Hello again, everybody and merry Christmas! :D
First of all, thank you for your nice reviews, I really appreciate them :)
And now enjoy~
The loud ring of a bell was heard in Magnolia, catching the attention of the town's residents.
"Gildarts!" Natsu screamed with a wide grin on his face and jumped up from the wooden bench he was sitting on.
"You want to challenge him again? Just give it up already," the ice-maker commented and leisurely took another sip from his drink.
"No way! Today I'm gonna beat him for sure! I'm all fired up!" came the eager response from the dragon slayer while he looked impatiently towards the doorway of the guild; both of his hands were already on fire.
As soon as Gildarts appeared in the entrance, Natsu rushed over to him and launched an attack with his fists. The s-class mage, however, send him flying through the ceiling with only a little movement of his arm.
"That was fast… like always," Lucy muttered and just now noticed the person that was standing beside the tall man. "Huh? Mira-san? But you are…" With confusion written all over her face, the blonde-haired woman turned around to see Mira serving one of the customers a drink. "But you are… there. There are two Mira's?"
"Oh no, Lucy. I'm the Edolas Mira. Nice to see you again or to meet you for the first time, everyone," the white-haired woman introduced herself and waved at the others with a bright smile.
"Edolas Mira? Why? How?" Gray asked, looking just as shocked as his friends.
"Hahaha! I know how you feel! I was just as surprised when I met her on my way here!" Gildarts started grinning and laughing while putting his hand on Mira's shoulder.
++++++ Flashback ++++++
Crossing the forest that was in front of Magnolia, Gildarts suddenly spotted a familiar white-haired woman, who desperately looked around, seeming unsure of where to go. Deciding to play the knight in shining armor, the man walked up to her.
"Hey, Mira! What are you doing here?"
The woman in a purple top and a matching, long skirt looked a bit frightened at the tall figure in front of her and made a step back.
"Who are you?"
"Hm? What, now you don't recognize me? It's me, Gildarts!" the man replied, surprised by Mira's strange behavior.
"Gildarts? Ah, don't tell me… You are Cana's father?" Realization hit the woman, causing her to slowly calm down and feel more comfortable in the man's presence.
"Yes, of course I am. What's wrong with you, Mira? You hit your head or something?"
"No, I'm the Mira from a parallel world. From Edolas."
"Edolas?"
++++++ Flashback end ++++++
"And when she told me that she wanted to the guild I decided to escort her here."
"But that doesn't explain how she was able to come here in the first place," Lucy interrupted and looked questioningly at the still smiling woman beside Gildarts.
"Well, the Edolas technology is far enough now that we can travel to Earthland for one day, though we need permission from the king to use it. When I told him that I wanted to see my sister and her friends again, he gave his approval," Edolas Mira explained calmly.
"Wait, then that means… Edolas Gray could come here, too?!" Juvia asked full of hope, gaining a nod from the white-haired woman. This caused the water mage to frantically scream in joy and drool at the idea of two topless Gray's standing right and left from her, both confessing their eternal love to her. Earthland Gray, however, sighed at her actions in annoyance.
"Edolas Mira-nee?"
Lisanna, her older sister and her brother joined the group at the entrance now, all three with a look of surprise on their faces.
"Lisanna!" Edolas Mira shouted full of joy and hugged the other woman with tears in her eyes. "Oh, I missed you so much!"
"Y-yeah, me too, but… what are you doing here?"
After quickly explaining everything, the group decided to celebrate Mira's visit, so they sat down at one of the tables – with Lisanna sitting between the two Mira's - and started to drink, talk and laugh together.
Natsu soon returned from his flying trip and joined the party as well. He and Happy jumped on the next table and began to dance, animating the rest of the guild to party, too.
"What is going on here?" Erza asked, suddenly appearing behind the Earthland Mira and hugging her from behind. "Edolas Mira, you are here?"
"Yes, I wanted to visit you all," the white-haired woman answered with a bright smile, while the Earthland Mira greeted the red-haired woman with a short kiss on the lips.
"Welcome back," she said happily, while standing up so that Erza could sit down on the bench and she on the other woman's lap, wrapping her arms around the neck of the requip mage in the process.
"So you two really are a couple now!" Edolas Mira noticed cheerfully. "I'm so glad everything worked out for you two!"
"Yes and it's all thanks to Edolas Erza," the transformation mage replied. "So how did things turn out between you two?"
"Well…" the white-haired woman started, but got interrupted by a loud voice coming from the entrance.
"Mira!"
With quick steps, Edolas Erza walked up to the table and eventually stopped in front of the Edolas Mira.
"Why did you go to Earthland without telling me?! What if someone attacks you here while you're all on your own?" Knightwalker started in her rage, ignoring the surprised gazes of the Fairy Tail mages.
"I'm sorry, Erza, it was kind of a spontaneous idea. But as you can see I'm just fine," Edolas Mira answered still smiling and offered the other woman to sit down next to her. The red-haired woman hesitated at first, but then motioned Mira to stand up so that they ended up in the same position as the Earthland couple.
"Wow, now we have two Erza-Mira couples. Feels kind of funny," Lisanna commented with a grin while looking to her right and then to her left, both times seeing the same picture.
"Well I guess that answers what happened between you two…"
"Yeah, but it was definitely not easy," Knightwalker answered her counterpart, thinking back to the time when she first met her girlfriend.
++++++ Flashback ++++++
After she had entered the plant-like Fairy Tail building, the whole guild became silent. Dead silent. All gazes were aimed at her, watching her every step while she slowly walked to the bar, where the person of her interest was standing. Most of the gazes were angry ones, but to her relief the one she got from Mira was just one of plain surprise.
Eventually she stopped in front of the white-haired woman.
"Mira," the red-haired woman started in a calm voice. "Can we talk?"
Considering the tense atmosphere in the room, she needed to be alone with her in order to start anything between them. However, before the other woman was able to answer, Lucy interfered.
"What are you doing here, Erza? You apologized to us, but that doesn't mean that we can just all be friends now and pretend that nothing happened. Leave our guild and never come back here!"
The other guild members assembled behind the blonde-haired woman to emphasize her words and back her up. It was clear that they were prepared to use violence if she wouldn't conform. With that, Erza had no other choice than to leave. So after one last look at the beautiful woman in front her, she turned around and went for the exit.
After that incident the red-haired woman had been secretly waiting around the guild, always with a safe distance between them. She didn't want to give up just now, so she hoped to see Mira alone sooner or later. That is, if the white-haired woman was actually willing to talk with her. If not, she would probably stay in the guild for at least the rest of the day to make sure not to meet her.
But to her joy, about an hour later Mira left the building alone, looked around for a bit and then went into the forest behind the guild. Knightwalker quickly followed her, careful not to be seen by anyone.
When the white-haired woman finally stopped on a clearing quite a few meters away from the building, Erza decided to show herself.
"Mira," she said while slowly walking up to the other woman.
"What do you want to talk to me about, Erza?"
There didn't seem to be any fear in her voice or appearance. She was calmly standing there, looking at the person in front of her questioningly.
"I want to get to know you better."
"Why?"
"Because you are beautiful."
A surprised expression was once again on Mira's face, this time together with a blush.
"Uhm… okay," she answered still a bit insecure with the situation and sat down near one of the trees around them, with Knightwalker following her and sitting down next to her.
An awkward silence started between them, as neither of them was sure how to start. Erza looked at the ground in front of her and desperately tried to find the right words, the right questions, but she was so nervous that thinking seemed pretty difficult to her right now. Why was she so extremely tense all of the sudden? She hadn't been that nervous when she was around Earthland Mira.
"So… how is your guild doing right now?" she finally managed to get out and looked up to her right, where the white-haired woman was sitting.
"Fine… much better than a few years ago," Mira replied with a little smile while looking at the ground. "What are you doing now after the rebuilding of the town has been finished? Do you still work in the castle?"
"Yes, I'm working for the new king now, though of course it's a completely different job than with the old king," Erza started and told the other woman more about her work at the palace.
With that the two women stayed some time on the clearing, talking about their current lives, their past and their thoughts. After some time of talking their nervousness became less and they noticed that they got along really well, thus they wanted to meet again.
The following weeks they met as often as possible, of course without the knowledge of the guild. But when they finally became a couple, it was time to let the others know about them.
They decided for the bluntest way by entering the guild while holding hands. Everyone looked at them in shock, though that was nothing compared to the expression after the two women kissed. Lucy wanted to protest, but was at a loss for words. Thus, Mira took the chance to explain their relationship and convince the others that they should try to forgive Erza. The guild members quickly realized that Mira truly loved the former Fairy Hunter, so they eventually gave in and allowed Erza in the building, even if it was just for the sake of their friend.
The first time after that was still not easy, though. Whenever Knightwalker entered the guild to visit her girlfriend, all the other members were watching her cautiously. Only over time and with Mira's ideas for regular game parties together, did the guild gradually warm up towards the red-haired woman and vice versa.
++++++ Flashback end ++++++
"I see," Earthland Erza commented with a warm smile.
"Hey, hey!" Gildarts interrupted the conversation between the women with a big grin on his face and a half empty pub with beer. "If all of you look so similar why didn't you recognize me, Mira?"
"Oh, not all counterparts look so similar", the woman answered with a cheerful smile. "And your counterpart certainly looks different. You know, the Edolas Gildarts is a businessman and has thus not half as much muscles as you do. Besides, he's not really talented and went bankrupt pretty quickly so he acts almost constantly gloomy and isolated when he visits the guild."
"He's a loser?!" the tall man screamed in shock and annoyance, while Natsu started to laugh maniacally.
"Bwahahaha! Edolas Gildarts is a loser! Hahaha!"
"You're one to talk…" Lucy mumbled, remembering how timid and useless Edolas Natsu had been when he wasn't in his car.
"Natsu! How dare you laugh about my loser-counterpart?!" Gildarts yelled angrily and punched the dragon slayer into the next wall.
"You're even calling him a loser yourself, though…" Gray commented, but nonetheless grinned at the sight of the firemagic-user being smashed into the wall.
"Well then, I guess it's time for us to leave again. It's already evening", Knightwalker said calmly and stood up from the bench, together with her girlfriend.
"Yes, you're right. Though I am really going to miss you, Lisanna!" Edolas Mira added while tears started to form in her eyes again.
"I will, too, Mira-nee. But I'm sure we will see each other again. You can come by any time you want", Lisanna answered and gave her Edolas sister a hug, which the other woman happily returned.
After a quick exchanging of farewells, the two Edolas women finally left the building and went back to the gate to their world. Gildarts wanted to play the knight in shining amore once more and intended to escort them back, but drunken as he already was Cana quickly held him back as she would be worried about the two women with him in that state.
"That was such a nice day", Edolas Mira said after letting out a content sigh and snuggling up to the side of the red-haired woman.
"Yes, indeed. But why didn't you tell your sister that Elfman got a girlfriend? Wouldn't she want to know it?"
The white-haired woman chuckled slightly at the question before answering with a small grin.
"Well, I could… but the Earthland versions of my brother and his girlfriend were so cute together when they quarreled at the party that I didn't want to disturb them… and I'm sure I would have if I had told Lisanna."
That caused the other woman to chuckle as well.
END