Matty grinned gleefully and elbowed Emiko in the ribs. All around the guild hall people were chatting excitedly. The grin on Natsu's face reminded Lucy so much of the day they had first met and he had brought her to the guild. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as Azekiel climbed up onto Natsu's lap and his face broke into an identical grin. His boyish voice exclaimed, "Daddy! Are you going to try?". Without waiting for an answer, he ran excitedly towards Annabeth, who was sitting on Juvia's lap and asking her father the same question.
"Annie-chan! My Daddy gonna win!" His childish voice echoed through the hall, mixed up with the many other voices bouncing about the large room.
Annie shook her head defiantly, her violet-tinged curls whipping about her chubby, 7 year old face. "Nuh-uh! My Daddy will!" Her tone held a distinct theme of 'come at me bro'. At this, true as they were son of Natsu and Daughter of Gray, the two launched at each other, in a violent frenzy of 7 year-old arms and legs.
Natsu cheered as he saw his boy holding his own against his 'friendly rival's' daughter, earning him an eye-roll from Lucy. Some competition just never dies.
Azekiel's hand shot out, forming a clumsy fist and swinging it towards his best friend's face. Annabeth dodged easily, bringing her small body around in a complex manoeuvre which brought her out of the line of fire. Her delicate hands grasped at the mop of wild pink hair, and once finding a grip, yanking it back painfully. Azekiel squeaked and pulled at her hands in an attempt to make her release her grip. His flailing legs caught her chin, the raw heel of his shoe slicing open her cherry lips. A bead of blood ran down her chin and fell on her crisp white top.
Under her breath Annie hissed, the tone of their wrestling suddenly a lot less innocent. "Seven Slice Dance!" Razor sharp, blood-red icicles formed at her elbow and wrist, glistening and sharp as knives.
Blood enhanced ice, Seven Slice Dance; powerful, dangerous. Gray himself had only used it a few times in battle. Where his 7 year old daughter had learnt it, he could only guess: eavesdropping on his lessons with Heba. Gray winced inwardly at the thought of the raised scar adorning his the right side of his lower abdomen, a side effect of using the blood-enhanced ice. He felt a swell of pride at his daughters talent, displayed in the fact she had solely taught herself the move that took the most experienced of ice mages many years to perfect, then squashed it in light of his disobedience.
Reaching out, he grabbed Annie's arm, her steely focus shattered into a million shards and the sharp spikes mirroring it. As the shards hit the ground they clinked against the rough ground, the blood bleached from them by the surge of magical power.
Annabeth hung her head, pursing her lips in silent rebellion. She was quite the handful. Azekiel ran back behind lucy's skirts and would not talk to her for days.
Further away Joei was humming innocently sketching a design for one of her more complicated mirage. She had a stock of these, kept them well practiced and deeply detailed, it didn't matter whether she re-used them, these were so realistic she could control multiple people under them for days. It wasn't her favourite technique for her magic style, but it was effective. She loved improvising, mirage that leap straight from the depths of her imagination.
This mirage was of the guild, the effected would see themselves in the guild, laughing joyfully along with the others of the guild. She had to get each detail right, as to actually control the thoughts of the effected to believe it.
Her focus shattered as she felt the wet tongue of her black puppy lick her arm, closely followed by the art-mage Risa. Risa plonked herself down on the seat beside Joei, taking a sip of what looked like liquid cheesecake from the deep mug as Jess brought the tray of drinks around. Joei accepted happily as an identical mug was offered to her, taking a timid sip. Yup, liquid cheesecake. Trust Jess to be handing out mugs of liquid cheesecake. In her defence, it was delicious.
Joei turned to Risa, a smile still playing on her lips. "Are you going to nominate, Risa?"
Risa didn't turn, her eyes remained fixated upon Jess as she replied. "Yeah." Joei tried not to look worried, but she was beginning to feel it. Risa had been growing more and more suspicious and withdrawn since joining Fairy Tail a few months ago. Recently, it had been getting even worse. She seemed to stare constantly, at Jess mostly. Joei hoped it was just a phase.
"Want to be in a team with me? We can help each other out until one of us gets eliminated." She was making it sound like just some competition, but really, she just wanted a reaction from Risa.
"I prefer working alone." Came the stiff reply. Since when, Joei thought, but kept it to herself.
"Well can I be like... your advisor?"
"Advisors are for stupids, smart people don't need one." And at that Risa got up and walked away. Joei was worried.
