Hello, again! A bit of a long author's note, but you can skip it if you wanna start reading right away. I promise there will be less author's notes in the future (unless you guys actually like me talking about nonsense, which would be gucci).
I'm gonna describe Annalice's appearance really quick since I don't want you guys to continuously imagine her in a white t-shirt and shorts and it just make it easier for you guys to imagine stuff as you read. Her appearance may change slightly as time passes, but I'll just let you know how she generally looks for this chapter, at least. You can skip this portion of my author's note if you would like, but, again, that's your decision.
Annalice has long pale blue hair that reaches her shoulders. She also has bangs that are similar to Erza's, except her bangs are swept to the left instead of the right. For this chapter, she has her hair down completely. The color of her eyes are a deep sea green that are slightly narrower than your average female anime character eyes (if you know what I mean), but still have a kind nature/look to them. She has a slim, athletic build with a fairy large chest and is around the same height as Erza.
Before X784, Annalice usually wore a sleeveless black romper with gold linings (similar to the color schemes of Natsu's vest) and paired it with gold sandals. She wears a simple, smooth ring on her right index finger that's made out of pure ice that never melts, given to her by her dragon mother as a gift.
MY OC's appearance is like this for all the flashbacks that go back to or before X782 for her early and mid teens, so just keep that in mind. Hopefully I didn't go too much into detail, but you probably want me to shut up now...okay…
This chapter is a bit more serious, but don't worry, it won't be like this for all the other ones. Sorry for the short chapter...
Enjoy~
4 years later X782
The evening sun sat on the horizon, coloring the sky with multiple shades of orange and yellow. Under the tall tree in the Magnolia Southgate Park, Natsu and Happy were arguing with one another while Annalice spectated the entire situation. As the argument continued, the youngest Strauss sibling approached the group.
"Fighting again?" Lisanna stood in front of Natsu and Happy while Annalice sat in annoyance.
"Oh, Lisanna. You're back?" Natsu questioned.
Happy immediately began complaining to the white-haired mage with no hesitation. "Natsu was really mean! He ate all my fish!"
"Stop being so stingy!" The two glared at each other, refusing to back down.
"They've been at this for an hour now." Annalice sighed, ignoring her companions. Lisanna just gave her close friend an apologetic smile.
"Really now...Natsu, you're the father, right?" Lisanna asked. "You'll protect the mother and the child, right? You've even got a sister to look after right next to you."
"What? What is she talking about?" Annalice and Happy both questioned at the same time while Natsu just blushed and tried to keep Lisanna from saying anything else about their imaginary family.
Annalice began to snicker at her pink-haired friend. "Wahh~ Natsu-nii, I never thought your face could get as red as your fire~"
"Shut up!" Steam shot out of the fire dragon slayer's ears out of annoyance and embarrassment.
"Ohh~ Nali-chan~ Don't you have a family of your own? I heard that you and Gray go out on jobs together a lot~" Lisanna gave a devilish smile to her sweating female companion.
"Ehh? No way! I don't want that pervert as a brother!" Natsu complained.
" And Erza told me that you two often train together on ~ Ahh~ It must be nice, just the two of you~" The white-haired mage cooed.
The ice mage turned beet red immediately. "I-It's not what you think! I only t-train with him because there's n-no other ice mage in the guild...a-and everyone's always busy when I want to go on a job and I don't want to go alone and Gray is the only one left….and...and….."
"She llllllikes him~~"
"Shut up, Happy!" Annalice shouted. I'm gonna murder that cat.
Just then, the rest of the Strauss siblings went towards the tree, directing their attention to their younger sister.
"Hey, Lisanna! It's time for work!" Lisanna's older brother, Elfman, called for his little sister as him and Mirajane stopped in front of the group.
"Eh? But didn't we just come back?" Lisanna asked.
"This is an S-Class job!" The bulky, middle child proudly stated. "We're going as Nee-chan's backup."
"That's not fair! What the heck?!" Natsu yelled at Elfman and briefly forgot about his issue with Happy as he was baffled by what he had just heard.
"Calm down, Natsu-nii. You'll get your chance soon enough." Annalice nonchalantly said.
"Says you! You've been an S-Class mage for a year now, but you haven't even gone on a single S-Class job!" The bluenette just brushed off Natsu's outburst.
Happy was also curious as to what he was hearing from the three Take-over mages in front of him. "What kind of job is it?"
"An emergency request. We're going to suppress the king of monsters, The Beast." Mirajane finally spoke up to participate in the conversation. "Natsu. Annalice. You wanna come along? It'll be good experience."
"Seriously?" Elfman didn't like the idea of having other people go on the job with his siblings. He was surprised his sister even mentioned Natsu's involvement. "I object that idea! A man should protect his family by himself!"
"For once I'll have to agree with Elfman. Well, at least about the objection part." Annalice inputted. "Natsu would just burn everything in front of him."
"Oy! Same goes for you too, Anna! You were the one that froze the entire village on our last job!" Natsu remarked and the ice dragon slayer only smiled sheepishly in response.
"And you," Natsu turned towards Elfman,"don't be so selfish! Take me with you!"
Before Natsu and Elfman could continue their banter, The oldest Take-over mage cleared her throat.
"Now, now. We're gonna be late. Let's just go without them. Simple as that." Mirajane began walking away, followed by a satisfied Elfman. Lisanna hesitantly went after them but stopped in her tracks as she turned around to give one last glance at Natsu and the group. She held up her index finger and her thumb- the famous hand signal used by Fairy Tail members.
"Natsu! I'm heading out!" And then Lisanna ran towards her siblings, leaving the two dragon slayers to watch her back as she disappeared around the corner.
"Elfman! Pull yourself together!"
"Mira-nee!"
"UWAHHHGGHHH!"
"Run away, Lisanna!"
"Come on, Let's go home."
"Elf-niichan"
"LISANNA!"
The guild was filled with sobs, tears staining the wooden floor. The usual liveliness of the guild members was nonexistent and everything seemed gray. Both Elfman and Mirajane were crouched in the middle of the room crying nonstop for the loss of their beloved sister. The two siblings clearly sustained many injuries, Mira even having a cast to protect her now broken arm. A few of the guild members spoke at once, still shocked by the accident.
"She stopped breathing, and then…"
"There wasn't anything left?"
"If we could at least bury her..."
Two figures stood at the front of the guild, paralyzed by the news. Mirajane finally looked up and saw through her tears, two crestfallen dragon slayers frozen in place. One had crouched down with her hands covering her face and had her eyes shut, while the other just stood there with wide, unbelieving eyes. Anyone could tell that they were both traumatized, yet they refused to let any tears slip from their faces. The sight in front of her only brought more tears to Mirajane as she realizes that they had just lost their best friend without warning or an opportunity to see her for the last time.
They were heartbroken.
A few days have passed since the incident. No one in the guild had smiled since and people rarely went out to take jobs. Although the atmosphere was still somewhat tense, there haven't been any other incidents for a while, so in a sense, the guild seemed very peaceful. Mirajane and Elfman went out daily to create a gravestone for Lisanna at the Kardia Cathedral. The eldest Strauss sibling seemed like she calmed down from her rebellious stage and hasn't even picked a fight with Erza for a long time. Elfman became very quiet and only spoke with his sister when he needed to.
No one has seen any sign of Natsu or Annalice since that day. No one bothered to look for them, knowing that Lisanna's accident hit them pretty badly. Happy would occasionally come in to let Master Makarov know the whereabouts of Natsu and how he was doing. According to the blue cat, Natsu had made his own gravestone for Lisanna where she could see the sunset everyday. The fire dragon slayer took trips between the makeshift home that Natsu, Happy, Annalice, and Lisanna used to hang out at all the time and his actual home outside of Magnolia, but Annalice was nowhere to be seen.
Today was another calm day at Fairy Tail. Mirajane and Elfman went out to the cathedral again to finalize some things on the gravestone. Master Makarov sat in his normal spot on top of the bar counter, resting calming as people occasionally came to greet him before going out on a job. Gray was speaking to Cana on one of the tables while Erza quietly ate her strawberry cake next to them.
As the guild doors were opened, no one paid much attention since it was normal for people to go in and out. However, as soon as that person stepped into the guild, people stopped what they were doing and became completely silent.
Annalice swiftly made her way passed the guild members and didn't even spare them a glance. Her face was expressionless as she went up the stairs towards the S-Class job request board. Nobody had stepped foot upstairs for the past few days, with the exception of Laxus, but even he didn't take any jobs from that board for the time being. After scanning the board for a few seconds, the bluenette grabbed several of the requests and started piling them up in her arms.
"Oy, brat. What are you doing?" Laxus questioned from his usual spot on the 2nd floor, but he was completely ignored by the unusually emotionless female in front of him. Although the lightning mage was slightly ticked off by the lack of a response, even he knew better than to continue pestering the girl.
The rest of the guild only watched as she continuously took requests one after the other. Makarov patiently waited as Annalice came down with her pile of requests and approached him.
"Master. I would like to go on these requests." The young teen casually stated.
Gasps were heard around the guild and people began to murmur amongst them. Gray's jaw dropped and Erza just narrowed her eyes, possessing a frown.
"Hmmm…." The elderly mage was in deep thought and everyone hushed as they awaited their master's response. "Doing all of these jobs will take a couple of years to finish. Especially if you do them alone. Are you sure you want to do this?"
Annalice nodded. "I'll be back once I finish them. I've been training for the past few days. Don't worry, Master, I didn't take the ones that seemed too difficult to handle on my own, but I don't want anyone else to do them."
"I see...Then I suppose there shouldn't be any reason for me to oppose." Makarov sighed. "We'll be waiting for your return. If you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask. Your family is right here."
The ice dragon slayer turned and began heading towards the door.
Gray slammed the table in front of him and stood up to give his full attention to the other ice mage in the room. "Don't give me that crap! Are you seriously gonna take all those quests alone? You can't just leave, Anna!"
Erza was the next person to stand up from her position. "He's right, Annalice. You're being reckless. At least take someone with you."
Before Annalice stepped outside, she stopped in place, still facing the exit, her face hidden behind her bangs.
"Gray. Erza."
The re-equip mage and the Ice Make wizard stared at her blue locks as they held their breath.
"T-Take care of Natsu for me. You n-never know what's he's gonna do." Annalice's voice came out quivering as if she were holding back tears.
Then, she quickly fled from the guild, trying her best to hide the tears that had escaped from the corner of her eyes. I'm sorry...
Erza and Gray watched helplessly as the guild doors slammed shut, not having the ability to utter any words from their mouths.
Makarov closed his eyes and said a silent prayer. Oh, Mavis. Please, be with her until she returns.
And with that, another two years passed by peacefully.
I've just started adding in scenes from the actual anime/manga and I hope I didn't make any of the characters too OOC. Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this story up until now (well if you're still reading until this chapter, that means something, right? :P). I know I probably butchered some lines since I can't translate things and I'm basically using dialogue from subbed videos. I have heard that there are slight differences between the anime and the manga, but I'll be going off of the anime since it's just easier to follow. There are definitely gonna be some scenes that I skip since I am mainly focusing on Annalice, but they are still part of the storyline. I'll make sure to mention something about it when the time comes.
Don't forget to review~ I really do want to know what you guys think about the story and it may influence what I write next.