Summary: Descriptions for the unanswered questions of the mysterious inner-workings of Evergreen and Elfman's peculiar relationship. How exactly did Elfman convince Evergreen to partner with him for the S-Class exams? How did Evergreen devise the plan to defeat Mirajane? What happened after Rustyrose defeated them? The answers to these questions and more are now revealed.

*Evergreen and Elfman chapter, due to popular demand. And thank you for those of you who reviewed. I know my ideas have been kind of a flop lately, but hopefully my future chapters will make up for it. I know this one's kinda short, but I think it's good. I published it pretty quick too. :)

Last time I checked, I don't own Fairy Tail. Mashima Hiro does, I believe.


Evergreen and Elfman

by: SmurfLuvsCookies

Fried and Bixlow were going to parish. Evergreen just wasn't sure how yet.

Those imbeciles! How dare Fried choose Bixlow over her! Bixlow was an insufferable fool, powerful no doubt, but he was still a tongue-wagging, voo-doo using idiot! And Fried preferred his company over hers! In a battle between the two of them, Evergreen was certain that she could defeat Bixlow. She was sure she could defeat Fried too, as long as he didn't have time to properly assemble a rune trap. Why she hadn't been chosen to participate in the S-Class exams in the first place was beyond her, but she was equally peeved about that. If Fried and Bixlow were actually promoted to S-Class mages, Evergreen would explode with loathing. She hoped that they failed the first round, just out of spite.

Out of the corner of her eye, Evergreen noticed Elfman coming her way. She rolled her eyes and huffed. The fact that the great lumbering brute had also been chosen for the S-Class exams and she had not, even after she had proven she could beat him in battle, was another thorn in her side. There was no doubt in her mind that the older sister, Mirajane, had a hand in his selection. For this reason, she'd been sending him a multitude of nasty glares.

"Hey, Ever," he began, flopping down in the stool next to hers.

She sent a vitriolic scowl his way. "Don't call me that. It's Evergreen to you."

"Sorry, I just think Evergreen is kind of a mouthful," he muttered, crossing his arms. With a sigh, he waved a hand dismissively. "But that's not important. I know that Fried chose Bixlow instead of you - "

"Do you want me to slap you?"

" - So, I was thinking that you could team up with me." Elfman let his suggestion hang in the air. Evergreen blinked, because he had actually surprised her without being brutish about it. She was about to snap at him to go away, for Elfman was probably one of the most annoying guildmembers that she knew, but she hesitantly decided to consider the offer. It provided both a spot in the S-Class exams and the opportunity to prove herself. She slyly sized Elfman up. He may have been rather simpleminded, but he was also fairly strong. She could be the brains of the operation, and he could be the brawn. It wasn't a bad match, actually.

"Well," Evergreen began, "What makes you think that I want to team up with you?"

Elfman rolled his eyes. "I'm not too psyched about this either, okay? I wanted Lisanna as my partner, but she already promised Juvia. She said that you were pretty pissed about Fried choosing Bixlow instead of you, so you must want to be in the exams. Real men don't leave a woman pissed, and they don't beg for partners."

"Okay, first of all, don't start with that 'real men' crap," Evergreen ordered, holding up a hand to silence him. "It's annoying. I'll team up with you, but don't think it's because I like you or anything."

"I didn't say - "

" - I'm just doing this because I want to be in the exams - "

" - I don't like you - "

" - And because I want revenge against Fried and Bixlow." Evergreen paused, and crossed her arms. "But you can't call me Ever, you can't interrupt me when I'm speaking, you can't order me around, and you can't do that whole 'real men' crap. Got it?"

Elfman submitted to her irritating requirements, knowing that he would do what he wanted no matter how many times she threatened to pull out of the exams. He was slowly beginning to regret following Lisanna's advice.

But at least he had a partner, albeit an annoying one. Hopefully she was strong enough to get the job done.

_/T.T\_

"I told you I wasn't going to go easy on you, didn't I?" Demon Mirajane smiled at her brother and Evergreen wickedly, waiting for them to get off the ground. Elfman struggled to stand. Mira was keeping her promise; he hadn't seen her fight this hard since the festival when she fought Fried. Him and Evergreen were both covered with wounds and breathing raggedly, but Mirajane didn't even harbor a scratch. It was both infuriating and admirable.

"Real men don't loose to their sisters!" he roared, peeling himself off the ground. Evergreen shot him a look of the upmost aggrivation. "Would you just shut up already?" she shrieked, struggling to get off the ground. "Maybe if you paid less attention to your manliness and more to the fight, we would actually - "

Mirajane cut her off, swooping down and attacking them both in the blink of an eye. They were thrown against the ground, not even two feet away from each other. Elfman grabbed Evergreen and pulled her out of the way before Mira's magic could reach her. He took the hit in his shoulder, grimacing. Evergreen blinked, and then scowled at him. "I don't need your protection!" she spat.

"Real men...protect...their women," Elfman wheezed.

Evergreen glowed red with anger. "I'm not your woman!"

Mirajane swooped down again, once more interrupting their bickering. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to get past me!" she squealed, soaring into the air and landing back down on the ground in a running stance. "Here I come!"

Evergreen barely had time to think. Elfman's claiming her to be his woman clicked somewhere inside her mind, and just as Mirajane was within attacking distance, she said, "Elfman and I are getting married!"

Mirajane stopped so abruptly that Evergreen was surprised she didn't get whiplash. Her gaze flickered frantically from Elfman to Evergreen, but it couldn't have been more than a second. Elfman was ready. He hit Mirajane as hard as he could without severely injuring her, while Evergreen used her needles to add to the attack. Mira flew across the arena and hit the adjacent wall. No sooner had she collapsed did the gate open.

Evergreen cheered, and turned to smile at Elfman. His grasped his injured shoulder with an expression of pain, but he was shooting her a goofy grin. He gave her a thumbs-up before stumbling. Evergreen slipped his arm over her shoulder and supported him as they made their way to the gate, ignoring his boisterous claims that, "Real men don't give in to their injuries!"

They were the last ones to show up, and they were bickering when they did, but they made it just the same.

_/T.T\_

"Real men don't run away!"

"Shut up and run!"

Evergreen and Elfman sprinted through the forest, a huge pig-beast lumbering after them. It obviously wasn't magic, but Evergreen didn't want to risk stopping to attack it. The beast was simply too big and too fast. It would squash them if they so much as paused for a breath. Unfortunately, they were already starting to lag with ennui and their wounds.

"Go that way!" Elfman ordered, gesturing to a slight opening in the forest. Reason told her that it was a good escape plan, but irritation overwhelmed her reason when she glared at him instead of listening. "Don't tell me where to go!"

The beast was much too close for comfort. Evergreen looked back, desperately trying to formulate a plan in her head. Nothing came to her as the enormous foot loomed above her, ready to drop down and squish her like a bug.

"Ever!" Elfman rammed into her and pushed her towards the niche, safely out of reach from the threatening foot. They rolled downhill, scratched by debris and underbrush. Finally, they stopped at the base of the hill. Evergreen sighed in relief and then looked up to find Elfman's face just inches from hers.

She blushed vividly when she realized that Elfman was on top of her, his many hard pounds of muscle squishing her against the ground. The most peculiar thing was that she couldn't deny that she was completely revulsed by the stance. In fact, she found it quite...

When the word "sexy" came to mind, Evergreen shoved the nearly unconscious Elfman off of her. There was no possible way that she could ever find this idiotic brute attractive in any aspect. Sure, he did have a bunch of muscles, and yeah, his dorky smile was kind of cute...but there was no way that Evergreen would find any of that attractive! Never! Not in a billion years!

"Don't get any ideas because I told your sister we were getting married!" she spat, scrambling off the ground and retreating a safe distance away from the startled Elfman. "It was just so she would let her guard down. Don't start thinking I like you, or anything."

Elfman groaned from his mangled position on the ground, almost too tired to deal with Evergreen's delusional suggestion. Honestly, the thought never crossed his mind.

_/T.T\_

This poor excuse for a man, Rustyrose, was going to destroy them. He was going to destroy Fairy Tail, and all of the non-magical people in the world. But the worst part was, Elfman could do nothing about it. He thought that his ploy with the glasses would be his victory, but he was wrong. Rustyrose's power was too great for him; he would have to admit defeat like a man.

"Come to me, Tower of Dingir! Crush these foolish fairies!" Rustyrose yelled, laughing like a maniac. Elfman and Evergreen were thrust into the air, and Elfman panicked when he realized he couldn't move. It was almost like the damn tower was absorbing him!

"Elfman..." He looked at Evergreen, who was paralyzed like him. "Hang in there, Ever!" he cried, trying to find a way to get out of this ridiculous, unmanly trap. He was expecting some sort of angry reaction about how only that jerk Laxus was allowed to call her Ever, but that was okay as long as it kept her conscious. Her next words caught him completely off guard.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I couldn't make you an S-Class mage."

Elfman could tell she really meant it, by the sincerity in her voice and the tears in her eyes. Plus, he doubted that Evergreen was one to apologize unless she was crushed with guilt or blame. But that was absurd, because he would have been defeated by his sister in the first round if it weren't for Ever. He flashed her a grin. "And you call me an idiot. It's because of you that I even got this far."

She turned to him and let him see the full extent of her misery, her guilt, written on her face. "Elfman..."

"Thank you, Ever." Elfman gave her one last smile before everything went black.

It took a lot of willpower, but after a while Elfman finally regained consciousness. The damage around him was catastrophic, from the tower exploding, he presumed. He pulled himself into the upright position, grimacing as waves of agony pulsed throughout his body. He wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep, but that wasn't a possibility. He needed to find Ever, and he needed to find someone to help them. He tried to stand, but fell back down. The second time he eventually got to his feet.

Where is she? he thought, blinking away the blinding sunlight as he stumbled past the wreckage. Where's Ever? He called her name, but he knew that she wouldn't answer. Elfman sighed with relief when he found her, half-buried in a nest of debris. He dug her out and checked for a pulse, for breathing. She was alive.

She stirred when he slipped his hands under her, hoisting her slight body up in his arms. "Elfman..." she mumbled, a crease forming between her eyebrows.

"I'm here, Ever," Elfman replied, pausing to flash her a smile she couldn't see. "Don't worry, I'm gonna get help. A real man doesn't let his partner suffer."

"Elfman...I wanted...to say thanks," Evergreen continued. "For choosing me...as your partner."

Elfman sniffed, manly tears pricking his eyes. "If I hadn't chosen you, you'd be safe at the guild."

"I know," Evergreen said with an attempt at a smirk. She opened one brown eye, on the very edge of consciousness. "And just for the record...I'm officially giving you permission...to call me Ever."

"I would've called you Ever anyway," Elfman admitted, sniffing loudly again.

Evergreen gave a meek scoff. "Like I would have let you...idiot. Now, go find us...some help."

One of Elfman's alligator tears plopped on Evergreen's cheek as the depths of unconsciousness dragged her under. Elfman pulled himself together and stumbled off towards the tangle of shrieking jungle, hoping he was going in the right direction. As a man, he had to find somewhere safe for Evergreen. Not just as a man, but as a member of Fairy Tail. He must protect his nakama. He must protect his partner.

He must protect the girl he was sort of starting to like.


Evergreen and Elfman - End