He was quiet as we got off the train. As we walked through the station he put his arm around me, keeping me close to him. I looked around. "Are we going to get the tents first?"

He shook his head. "We're going to get you a coat first, then your books."

I nodded. "I'll pay you back for them."

He shook his head as he scoffed. "Don't worry about it."

I looked up at him. "I'm paying you back one way or another."

He looked down at me. "You don't need to."

I nodded. "Yes, I do. If you won't let me pay you back from my part of the pay then how will you let me?"

He just chuckled. "Don't worry about it. You're not going to want to pay me back when I start training you."

I looked at him. "Why not? I pretty much asked for it."

He just smirked. "You'll see."

I sighed as I looked around. "What will my training entail?"

He shrugged. "Don't know yet."

I looked up at him to see him looking around, but he wasn't relaxed like in Magnolia or on the train, he was watching for something. "Laxus, you know they all are probably either fixing their guild hall or in Magnolia, right?"

He shrugged but didn't say anything. I started poking him in the side. "Stop being so serious. It'll be fine. If you're that worried about them, we can-"

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

I looked toward a little path between shops, then looked at Laxus to make sure I wasnt the only one that heard it. He was instantly going toward it. "Stay-"

I started running ahead. "No."

I slowed down as I came up to a corner, hearing someone trying to put up a fight. As I peeked around, I saw a woman trying to keep her purse from getting stolen. Taking a few steps back, I pulled the top of my shirt down so it was right on the edge of my bra, made one side of my shorts sit below my hip bone, and messed up my hair some as I looked at Laxus and dropped my bag at his feet, muttering "Stay here" as I slowly stepped out, my right hand being held up to cover my guild mark. I let my eyes go wide as I spoke with a shaky voice. "What are you doing to her...?"

They both looked at me, the woman seeming relieved yet worried while the man just got a smirk as he dropped her bag, making her throw herself into the brick wall behind her. I looked at her past the man. "Are you alright?"

She nodded as she frantically held onto her bag. I looked at him, searching him for any form of weapon and noticing a knife in his hand. Letting my act fall away, I took a breath as I focused on my powers from Acnologia, dark energy radiating from my body as ran at him. I quickly closed the space between us, and he went to throw a punch. I brought my arm up to block it as I punched him in the gut, following up with a kick to the shoulder as he bent over. I noticed a sudden increase in energy in the air, and glanced back to see only our two bags behind the wall. Where did he go?

I looked back to see him moving to stab me, and I brought my right arm up in front of me, the blade cutting into my arm as I growled at the pain and used my magic to increase my strength as I gave him a front kick, sending him flying into the wall, his knife being dropped between us. I ran at him, focusing the energy into my speed and arm as I ran at his staggering form. As I got to him, I punched him in the side of the head and he fell over, sliding on the ground a bit but not getting up. Taking a deep breath, I dispersed my magic as I turned to look at the woman. Laxus was standing in front of her, now helping her up as I walked over to her. "Are you alright, miss?"

She nodded, smiling as she looked at. "Thank you, I don't know how you did that but you really showed that punk."

I smiled as she started quickly walking back to the main road, and I looked at Laxus. He was frowning at my arm. I brought my arm in front of me to look at the cut, blood dripping down my hand and arm. It was on the outer side of my arm, starting at the base of my wrist and going half way down. I closed my eyes as I focused on my powers again, black light coating my entire forearm as black scales covered the skin. "It'll take longer to heal like this, but it'll stop the bleeding at least."

He didn't seem like he believed it was an effective way to take are of it, but didn't address it. "You weren't doing too bad until you looked away from him. That wouldn't have happened if you didn't get distracted."

I sighed. I thought I didn't do too bad. "Well you shouldn't have done whatever it was you did to get over here then. You had to know I would've noticed something."

We walked over to grab our bags as we went back to the main road. "You can't let yourself get distracted. You don't have the reflexes to be able to shift focuses like that and not get hurt."

I pursed my lips as I looked down and fixed my cloths. "I used my powers didn't I? I had some sort of plan didn't I? Is that not good enough for you to at least acknowledge that?"

He scoffed. "And what was your plan?"

I gave him a hard look. "To get his focus off of her. To take his attention off her and distance between them so she didn't get hurt. If I make myself the target, she gets out of harms way. How is that a bad plan?"

He just stopped and looked at me. "You thought about it more than I thought."

I nodded. "Yeah. It may not have been a great plan but she didn't get hurt."

We continued walking in silence for a bit. I kept looking at all the different stores, and one caught my eye. It was down a path between the stores and was dark inside. I started walking toward it. "What's this one?"

He looked in the windows. "I don't know, it doesn't look like something we should go in though."

I opened the door and instantly felt a chill from the dark energies in the room. "Then wait out here."

I walked in, and he stood by the door. I just rolled my eyes at him. Its not like anything could happen in here. It looks like a book store with some antiques and nicknacks. I headed to the book shelves, not noticing the shop keeper. "Hey little girl, this isn't the kind of shop you can just walk into."

I turned to look at him, an emo looking guy with piercings all up his ears, his nose, and lip. "Then what kind of shop is this?"

He hesitated when he met my gaze, obviously concerned about something. "What kind of mage are you?"

I went to looking at the books. They were all some sort of dark magic, and while I was concerned, I kept looking. "You don't want to know."

Not finding anything relevant, I looked at the higher up shelves. Once I looked over the title of one, I could feel my entire body tense. The door opened, I know it was Laxus because there was no hesitation to him heading my way. "What's the matter?"

I tried to pull the book off the shelf, not able to reach it. He chuckled as he grabbed it for me, then he read the title and went silent. I took it from him, making sure I read it right. Acnologia, The Black Dragon. I looked over at the guy at the counter before I started flipping through, finding various information on Acnologia, the magics he used, spells, and information about Zeref and The Book of Zeref. "Where did you get this?"

He came out from behind the counter. "That isn't supposed to be on shelves. It was in a safe last time I was here."

I looked back up at the shelves again by where this was, pointing at another book to have Laxus pull it down for me. Black Magics. Flipping through some of the spells and text, it seemed similar to my powers from Acnologia in some ways, others were much darker, creepier.

The clerk tried to take them both from me but I held them against my chest. "I'm taking them one way or another."

He just stopped, looking from me to Laxus and back. "What does Fairy Tail want to do with those books?"

I scoffed as I looked back up at the shelf, feeling like I'm missing something. "Its not Fairy Tail, its me."

I slowly walked down the shelf as I skimmed the titles, not seeing anything else as I shook my head.

He shook his head. "Then get them outta here. I'll charge you only 100 jewel just get them out."

Laxus gave him the money as I put them in the main pocket of my bag with my cloths, underneath some shirts. I looked at him. "Thank you for your cooperation."

As we left, Laxus sighed. "Well, you actually managed to find not only one, but two books that could be useful."

I nodded. "Who would have thought these would exist?"

He nodded. "Do you want to find any other books?"

I shook my head. "This will be plenty, thank you."

He nodded, his arm wrapping around my waist and pulling me next to him. We walked in silence for a bit until he started leading us to a clothing store. "Pick what ever you want."

He held the door open for me and all I can see are racks and racks of cloths. "What should I look at?"

He shrugged. "Pick a light coat and a heavy coat."

I slowly nodded, not entirely understanding until I walked between two racks, one with very poofy coats, and one with sleek coats. "If you help look it could go faster."

He just shrugged. I shook my head as I walked over to a rack. I grabbed a small and put it on. As I did the few buttons over my stomach and chest, I saw it went a couple inches above my knees with a hood. Looking over into a mirror, it was very form fitting, but had enough stretch to not really hinder my movement. I looked to Laxus and he smirked at me and nodded. I nodded as I took it off and hung it back on the hanger. He took it and grabbed the rest of the smalls on the rack, meaning he was carrying around seven coats. I just looked at him. "Why?"

He shook his head. "With the work we tend to do sometimes, voluntary or not, you'll want extras for when they get ruined."

I nodded as I moved on. I decided to make this faster I grabbed the same style in a warmer material, the only difference being this one goes a few inches above my ankle and has a zipper going from mid thigh to the base of my neck, and the material itself was thicker. He seemed to notice I made up my mind and grabbed all the smalls of this as well, that number being nine. I shook my head at him as he headed to the register. "How do you expect me to get all those to fit in my bag?"

He shrugged. "I don't. You're going to take one and then I'll have the rest shipped to the guild for me."

I hummed in approval. "I didn't know you could do that."

He nodded as he set all sixteen coats on the counter. The woman just looked at him and shook her head, totaling up the bill. After she scanned the first lighter coat, Laxus took it and gave it to me. I pulled the tag off and put it on, not bothering with the buttons. "Thank you. You didn't have to do all this."

He smirked as he dug around in his pocket and pulled out his lacrima. He handed it to me. "Why don't you go talk to Mira while I finish this up?"

I took the glowing lacrima, focusing some magic into it as I walked away. She appeared above the crystal, as smiley as ever. "Hi Amy! I didn't expect you to answer! How are you doing?"

I smiled back at her as I stood in front of the store. "Pretty good. What about you?"

She giggled. "Great! Everything has been set up at the village for you two and they know you're both on your way. How is everything between you two?"

She raised her eyebrow, a devious smirk coming over her lips as she looked at me. I looked away. "Fine, I guess."

"I hear things sure are fine with you two."

I looked at her. "Who said what?"

She giggled, hearts forming in her eyes. "Natsu was talking about how you found your mate."

I growled as Laxus came out. I didn't think we would've wanted it to be out in the open so soon, I didn't. "I guess just kicking him doesn't get the message across."

He looked at me. "What did Natsu do?"

I looked at him. "He told the guild."

He tensed. "I'm gonna kill him. What do you want Mira?"

She giggled. "I just called to let you know everything is all set up for you two at the village."

He gave her a hard look. "What did you tell them."

She just giggled and ended the call. I sighed as I gave him back his lacrima. "What ever we were betting on Mira having them set up one room, I'm withdrawing my involvement because I'm going to lose."

He chuckled as he started to walk off. "It'll be fine, I'm sure."

I glanced up at him. "You don't think its weird or anything that she essentially just told us she is having us share a room?"

He shrugged, looking around. I could see a pink tint on his cheeks. "Well... How bad could it be?"

I giggled at him. "Oh really? What happened to you being all worried about it too? You were on the train."

He shrugged. "I thought about it."

I shook my head. "And what do you think about it?"

He started running a hand through his hair, making a point to not face me. "I'll be able to make sure you don't get into trouble with the monster running around the village."

I shook my head as I scoffed. "Like you wouldn't know if I was up to something. You came and checked on me last night before dealing with the intruders."

He looked down at me, and I had to try not to make a face when I saw his blush. "Because I also heard a thud in your room. You decided to fall out of bed."

I just looked at him for a minute. "I decided to fall out of bed? I was trying to jump out of bed and land on my feet because I heard a crash. I didn't think I would be that out of it from two cocktails. And don't go changing the subject to me! I know why I am worried about sharing a room, I am trying to figure out why you aren't besides being protective."

He shook his head. "Well why are you worried?"

I shook my head. "You mean I shouldn't be worried of having a repeat of what happened my first night at the guild while we were talking? When there won't be anyone there to snap me out of it?"

He was quiet for a bit, now seeming to understand where I was coming from. I cleared my throat. "You have more experience with fighting your dragon. You've been in more situations that can call for it. I've just been on the move all the time not knowing what the hell I'm even supposed to be doing. I haven't had these sudden urges and instincts like these and haven't had to battle with my dragon before. It was always I end up in a tough situation I couldn't get out of, it would start pushing and I would just let it because I wanted to get out as much as it did. I don't know how to fight it."

He pulled me into him as we kept walking. "It'll be fine. I like to think that with this the dragons know what they're doing."

I brought my arm up to rub his back as I leaned into him. "Or impatient. Do you even know where we're supposed to find tents?"

He chuckled, pulling me over toward an outdoorsy shop. "Here."

As we walked in, the first thing we saw was camping gear. He looked down and me and I just shrugged and shook my head. "This is all you, big guy."

He raised an eyebrow at me at the nickname. I just smiled before looking around more. My eyes landed on the first aid stuff and I walked over there while Laxus was focused on the tents. There were kits and individual bandages and wrappings. I knelt down to look at a package that had gauze, wrappings, and the equipment for stitches. I started muttering to myself as I thought. "I probably should get something like this... Maybe I will need more bandages though..."

There were footsteps approaching me, steady and light. I turned my head to see a woman in the green shop uniform. "Hi there, can I help you with anything?"

I stood up as I shook my head. "I don't think so."

She smiled at me, leaning in. "Is that your boyfriend over there?"

I saw she was checking out Laxus, and I lost my patience with her, making sure my voice was flat to show that. "Yes. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go see if my boyfriend is finding a tent alright."

I grabbed the bag with the supplies, along with a bag of extra gauze and extra wrappings as well, and headed over to where he was kneeling down and inspecting the tents. "How's it going?"

He looked over, smirking at me. "So now you want one tent?"

I tilted my head at him as he stood. "Huh?"

He chuckled as he leaned down. "You want to share a tent with your boyfriend?"

I could feel my face turning red. "I... Well you said that this is like dating."

He gave me a quick kiss before grabbing two smaller tents. "What's that you have there?"

I looked down, remembering I grabbed medical supplies. "For my cut. I won't be able to keep the... cover... all day. I thought you said we are sharing. It'd be less to carry and keep track of. We are sharing a room in the village anyways, might as well just figure it out now."

That was a lot smoother than I thought it would sound, because I just feel like a ball of nerves. And he seemed to buy it as he shrugged and put them back, looking at the tents for two people. I pointed at a simple looking one. Nothing fancy, just one of those triangle tents with the one opening, big enough for two people. I could probably figure it out. "This one looks simple enough."

He looked it over before grabbing it. He grabbed a fleece blanket on the way to the check out. "Do you know how to do that?"

He gestured to my bandages. I nodded and shrugged. "Kind of? I did it once. It sucked, but I did."

He sighed, taking the bags from me and setting them on the counter. Soon enough we were on our way out. I looked up at him. "Do you know how to get there?"

He nodded, smirking down at me. "Lets go start your first mission."