AN: Alright, I am actually grounded starting last night. I won't be able to update weekends, but on weekdays the normal update schedule will stay in progress. If I feel like it I'll upload multiple chapters in a day, if not, you'll know. Now, because that's all there was to let you know about for now, onto the story.

Chapter 9

After about a few minutes had passed, Aoi woke up. She yawned, and focused her attention to see if anyone else was awake. She smiles and looks over at me, but averts my gaze. "Thanks for saving me, Izaya," she says. Something is going on here, but I can't tell what.

"Don't worry about it Aoi. But I should be thanking you. If you hadn't, we'd probably have ended up dead," I tell her. She still doesn't meet my eyes. "Besides, I didn't really save you. Yuki used her power to freeze your wounds so that no more blood would escape, but you had already lost a lot of blood. I thought." I stop at that, leaving it dangling.

"But Yuki is your spirit, so by a technicality, you saved our lives." She meets my gaze, her heart visible in her smile. "And thanks for your concern, but don't worry about me. I'm fine and that's what matters." I turn away, staring out the window again, thinking.

"You know, I could have sworn you were from Fairy Tail. You are nice, sweet, caring for others you trust and can call your nakama. But if don't let others worry about you, then everyone will worry more about you." I close my eyes, thinking back to 10 years ago. "If someone worries about you, it shows that they care for you. If you don't let them worry, then they might deem you untrusting, despite how you appear." I almost say something about a perfectionist, but realize that has nothing to do with this. "The bonds of nakama are a two way string. One that gives you trust, and one that has you feel concern for your allies. A human flaw that is more of a part that makes us who we are." I look over to her, and she looks confused. "Basically, I'm saying that if you don't let others worry about you then you can possibly sever a bond that brings people together."

She seems to understand, but still looks like she doesn't believe me. "You don't know what it was like when I was a kid." She looks down, once again averting my gaze.

"Then tell me. I'm happy to listen. I'm sure that it wasn't as bad as it seems." I reassure her. She looks up, a look of thanks on her face.

"Alright, sounds good. No one ever wanted to listen before. But, if I do, can I hear about you?" She asks. I look at her confused. Talking about what happened, a year ago and 10 years ago, I don't think I could do that. But something told me I could tell her.

"You got it Aoi. If you don't mind, would you care to start, or should I?" I ask. She gives it some thought, and finally offers to go first. "Alright, I'm listening." She nods.

"I'm actually from a town about a few miles from Beowth. I thought I would love to live there all my life, but I couldn't know how wrong I was. I was forced to live a sheltered life, staying in my room most of my life. My parents were so over protective, even sending up teachers to teach me, making sure they were sterilized before they could come up. I stayed there for about 11 years of my life, trapped like a baby." I could swear I saw a tear streak her face, but I couldn't see any water coming from her eyes. "After those years, I finally decided to run away from home, wandering for 5 years around the continent, learning about my magic. After those years, I finally came to Fairy Tail. I loved the people there and wanted to join immediately." Tears start to run down her face. This was obviously something that she didn't like to talk about.

"Wow, that sounds horrible. Nothing could compare, not even, wait never mind. A childhood of being raped and secluded from everything every day and night would be worse, so forget I said anything. But something like that, I can't believe something like that actually happened," I said, feeling sorry for the slightly younger mage. I pull out a lollipop for her, hoping to cheer her up. She takes it, putting it in her mouth, not looking much happier.

"Thanks, it actually feels nice to get it off of my chest." She gives a slight smile, but other than that doesn't appear to be much happier to have an old wound reopened. "Now, can I hear about you, please?" She asks, obviously wanting to move on.

"Yeah, sure." I prepare how I'm going to go about it. If she was willing to tell me about a past like hers, then the least I could do is tell her about mine. "I actually moved to Fiore from the Southern Continent, but was born here. I grew up here in Beowth for close to 7 years. At that time my parents where," I take a shaky breath in. I can do this, I think to myself. "They were charged with participation in a dark guild. The person who charged us was none other than the one and only Arthur Polganic. There was no proper trial and we were exiled from the continent. We were forced to move out and leave before the end of the week." I look away, tears threatening to fall down, but I hold them back.

She looks shocked at this. I continue, nonetheless. "I lived in the Southern continent for 10 more years. We never had any trouble except me picking the occasional fight. They literally asked for it. Then, the day after my 17th birthday, I walked down to find them both dead." I consider if I should mention the amount of blood and cruelty was around, but think better of it, not wanting to scare her. "I also learned about my magic that day, so it isn't too bad, but still. With my parents dead and no way to pay the rent myself, I was evicted from the house we had bought." I look at her, the worst out of the way. Now was the final act of this. "I moved back to Fiore, hoping to join Fairy Tail, since my parents used to say good things about it, but as soon as I land, I'm arrested and spend a month in jail. Apparently since I was their son I wasn't allowed to come back to the continent. I got a visit from Arthur at the end of the month. He offered me a spy job to keep tabs on Fairy Tail and report all things that would allow the Big Four to get rid of them. I accepted, only to get to Fairy Tail. I took multiple missions, trying to make him think that I was going as deep as I could, but I had actually told Makarov without anyone knowing. He told me to stay under, and report bogus information to him. After what he did to my parents I was happy to oblige. And that's pretty much everything about my past." Tears finally streaking down my face.

Pure and utter shock washes over Aoi's face. She gets up from her seat and sits in the seat next to me, bringing me in for a hug. I'm taken aback by this. I hadn't expected her to do something like this. "A past like that, and I'm here complaining about my parents, while yours were persecuted and you were forced to do something that you didn't want to. I'm so sorry that I asked you to do this," she whispers, barely audible to anyone outside of our immediate vicinity. I slowly return it, glad to actually have someone feel concerned and hear me out.

"Thanks Aoi. That really means a lot to me." We let go of each other, and merely stare out the window. "You were right. It feels good to get it out there. Too let someone know and not have it as extra baggage." Before I know it, she's back to sleep. I couldn't blame her though, it had been a long trip.

We got back to Magnolia by morning. Natsu jumped off faster than he did when we got to Beowth. And as I got off the train, I saw something fly through the window. When I looked at it, I saw that it was Mira. Don't tell me, yup. Erza just jumped out of the window and is attacking Erza with her bare hands. A blood vessel pushes up at the skin, showing that I'm not happy with this at all.

Before I can go to stop them, Aoi grabs my arm, holding me back. I turn and give her a confused look. "Pay more attention to them," she says, and I decide to look over at them, and sure enough, I'm seeing a smile on both of their faces and laughing. "They're not trying to kill each other. Their actually having fun with it." She was right, and I calmed down. I call them over and immediately they listen, not even trying to run away.

"Hey, I'm sorry about the near death guys. I didn't know that would happen. If I had, then I wouldn't have brought you guys," I tell them all, making sure that they're all there and listening. "So, as of now, no more S-Class for any of you guys." The three children look disappointed, but Aoi didn't look surprised. "That is until you're old enough to go on one yourselves." They nod, understanding why I'm saying what I am.

As soon as that's out of the way, we head to the guild. I was not looking forward to getting there, in the least. While they see home, I see punishment from Makarov for almost killing 3 children and a powerful 16 year old mage.

AN: Alright, so here is the last chapter for the week probably. I will be adding in a new OC next chapter, one that had been mentioned from before. I have only received two OCs so I may be ending the OC acceptance if no one other than those two are going to want to be OCs. So, I'll also announce that next chapter so if you would like a part, this may be your last chance. I am also going to allow mages from other guilds to be OCs, just put which guild your character's from and what it's stamp looks like under stamp location. And since I already accepted one from a different guild I finally decided to allow anyone to do so if they so wish. Now, I will probably see you on Monday, so I bid you farewell, fair readers.