Subtle Explanations

Adam's nose was just inches in front of the glass window of the shop as she peered inside. Agh! This was one of her weaknesses! Why did she have to notice the manga shop? She was supposed to be looking for Gajeel and Levy, but this shop showed up?

Her heart suddenly ached for the variety of B, HB, and H pencils. The store had vine charcoal in a neat little box that would have fit perfectly inside of the pocket she devoted entirely to her manga. She felt a physical sense of loss when she saw a shelf that appeared to be a shrine to manga. It was lined with only the best new releases. She could have drooled.

Besides, a full day had passed with hardly anyone getting any sleep. They had been keeping watch to see if anyone in Fairy Tail had made it to the train stations when they did. Surely, Bickslow and Freed would want to stop for the night. She could go in there, grab a sketchpad, some pencils, and charcoal. It would be the perfect entertainment!

Daring a glance to the door, Adam was about to sneak in when the chiming of bells caught her ears. It was the door. "Ah! Such wonderful perfume!" a male voice proclaimed, and Adamine suddenly had her hand in the grasp of a short, red haired man.

Her entire face froze up when three males surrounded her. A short one exclaimed, "If you like art, miss, I would be honored if you drew me."

"D-drew y-you?" she stammered, gawking at the four males.

"You're shyness. It's so cute, but I swear I don't like you."

"You are quite the beautiful young lady, miss. Would you like to go out some time?"

Her eyes went wide at the sudden attention. She could feel herself trying to go into stone, but she attempted to hold it back as much as possible. Freed and Bickslow said that a guild called Blue Pegasus was here. These men bore guild marks. If she gave anything away, they might figure out who she was.

"My dear, would you be so kind as to tell me what is the name of the perfume you wear?" the older man questioned, and Adam looked over the group's head to look for Freed and Bickslow. She needed help. Like, now!


Bickslow glanced up from Freed after plotting just how they were going to get Adamine to spill out information about her past, but what he saw made his jaw go slack. Of freaking course, he'd jinxed himself.

Team Womanizer had Adam and were leading her to a small café two stores down from the manga shop. After hitting Freed on the shoulder, he lifted his chin in Adamine's direction.

Freed gave out an exasperated sigh. "Of course. We let her out of our sight for one minute and she's already gotten into trouble. At least it isn't assassins this time."

"I would rather assassins be the case."


Adamine gawked at the three men. The shorter one, Eve, sat closely beside her. The tsundere one, Ren, was leaning back on his chair. He snuck glances at her when she wasn't looking. The one with slightly messy hair, Hibiki, was directly across the table in front of her. The creepy one, Ichiya, was on her other side.

They'd somehow convinced a waitress to deliver cake and tea to her while she'd sat dumbstruck at the males.

"So, your name is Opal?" Hibiki charmed and leaned on his interlocked fingers. The smile he was casting was supposed to be flirty. Adamine had no clue, so she just jumped to that conclusion. She was oblivious to flirtation unless someone sat there and spelt it out for her.

"Y-yeah. How did I get here exactly?"

They ignored the question and instead went back to charming her. "Your do-rag is very cute. Where did you get it?"

While Adamine continued to dodge their questions, she kept looking around for Freed and Bickslow. Did they not realize where she'd gone? They'd been whispering to each other while she'd gone out ahead of them.

They couldn't have possibly ditched her. Could they? Oh, if they did, they had better get ready for the beatings of their lives. If they thought Laxus was scary when he got pissed, they had yet to meet her wrath!

Suddenly, a hand gripped her by the back of her vest. Picking her clean up from the chair, a masculine voice explained, "We'll be taking this from you."

"Bickslow, Freed, such horrible perfume. A gentleman should never pick up a lady when she's enjoying good company!" Ichiya howled, striking a strange pose that made Adam's eyebrows rise.

"Never when she's in good company!" the three males with him added in, striking the same pose.

Under her breath, Adamine whispered, "Help me."

Grinning with his tongue stuck out, Bickslow mentioned, "She was in good company until you goons found her." He placed Adamine on her feet. She could have hugged him for the assistance, but there was no way she was going to do such thing. Not ever after that experience in the middle of the night! She was thankful his babies cheered, "Good company!" to distract her from her thoughts.

"Wait a second!" Hibiki exclaimed. "I'd heard from Master Bob that Fairy Tail was looking for you and Freed."

Damn it! How had word gotten out so fast? It was six in the afternoon. They had left at three this morning. That was a good fifteen hours of train travel with barely any sleep. They didn't have the energy nor the time to deal with this.

Playing dumb, Freed said, "Really? I wonder why. Bickslow and I had met up early this morning and decided to depart to Clover Town since it was on the way to a job. It's not that strange for us to disappear every now and then."

Hibiki didn't look convinced, but it was Ichiya who asked, "Then, is the young lady you're with on the mission with you? She doesn't have the perfume of Fairy Tail."

Adamine gave Freed a break by quickly explaining, "I'm from another guild. Freed and Bickslow just met up with me here. I was about to meet up them when I met y'all." She chanced a glance to Freed. He looked relieved that someone had helped him out of that one.

Eve perked up. He asked, "Oh, really! What guild?"

"Oh, you wouldn't know it. It's from the Kingdom Lancet. I-I'm a part of Kindred Spirit." Adamine didn't know what she was doing. Kindred Spirit was a guild, a good one at that, but she'd left it after deciding to hunt down Zeref and Firmalione.

The man suddenly pulled up an archive with his magic, and Adam had to try to keep the color in her face. No. He was an archive mage. Of course they had to run into one of those. She watched as he pulled up Lancet then opened up information on Kindred Spirit.

"Oh! I've heard of them! They're quite a popular guild. They're in high standings with the Magic Council and the princess of Lancet. Actually, it says here that they took her in after her parents were killed in a freak accident when she was only seven. She's apparently become the heir to the throne since then." He grinned at Adamine in a way that sent shivers down her spine. It wasn't a creepy smile, but it was more of one like, 'I know something you don't know'. "We'll it was nice to meet you, Opal. Hopefully, you can visit Blue Pegasus some time when you aren't busy."

She gave a polite inclination of her head then waved. "It was nice to meet you all, but we really should get going." She turned around and noted Bickslow and Freed doing the same. Good. It looked like they were going to be able to escape.

"Of course. Goodbye!" Hibiki called.


Once Hibiki couldn't see Freed, Bickslow, and Opal anymore, Ichiya turned to him. "That was her. Wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was."

"Why did you let her go so easily? Fairy Tail wants them back."

"Because with her kind of past, she needs someone to believe in her."

Ichiya cast one of his Trimen a curious look. The man definitely knew something that he didn't. Ichiya decided that information was better left inside of Hibiki's mind and headed towards the Blue Pegasus guild with the rest of his team following.


They were still in Clover Town when Freed let out a massive yawn. That was right. They'd been on the run for eighteen hours straight, and in the lulls between Adamine's motion sickness and train departures, they'd only been working off of short naps.

With Adamine in their presence, they had to keep alert. She tended to attract attention, and it made her feel extremely guilty. She felt like she was always getting them into trouble. Or anyone really. If she ever got close to someone Shadow Hunter or another guild would use them as bait to get Adamine to come over to their side. It was a shame that those guilds never realized that wouldn't ever work.

Instead of agreeing, Adamine would attack. A young farm girl she'd been assisting for some extra jewels had been snatched up in the middle of Adam's battle. One of Kalin's men threatened that if she didn't hand herself over, he would kill her. The bastard had never seen her Wing Slash of the Adamantine Dragon Slayer until it was too late.

Still, it didn't make her feel any better. She shouldn't be such an omen on people. "Hey, it seems like Ichiya and the Trimens aren't going to bother us. Why don't we get a room at an inn instead of camping out?" Adamine offered. If the two of them were going to willingly risk themselves for her, she might as well buy them a good night's rest.

"Scared of sleeping next to us in the woods, stoner?" Bickslow taunted.

"Of course I'm not, Tongue Boy. I just figured you'd be scared of the dark. What? With all of those wolves out right now." She watched him stick his tongue out for her, and she raised her eyebrow. "Want a repeat of twelve years ago?"

Instead of answering, his totems cried, "Scary, Mina!"

Catching onto that new nickname, Freed asked, "Mina? Why, Bickslow, I never knew you had a thing for pet names." He raised his brows and looked at his friend. To everyone's shock, light blush was running up the visible parts of his face.

"What can I say?" he defended. "A guy's got to have his charms in some department." The passive words didn't match the red on his face, and he quickly turned his attention to the stars.

"Taking a hint from the Trimens, I see," Freed mentioned before looking to Adamine. She was completely oblivious and staring at the sky like Bickslow. "Adam, I'd much rather take you up on your offer than our original plan. You're probably right about Blue Pegasus not going to rat us out. Hibiki could have easily done that. It'll also be easier for us to keep guard from whoever Fairy Tail might have sent for us."

She gave a nod then looked back to the sky. She said, "I've only been here once before, so y'all can pick the place out." A shooting star caught her eyes, and she gawked at it.

It was no time before they were at the counter of the inn, and Adamine remembered something. She may have been at Bickslow and Freed's apartment, but she had completely forgotten to get her money out of her private safe. Maybe, it had been a good thing she hadn't gone into that art and comic store.

As if sensing what she was thinking Freed cast her a grin then held up a leather wallet with a small emerald imbedded into the front flap. "I wouldn't be the leader if I didn't remember this kind of stuff. You should have enough for the entire trip."

"Thanks, Freed. I should've remembered, but I'd been so surprised the guild was after me that I'd forgotten." She took the wallet and unlatched a pocket on her jeans. It was a shame that she didn't have her messenger bag. She could have stuffed those art supplies, some manga, and this billfold in there. Ugh! She would make sure she got that back while they were getting Gajeel and Levy from Kalin's clutches.

Freed quickly got a key to a room then they walked up the stairs. They shouldn't be here for long. It was nine already, and if they didn't want to be caught by Fairy Tail or the dark guild, Shadow Hunter, they would surely leave around five.

As someone who went by a strict schedule, Freed would surely be up before Bickslow. Adamine on the other hand was accustomed to waking up as soon as she felt sunlight. The worst part about this whole thing was that she didn't have her bag with her clothes in it.

Ugh. She wanted a shower and clean clothes! She'd been thankful that the guild had changed her from her past attire, but now that she knew she could have washed them tonight and put them on the next morning, she wished she would have gotten them.

Freed turned the key to the room, and they all stepped inside.

The room was a two bedroom with a small living area in front and the two beds in the back. A restroom was placed off to the side, and a long closet stretched the entirety of the small hallway.

It was minimalistic in style but functional in design. It fit their needs perfectly. Two could sleep while one kept guard.

Exhausted, she flopped down onto the couch. It felt like forever since she'd been able to sit down and actually enjoy the plushness of the cushions. Each entire train ride she'd been in the bathroom, and when she'd sat down with Ichiya and the Trimens, she'd been too busy getting sexually harassed to notice the pillow on the dainty, white chair.

"Ah! Finally!" she sighed and stretched out like a cat against the couch.

"Don't get too comfy just yet, stoner. You're the only one who got any sleep last night, so you're gunna be keeping watch until midnight," Bickslow informed even as he sat down beside her head and tossed his feet up on a coffee table. "Keeping watch!" his babies cried.

Freed seemed to analyze that announcement before nodding his head. "It'd make the most sense, Adam. Do you mind?"

"Huh? Of course not. The ride to get here was hell, and we'll have to get up early. I'll do it only if you're the one to have the morning watch, Freed."

"Of course, I can't trust Bickslow to wake us up in time."

"Hey! What'd I do wrong?" he snickered.