"Unfortunately…we only have two beds," Mirajane said sullenly as we entered the more mansion than house structure.
"Alright," I said without paying attention. I motioned to one of the rooms. "How about this one?"
"That was…Lisanna's…" Elfman said carefully. I quickly took my hand off of the knob.
"Oh, uh…sorry."
"Anyways, since we only have two available beds, I suppose…"
"Mira, you can't actually be thinking…" Elfman looked shocked.
"What? What is she thinking?" I asked as my mind started to wander to…darker places, children.
"I am, little brother…Inigo; you'll have to sleep…on the couch!"
We both dropped to the ground, exasperated. I picked myself up to a sitting position. "Jeez, woman! Don't get my hopes up!"
Mirajane looked confused. "Hm…was I implying something?" she put a finger to her chin. "Oh well, boys will be boys I guess. I mean if you want to sleep with Elfman I'm not going to stop you, but-"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No Elfman, please! I'll take the couch!"
A couple a laughs at my expense later, and I was getting bandaged again. "So, nakama, you want to tell us what happened to you again?"
"Well…you may not believe this, but there's this other world called Edolas. They sucked up all of Magnolia is this magic spell called Anima because their magic supply was running low, and a couple mages and I had to heroically-"
"Get your ass kicked like a not-man!" Elfman snapped. "I mean, if I'd have been there I would've put it straight to those Edolas jerks!"
"Trust me…it was a warzone. I even met the Edolas version of Fairy Tail, and the three Strauss siblings from over there. See the 'me' from there was the enemy, so getting to know them was a little rough, but it seemed like all three of them were…" I trailed off, seeing their sullen expression.
"Three…" Elfman muttered, looking away.
Mirajane stood, a bright smile on her face. "Alright, how about I cook us up some dinner, huh?"
"Y…Yeah!" I agreed, shooting as big a smile as I could. Maybe it would be best not to mention any version of Lisanna in the house.
"We've got to get you healthy again for the marathon next week!"
"Marathon?" I questioned.
"Oh course, man! The 24-hour Fairy Tail Annual Marathon! You are participating."
I shrugged. "Depends on what the reward is," I said back.
"No, you don't understand," Mirajane said. "Master Makarov made it mandatory for every active member of Fairy Tail to participate."
"But…b-but-"
"And if you choose not to, then you automatically get last place, and that means you get the master's punishment," Elfman added in an ominous voice. "Last year's punishment was so bad, I heard the guy wanted to quit the guild," he said as he shivered. "Gives me the creeps, what the Master has inside his head."
"I mean…you know he won't, like…make me run the race, right? I mean, I've got a bad leg."
"From what I've heard, magic'll be allowed this year, so you can use your lightning stuff, right?" Elfman offered.
I grimaced and hung my head. "I'm doomed form the start," I moaned.
The next day, on a single crutch, I made my way to the Fairy Tail building, slightly embarrassed that I was the only one who sustained any major injuries in the Edolas conflict.
"The Black Fairy…" I muttered to myself. "More like the Red Fairy…man, even the Salamander got off Scott-free other than what looks like a headband…" I muttered as I pushed doors open. All that morning I'd been wondering if anybody'd heard about Edolas from Team Natsu, but I guessed that they hadn't since we were all so dog tired afterwards.
I didn't think anybody would know…but boy was I wrong. I entered the building, and found confetti shoved in my face. "Welcome home!" everyone roared, even Team Natsu.
"What's this?" I wondered.
Cana Alberona nudged my arm. "It's a welcome home form that Edo-place you guys were off in," she said cheerily, tugging on my arm. "Come on, Mr. Black Fairy, have a drink!" she said, handing me a mug.
I offered a casual smile and gulped the thing down. Looking satisfied, Cana left to talk to Gray about something while I made my way back to the bar, where Makarov was sitting where he usually was. I sat next to him. "So who told you about Edolas?" I wondered, grabbing one of the available drinks next to me.
"Who else? Those noisy kids are nothing but a pain, especially when the guild is clicking off for the day."
"Natsu?"
"Natsu. Came barging right in and said 'Hey, everybody is gonna stay for a while and help us set up for a party! We got an injured comrade and he deserves a break, not to mention us too!' before forcing everyone to stay an extra three hours to set this thing up."
I shrugged. "Hey well, it looks pretty good," I said, looking over and seeing the Master's annoyed expression. "Come on, you've got to admit that he's got heart."
"Maybe a bit too much for his own good…but that doesn't really matter anymore. What's done is done, and hey, I don't have to pay for these drinks, so it's fine with me!" he cheered as he gulped down his second mug since I sat down.
I chuckled. "You have to pay for your own drinks in your guild?"
"Well if I wouldn't, then it wouldn't be fair, now would it?" I retorted, comedically turning away from me and sipping his mug. I stood once again and made my way over to where Cana, Gray, and Mirajane were sitting, with Gray in the middle of a story.
"Yeah see, and then Fairy Tail from Edolas came and started backing us up, and I was kicking ass, as usual, when suddenly-"
"This better not be about me," I warned. He gave me a sly grin.
"Anyway, so Ash's counterpart, Inigo Dirge, appeared out of nowhere and started cutting into us with his lightning sword. I managed to hold him off for a while-"
"You never engaged him," I reminded him.
"Would you let me finish?" he snapped, to which I chuckled at his immaturity. "Anyway, he cornered the two Strauss sisters from over there and was about to run them through, right? So, Ash literally runs into the sword and takes the hit for them and then…there was this big explosion from yours truly, and the day was saved by me. The end!"
"Uh…I think you got a few details wrong there, Mr. Bundled-Up," I teased him about his counterpart.
"That wasn't me you jerk!" he snapped. "Whatever, all the stuff about him was true."
"Including his heroic rescue of Mirajane?" Cana elbowed me lightly, making my cheeks go red. "Aw, that's cute!"
"Oh! Shut up, you drunkard!" I swatted her arm away and put my head on the table. She patted my shoulder playfully. I pounded my fist on the table. "If I beat you in a drinking contest, then you forget about the story, deal?" I challenged.
She looked surprised that I would challenge her, but soon smirked. "You may have guts, but that doesn't mean you have a good stomach!" she retorted, pulling two huge barrels of beer that already made me want to hurl.
"This…was a bad idea…wasn't it?" I asked.
"A very bad one," she agreed. "But you already challenged and I accepted; so that's that!"
I sighed. "Alright; let's do this!"
We went through the first barrel without much trouble, with both of us becoming just a little tipsy, my magic wearing off some of the alcohol. The second barrel went by much the same.
When I saw a third and fourth coming out, we were drawing a crowd. The third went by, and we were both wobbling in our chairs. Cana looked at the beer in her glass. "Is this stuff stronger than the normal stuff?" she asked, her words slurred together.
"I think- you know what I think? I think you're losin' your edge, drunkard," I challenged once again, my words also slurred.
She glared at me with glazed eyes. "You know…you're just a asking for trouble, sirree…" she mumbled as we gulped down another glass. "First person to fall over loses."
I nodded, nearly falling asleep just from that. We gulped down another two glasses, and when I saw the next one, I turned around behind me and threw up. Once it was all out, I turned back around and pointed at it over my shoulder. "I wouldn't touch that (burp) if you were me…It'll…overload your system, if ya know what I mean…"
"Whatever," Cana mumbled from her side.
"You know, this may be a shock to you, but your chances of winning this are less than (burp) less than a stratus cloud on a humid day," I said, pointing at her.
"Is that his thing when he's hammered, to make puns on his magic type?" I heard from the crowd, and I swore it was Natsu.
"Don't you judge me you dumb lizard!" I said to the Dragon Slayer, though I later found out that it was Jet and that I just really confused him.
Cana looked confused by my statement. "You mean like…like you mean fog?"
"Whoa man! Your IQ is like as big as a cumulonimbus cloud right now!" I mocked, expecting roars of laughter in my drunken state, but I only got chuckles from how ridiculous I was acting.
"Whatever, Cloud Nine, let's just finish this."
"Good, I was waiting to get charged," I said as we cheers'ed again, as we did with every glass.
"That one didn't even make sense!"
We both gulped it down and then sat staring at each other. I saw the world spinning and focused on her face, a bit too much actually. I started looking for particular pores, but soon that just messed up my vision even more. I scrunched up my nose.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" she wondered, feeling her face with her hands sloppily.
"No I mean, I just…like, uh…uh…" I never finished the sentence, falling backwards out of my chair and onto the ground, the guild then roaring up in cheers while I was passed out on the floor.
Author's Note:
Hey guys, so the changes are in and...yeah, I never liked the arcs in a big clump like that anyway. But that's beside the point! Here's just a little light-heartedness before things god won the deep end with Tenrou Island...anyway, don't forget to leave a review for me to improve or whatever, and I hope you're looking forward to the next chapter!
