Lucy and Laxus walked towards the exit of the guild. Lucy saw Mira and Freed talking, her comforting him about something. Walking over, she overheard her name. "Hey Mira, Freed. Are you alright?" she asked, even though it was clear the rune mage wasn't. "I'm okay I guess." Freed replied, putting on a very fake smile.
Lucy saw right through the mask and went up to him. Grasping his hand, she looked into his eyes and saw pain and guilt. 'Somewhat like my own eyes,' she thought. "What's wrong Freed. Was it something to do with me? Did I do anything?"
Freed slowly shook his head, but then began to nod, finding it impossible to lie to his beloved. "I feel terrible that no one was there to support you through your awful adventure." He told her. Saying it out loud, it seemed every stupider to Freed. But to Lucy, who had suffered from the lack of friendship, even though it had only been four days for her, it was very sweet of Freed to feel guilty over something he couldn't control. Then, thinking over the previous thought, she realised she needed to move on from allowing an attack and become strong enough to beat the dark guild.
Looking at Freed, she realised that helping her get stronger would be the perfect way for him to move on as well.
Looking behind her back, she saw Laxus, still waiting expectantly at the door. Waving him over, she explained her plans. Laxus, slightly jealous wanted to object. However, the kind nature of Lucy seemed to be rubbing off on him. Instead of shaking his head, he nodded. Lucy ran forward and gave him another hug, which made him incredibly happy. However, she then turned to Freed and also gave him a hug.
Freed and Laxus's eyes met, each taking in the others blushing face. Each seeing that the other had also fallen for the blonde. Coming to a silent agreement, the two decided that they would both train the girl and would let whoever she chose have her with no argument.
Lucy, beaming, towed the two boys out of the building and into the woods. Walking ahead, she heard them discussing what to do first. Arriving at a lovely spot by a waterfall, she stopped at the riverbank. The two boys behind her were engrossed in their conversation however and didn't see that she'd stopped.
This resulted in Lucy losing her balance and toppling into the river. However, luckily for her someone else had decided this was an amazing place and had decided to take a swim. Looking down at her saviour, Lucy gave one of her most beautiful smiles.
After being lowered back onto solid ground, she shot the two mages who had pushed her a dirty look and turned once more to face the man who had caught her.
"How can I thank you Jellal." She said. "I couldn't just let a woman fall into a river. That would have been incredibly rude of me." He replied, shyly looking up at Lucy from under his blue bangs. This was new for him actually. He wasn't usually shy.
Just when he was about to add to his statement, the lightning dragonslayer and rune mage coughed, making their presence clear to Jellal. "Oh, hello Laxus. Freed."
Nodding at Lucy, he began to walk away from them, throwing on his shirt as he went and shaking his wet hair out. Lucy realised what he was doing and yelled out to him, causing him to stop in his tracks. "Why don't you join us?" she said. Jellal slowly turned around at these words.
"What are you doing?" He asked, hoping there was some way he could help this kind girl. "Well, we were planning to train me right here actually. You could be a big help. After all, I'm going to need all the help I can get!"
Jellal began to smile. Here was an opportunity to get closer to Lucy. Then he looked over to her companions and received two glares. "I'm sorry Lucy. I'd love to help but I don't want to intrude."
If she was already seeing one of these men, he didn't want to get in the way. That would be rude and rude was exactly what he was trying to avoid, epically after his criminal past.
She shook her head and laughed. "It wouldn't be any trouble, would it guys?" she said. Laxus and Freed realised she was about to turn around and erased the glares that had occupied their faces, putting on small smiles. Lucy's smile was contagious.
"Then it's decided," she said, happy to have another trainer, especially one so powerful. Smiling at the three, she went over to the clearing beside the waterfall and stood in the middle. "What do you want to do first?" she asked them.
The three huddled together and began to murmur, talking about what they were going to do. Lucy was impressed how Laxus and Freed welcomed Jellal into their talk. After all, while those two worked together every day, no one really ever worked with Jellal.
Coming out of the huddle, Laxus spoke. "Okay Lucy. We've decided to start with three tests. The first will just be too see how you can use your power in combat. The next two will be your physical and magical strength." Seeing her nod, Jellal took over.
"Laxus will be your opponent for the first test. Freed will help with measuring your magical strength and I'll be testing your physical prowess and how well you use your weapons. From there, I believe Freed will brief us all each night with tactics for the next day of training and he'll work with you on the actual spells, helping with things such as silent incarnations."
Seeing her nod, he continued. "Laxus will be taking care of your physical state. You'll most likely work with him in the mornings. Then I'll teach you for most of the afternoon, helping with magic in battle and those celestial weapons of yours."
"Also," Freed added, "We'll need some more information on your actual magic. I've heard you've gained some new magic."
Lucy took all of this in then composed herself. Even she wasn't sure exactly how far she could push her new form of magic.
"Well, I now have the power to create a physical version of celestial magic. Instead of needing to channel it through an item, the veins of magic within my body now allow it to be channelled through my hands. However, I've been practising a little and I can't seem to control how much energy is produced within those ball and exactly where they go."
The three trainers nodded and Freed took notes. "Okay, let's get this started!" Laxus said, grinning.
This chapter makes me so happy! I literally fangirled the whole way through! Hope you enjoy!