A loud thump echoed through the house before several coughs accompanied wheezing. More dust floated into the room Lyla was cleaning. All the windows were open to get rid of the dust and musty smells.
"Are you okay, Sorren?" She yelled. The only reply was coughing. "Did you get hurt?" The teen ran to check on him.
"I'm fine." The young man, hanging out the window, croaked between coughs.
"Let me guess, you dropped the box and dust flew everywhere. Again." She snorted. "I keep offering, if you want a mask to keep the dust out of your lungs, I've got extras." Her clothes and mask were only slightly dusty, while her friend's clothes were gray and smudged. His brown hair looked gray with dust.
Pulling himself back inside, he waved her off and sent more dust into the air. "I told you, I don't need one. They're itchy too! I don't understand how you wear one."
"My masks are not itchy. If you would fucking wear one and not be so clumsy, you would be able to breathe and see properly!"
"Not th-AH!" He was cut off abruptly by someone tackling him through the window.
"I caught the ghost!" Natsu yelled proudly, pinning the older wizard down.
"Get the fuck off my friend!" Lyla screamed and kicked the pinkette.
"Ow! What -ow!- did I do?" he whined. "Ow! Stop it!"
"Maybe jumped through my damn window and tackled my friend?" She shoved him off Sorren with her foot before relenting. "You both are idiots!"
"Thank goodness you're not wearing your iron boots." Natsu grumbled as he sat up. "Those soft boots hurt enough."
"Out of my house, thank you very much. The front door, not the window." She demanded.
"Ok." The fire wizard jumped out the window anyway. At least they were on the first floor.
"Thanks, Lyla," Sorren coughed from the floor.
"You look like a dust bunny, not a ghost." She grumbled at him and helped him up. "Natsu is an idiot. I better go figure out what he's doing here."
"I'll come with you."
"No, you will go home and shower, bunny."
"Seriously?" He quirked a brow.
"Your nickname is now Dust Bunny. Deal with it, bunny." Her eye glinted teasingly.
"You and your weird nicknames." He grumbled and walked away.
Sighing, the young woman jumped out the window and began following the crushed trail of vegetation. "I'm going to kill that Salamander."
"-ghost really does exist!" Natsu's extremely loud voice carried on the wind.
"I don't think you saw a ghost hanging out of Lyla's window." Lucy told him.
"Natsu, there is no such thing as ghosts!" Gray argued.
"Hmph." That was Erza. Lyla smiled mischievously as she snuck up on the five. Happy was sitting on Natsu's head noisily eating a fish.
"Ghosts aren't real, huh?" she whispered into Gray's ear.
"Kyaah!" he screamed girlishly, which caused Natsu to scream girlishly as well. Lucy and Erza jumped, but didn't scream.
"Natsu, Lyla, how could you!?" Happy cried over his dropped, squished fish before flying away.
"You guys are so easy to scare!" Lyla laughed wildly.
"That was admittedly funny to see those two scream like cute girls." Lucy snickered.
"Yes." Erza agreed with a smile.
When the brunette teen calmed down, she asked, "What did you guys come all the way out here for anyway?"
"To help you."
"To go shopping!"
"To see your new house."
"For food!"
The four of them spoke over each other.
"Ok. First. None of you are allowed in my house without my permission." Lyla stared them each down. "And the cat and dog aren't allowed at all. No food from my house either, animals." Her pointed glare rested on the two males of the group for several seconds. "Second. I just bought the place. I need to fix it. So, stay out unless I invite you in."
"Great."
"Good."
"Ok."
"Aw…"
"And why the hell do you want me to go shopping, Erza?"
"So we can get all the stuff for our trip! Loke- I mean Leo, gave us tickets. There's one more for you too!"
"No."
Loke was a wizard of Fairy Tail who was infamous for being the lady's man. Lyla knew of him, but they never really talked. It turns out Loke was actually Leo, the lion celestial spirit who had been cast out of the celestial world for indirectly killing his previous celestial wizard. Lucy had helped him and now Leo could go back to his own world. They made a contract together and Lucy now had the Leo celestial key along with Cancer, Aquarius and Taurus. This was all when Lyla met Sorren, so she only knew what Lucy had told her.
"Why not?" Lucy asked.
"I need to fix my house. Natsu tackled my friend who was covered in dust and made a bigger mess. So fuck off." The five of them continued to bicker until, reluctantly, Lyla allowed herself to be dragged along.
"Why the fuck do you want me to try on that?" Lyla asked, slightly confused.
"Because you'll look so pretty!" Lucy and Erza insisted together. The two boys had abandoned ship when Erza and Lucy dragged Lyla into a dress shop.
"It reveals too much." The teen said flatly.
"It doesn't reveal that much…" Lucy muttered in confusion. It only revealed the back, top of the chest, arms and legs.
"For you, that's not that much," the brunette said softly.
"True. We can barely see any of your skin." Erza commented, still trying on her dresses. She had picked out a lot of them...
"There's a reason for that."
Lucy gently asked"Do yo-"
"No."
Lucy tried again."Are you s-"
"I'm sure. I'll pick out a dress, but only if you'll drop this subject." Lyla pleaded. "It's a really sensitive subject. You know, like your father?" She had been there when Jude Heartfilia tried to beg money from his daughter. The blond wizard winced.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry." She apologized.
Lyla sighed. "It's fine. I just… have had a really hard life. It's not something I like to talk about."
"I understand that." Erza patted the shadow wizard's arm. "We won't pry." A smile lit up the teen's face.
"Moving on!" She said happily. "I already picked out a dress."
"Really?" Lucy gasped.
"I thought it was pretty and since I have to get a dress now, I can at least try it." She shrugged before walking out of the changing area. Erza quickly returned to modeling the dresses for Lucy.
After several dresses, the young woman returned and asked shyly, "W-what do you think?" The two women gasped.
"That looks great on you!" They said in unison.
"Thanks." Her cheeks pink, Lyla twirled slowly. The dress she liked was a soft gray color with long sleeves, a higher neckline and a floor sweeping skirt. It fit her beautifully, except it was a little long and her chest wasn't quite large enough for it.
"You should totally buy it! We can get it fitted and you can have that!" Erza declared.
"I really like it. It's comfortable. Just… not affordable. I just bought a house and I am basically broke. Not enough money for this anyway." She pointed out bluntly.
Erza laughed. "I'm paying for the dresses. It's not a problem for me."
"R-really!?"
"Why so surprised? Anyway, we're leaving tomorrow to Akane Resort, so make sure you have everything."
"What?!"
"Come on, Lyla. Erza's coming to the bar with us, you should too!" Lucy insisted. She was trying to get the other teen to come to the bar and gamble with the rest of them. Loke had given them tickets to Akane Resort as thanks for Lucy helping them. There was a spare for Lyla to tag along. She got Sorren a ticket with some of her furniture money. She still lived with Lucy for the time being, and she didn't want Sorren to be alone.
"No. I'll stick out. I don't want to ruin anything for you guys." She had gotten in trouble at the beach for looking suspicious due to her thief-like outfit.
"You won't! Just wear something a little less attention-getting."
"This is not attention-getting."
"It is here."
"I'm not changing. I'll go down and hang out, but I'm not changing."
"I'll take it."
That was how the brunette teen ended up watching her friends play and have fun. She had finally forced Sorren to stop avoiding her and sneaking around badly.
Akane resort was a very fancy place. A five star hotel, lots of beach that the team had fun on. Everyone was currently dressed up for the casino they were in. A lot of chances to win money, but even more chances to lose money. Sorren proved to be bad at gambling, so he and Lyla were at the bar, waiting for Sorren's extra large cup of booze to be served.
He wore a black suit with a golden coloured tie. Without the collar of his shirt covering his neck, Lyla could see a pale blue Fairy Tail mark on the back of his neck. Sorren said he had it that colour to match his father's eyes, which were the same as his.
"You really suck at sneaking around."
"You've said that several times already!"
"And I'll say it again, Bunny. You suck at sneaking."
"Just stop!"
"With what?"
"The nickname!"
"No."
"Yes!"
"No."
"Here's your drink, Mr. Bunny." A waiter set a cup down in front of him.
"Agh! You're impossible, Lyla!" He groaned. She had ordered his drink for him. She knew all his favorites.
"No, you're impossible. Just accept it! Claim it and own it!" She teased.
"No, ninja." He retorted.
She gave him a flat look. He couldn't see the lazy smirk she was giving him because she refused to take her mask off. "Just give it up, you'll never find a good nickname for me."
"I will! Mark my words!" They continued to banter while he drank as much as he wanted. The teen refused any and all food and drinks, insisting there were too many people around.
Lyla had learned during their vacation so far that Sorren and the others know each other rather well. Lucy didn't know him since she was new next to Lyla, though. Sorren and Natsu fought a few times; He mentioned they met as children once or twice. He and Gray talked a little, and Sorren was frightened of Erza, almost like everyone else.
After a while of their playful chatter, Lyla was startled by a loud explosion, followed by another not long after. She quickly scanned the room to see Juvia and Gray being confronted by a large, tall man with dark hair and some kind of metal mask and baggy pants. A blocky-looking man in a suit with a gun was moving away from the last place she had heard Natsu and Happy. A strange cat-girl was stalking Lucy. Finally, the most worrisome, was Erza looking horrified as a strange young man with blond hair and a deep tan spoke to her. She hadn't even realized that the lights had gone out thanks to the big man. She could see perfectly in the dark because of her affinity for shadow magics.
"Lyla? What's going on?" Sorren asked as she dragged him out of his seat. He was drunk. She hadn't expected trouble, so she hadn't monitored him too closely.
"Trouble." She answered, her voice tight with anger. She moved effortlessly through the dark, still dragging Sorren along, and tackled the man who had given her such an advantage. He stumbled under the sudden, unexpected weight of two people. Before they hit the ground, they were gone.
The three of them reappeared in Lyla's hotel room. In the moment that the bigger man was stunned, she tied him up with shadow ropes. Sorren tottered into the bathroom before puking his guts up. Not surprising because of the difference between this Shadow Shift and all the others he had experienced.
"Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing here to my friends?" The teen snarled at the man.
"A better question would be who are you and what did you do?" The man retorted. He wasn't reeling nearly as much as Sorren. He obviously had an affinity for shadow magics. Her magic had barely been taxed to transport him.
"I'm asking the questions here. Now answer me!" She snapped at him. Her friends had been attacked and she did not like that.
"I'm Simon. I am here to capture Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail. I would hazard a guess that you are her guildmate." He responded, totally unphased.
Lyla inhaled deeply before she turned and walked to the bathroom. "Sorren are you okay?"
"I'm great," came the weak reply. Lyla shut the door gently. She vaguely recognized the man. Now she had to confirm it.
"Ok." The young woman walked back up to Simon. She glared at him harshly. Slowly, she pulled her mask down. "If you truly are that Simon…" she muttered before sweeping her hair out of her face with her right eye closed.
The man jerked in surprise. "You're her!" He exclaimed in shock. "Experiment S!"
The teen released her hair and smoothed it before responding, "Yes, I am..." she paused as disgust claimed her, "Experiment S." Thank fuck Sorren wouldn't remember hearing this.