiet, the stillness of nights like tonight."
Her eyes darkened with the revelation. "I'm sorry for intruding upon your thinking spot."
Lyon held up his hands in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "No, don't worry about it! You were here first. If anyone is intruding, it is I."
Flare blinked at him, and then smiled. "You are not intruding." Then she shivered.
Concern lit up Lyon's eyes. "Are you cold? You can have my jacket," he offered. "I'm an Ice Make Mage – so I don't actually need it up here."
She shook her head at him, strands of her hair flying with the movement. "No, I'm fine." At his incredulous expression, Flare explained, "I'm a Flame Mage. I don't have to feel the cold – but I want to. It… matches what I feel inside."
Both returning to watching the ocean of stars flowing on currents unseen above their heads.
"I like it here."
Lyon blinked at the sudden statement from his companion and shot a look at her. He was shocked by the glittering crystal resting upon her cheeks.
Teardrops, frozen before they could fall.
"Do you think…" Flare continued, not noticing Lyon's concern. "Do you think the people that we miss look up at the stars and wonder where we are? Just as we do them?"
"Yeah." He didn't ask who it was Flare was referring to.
Flare nodded, her eyes still full of the starry sky. "I hope Blondie, wherever she's traveling, is looking up right now." Words could not convey the depths of her loneliness. The ones who had taught her to love others, who gave her a place to belong, were scattered across the land. Just like the snow upon the ice. Like the stars across the wide sky.
She blinked and a delighted giggle fell from her lips. "I think I see the forever Blondie was talking about!" It was there – no, they were there. Everyone whom she was separated from. The stars shone over them all.
Lyon grinned at her enthusiasm. Although he wasn't sure who the Flame Mage was talking about, he understood the sentiment. "Think you'll be coming back, then?" he asked, trying not to sound too hopeful. The Ice Make Mage would rather like to meet with Flare again, someday.
"I would love to. That is…" Flare finally glanced at Lyon. "That is, if you do not mind sharing your thinking place."
Gently, Lyon reached forward and plucked the scintillating teardrops from her cheeks. "I do not mind in the slightest."
Flare then turned, to Lyon's mind, the most fetching shade of red in the word – the exact same hue as her hair.
Let me know what you guys think of this couple!