Walking Cliche

by SwiftDragonfly

The oldest cliché in Fanfiction history: A girl from the real world is transported to Earthland, home to Fairy Tail and other magical wonders. Confused, lost, and trying frantically to find a way home, an unlikely character takes an interest in her. Bickslowxoc, Bickslow x oc.

37. Chapter 37

Author's Note: Since I didn't update last month, double update. ;)

Also: This chapter is 25,482 words. That is absolutely ridiculous. This chapter is ¼ of a novel.

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Walking Cliché 37

Halloween

The revival of Fairy Tail was a joyous one. Everyone had a newfound appreciate for it while they'd been apart, and they were closer than ever now.

Finding a house in Magnolia was significantly easier than in Clover Town. Claire and Bickslow managed to find a pleasant place to live, and barely managed to get moved out by the end of the month. Their landlady had visited them almost every day for the last week to remind them of when they needed to be out, so they were more than glad to get settled back into Magnolia.

With their new house, they made sure that the owner wouldn't be able to evict them so easily. He seemed like a nice enough elderly gentleman, so they hoped that they wouldn't have any issues. After moving twice in such a short amount of time, they really did not want to do it again. Not for a while, at least.

They weren't too keen on a 'house warming party' again, so they simply got into their half empty Christmas alcohol and spent time together. Michael was more than a little excited about decorating the house (especially his room) and both his uncle and Claire wondered if he'd end up being an interior decorator when he got older. They tried to limit his more creative ideas to his room and promised to keep them in mind for the rest of the house, and kept in mind some of his more rational suggestions.

For dinner, the trio ended up eating a delicious casserole that Mirajane and Lisanna had made them. The sisters had stopped by earlier that morning to see their new house and catch up, and it was a pleasant chat. Both Claire and Bickslow suspected that more guild members would be stopping by over the next few days, and the gesture touched both of them immensely.

It would take a while until the guild was back to its former glory. More than half of the guild members had moved and wouldn't return, and their clients had started going to other guilds. None of that mattered- their family was back together.

"We should get plates and silverware tomorrow." Bickslow suggested, and they all nodded, taking turns eating out of the container Mirajane had provided.

"Before or after we stop by the school?" Claire asked, and he shrugged. "After would probably be better."

"Okie doke."

"Can I go, too?" Michael asked.

"… you want to look at plates and silverware?" Bickslow asked. What kind of 9 year old wants to do that?

He shrugged, looking down and taking another bite of his food.

"There's nothing wrong with that, at all, I think it's awesome you want to go." Bickslow added quickly. "I was just a little surprised. After we talk to the principal at your new school, we'll swing by the guild hall and pick you up. Do you know what you're going to work on with the guild master tomorrow?"

"Paper lanterns for the house. I can't believe so many got lost in the move…" He muttered.

"Have you decided what colors you want your room to be?" Claire asked, seeing that sad look appear in his eye. He instantly cheered up and started talking animatedly about color schemes and paint, obviously excited about his extravagant plans for his room.

1.

Claire was less than impressed by public schools on this world, but she tried to stay civil. Originally she was going to do most of the talking at the school they visited, but upon realizing that she wouldn't be able to say anything positive, Bickslow took over. He was much more relaxed on the subject, especially since Claire could tutor Michael if she was that unhappy with the school, and ultimately he wasn't that worried about his education.

School would be a way for Michael to make friends with kids his own age. So long as the school wasn't teaching him 'wrong' things, and were open-minded to Michael's 'gift', he would be happy. As much as Bickslow loved the kid, he really wasn't that bright, and if he didn't do well in school it wasn't the end of the world.

The school itself was pretty large, since it was the only elementary school in the town. Magnolia's High School was considerably smaller since most kids dropped out their freshman year.

When they left the school, Claire's arms were crossed and she was chewing on the inside of her cheek, meanwhile Bickslow casually walked with his hands in his pockets. Man, I missed this. He thought happily, clad in his cloak and visor.

"That school was pathetic." She grumbled.

"The education part, yeah, but they were nice enough. I think Michael will like it." Bickslow told her, and although she didn't say anything, he knew she was having her doubts. "I've heard that this school is a lot better than Clover Town's, so we lucked out. Plus he won't have to deal with all the snobbish people… school will be a good way for him to make friends."

"Yeah…" She sighed, and finally uncrossed her arms.

"If you're worried about his education, you could always teach him your data compression magic."

"… he might enjoy Archive Magic…" She commented, and looked up at the fall sky. It was mid October, and the leaves were beginning to turn. "It might get him more interested in reading."

"That's the spirit." He said with a grin, and reached out to hold her hand.

Their guild hall was a 20 minute walk from the school, and it was nearly noon by that point. Once they reached their destination, they were more than a little surprised by who Michael was doing crafts with.

To the side of the mess hall, a fairly large group of mages were making paper lanterns. There was pens, crayons, glitter, and plenty of other supplies for the project. Elman held his excessively large lantern up, rather proud of the bulky and weird shaped object. "My lantern is manly! What do you think, sis?" He asked, turning to his little sister.

"It's great, big brother." She giggled.

"Oh yeah? Mine's tons awesomer!" Natsu yelled, standing up on his seat and stomping his foot on the table. He held a poorly made 'dragon' shaped lantern, which looked to be puking red glitter.

Upon their arrival they were both rather amused by the sight- until Bickslow realized who was sitting next to Michael.

Carol.

She had a light blue Fairy Tail emblem on her upper breast, and a tribal style dress draped across her body. Her mid back length hair sparkled against the light, since there were blue and white beads mixed into it.

"Michael," Bickslow spoke, getting his nephew's attention. He looked up from the conversation with Carol, smiling up at his uncle. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah!" He said excitedly, and dropped everything to jump out of his seat and run over to his uncle. Bickslow knelt down to give him a hug, and threw a glare in Carol's direction even though she couldn't see it.

"Why are you here?" He asked once he'd stood. Michael had moved on to give his auntie Claire a hug as well, and then went on to greet their babies.

"She's Claire's sister!" Natsu announced, temporarily distracted from his argument with Elfman about whose lantern was better. Neither of them were good quality, so it was rather amusing to watch them fight over it.

"I know. She worked at Blue Pegasus with us." Bickslow spoke, not bothering to hide his malice for the woman. He didn't want her anywhere near his nephew, and he didn't care she was related to his fiancé. She destroyed a soul.

"I wanted to stay near Claire." Carol answered simply. "We've lost so much family I didn't want to lose her, too."

Laxus had told her recently about their parents, and gave her a summary of most of what had happened to their family. He had skimmed some of the gory details and edited the story to leave out any suspicion regarding their link to the Book of Zeref, since he still didn't completely trust her. The lightning mage had been indifferent to her joining the guild, and had apparently forgot to mention it when he had dinner with Bickslow and Claire the night before.

"Fairy Tail isn't as glamorous as Blue Pegasus. I hope you like it here." Claire spoke, although lacking any enthusiasm for her sister's arrival. When Carol had thought she was in danger from Natsu, she had put herself between them to protect her, but it didn't erase the other things she had done. At the moment, Claire was particularly sore about the destroyed mattress that kept them sleeping on the floor until their new one arrived next week.

The water mage looked back down at her lantern, visibly sad by the response. "Thanks."

"Where are you guys going?" Mirajane asked, seeming rather chipper.

"Shopping for the house." Bickslow answered, still tense from their new Fairy Tail member.

"Plates and silverware!" Michael said with a wide grin, and they all chuckled.

"Oi! Weird fire girl!" Natsu yelled, pointing at Claire. "Which one do you think is better?"

"Michael's." She answered, to which both men slumped. Bickslow hoisted his nephew up to sit on his shoulders, and with a wave of goodbye, the trio headed out.

2.

Erza wasn't sure what to make of the new addition to Fairy Tail.

The pair was currently the only people in the communal baths of Fairy Hills, the Fairy Tail Girls Dormitory, and it wasn't surprising considering the late hour. It was a little past midnight, and the building was quiet at that late hour.

Carol had struck up conversation, and informed Erza of what she had been doing since they first 'met'. She chatted quite a bit about her time on this world, and the red head listened quietly, observing the young woman. She reminded her a lot of Lucy personality wise, although much spacier and sexually active.

Erza had little respect for those that abandoned their comrades. She valued heart more than anything else in a person, and she could find few redeeming qualities in the woman. Her values were in her appearance, and her reasons to connect with Claire were selfish: she just didn't want to be alone. The requip mage understand the emotion exceptionally well, and knew that people didn't want to be alone- she herself didn't do well with too much solitude- but that was her only motivation for joining this guild. She didn't seem to have an interest in Claire herself, who she's become, or helping her; nor did she have any interest in personal growth.

She accounted for her personal bias for the woman. Erza had been the one to keep Claire from jumping off the cliff chasing after her sister- the woman now sitting next to her in the bath happily chatting away- and she had also been the one to see those tears. She had seen a lot of people cry over her years, and holding that fire mage while she wept was one of the most touching moments she'd ever had with another person. What she felt had been true pain. She saw the heartbreak, sadness, and depression she went through following that event. Carol tore her heart in two, and Erza couldn't see a hint of remorse in those sparkling brown eyes.

Perhaps she's just good at hiding it…. She wondered quietly to herself, and after a good half hour of talking about her life in Onibus and Clover Town, she finally asked Erza a question. "So, how long have you been with Fairy Tail?"

"Since I was a child. I grew up with the guild." Erza replied, and the dreadlocked woman smiled softly at her. Her dreads were currently wrapped and tied above her head in a beautiful black and blue cloth.

"Wow, that's a long time. So you were here when my sister joined?"

"Yes."

"It seems like she's made a lot of friends here."

"Yes, she is a remarkable woman."

"What do you think of her fiancé, Bickslow?" Carol asked. Erza hadn't missed the discord between them earlier that evening, as it was practically impossible not to, and chose her words carefully. After he had broken into her bathroom window and she had discovered his frequent unauthorized visits into the Girls Dormitory, she still disliked the man, but knew better than to judge his entire character based on those actions; especially when the brunette was fishing for negative perceptions of the man.

"He has a good heart and treats your sister well." She answered, and the water mage didn't seem to like the answer. Carol pouted slightly, looking away, and then returned to her neutral disposition.

"Am I the only one weirded out by his legion of souls?"

"No, they make most people uncomfortable. Since he met Claire he's been opening up more, and much more friendly to his colleagues. Do you mind if I ask why you two dislike each other so much?"

"He absolutely hates me for getting an abortion. Scared the hell out of me in the break room when I tried to confront him about his beef with me."

"Considering his magic, that's not too surprising. Terminating a soul is extremely serious, and it makes sense that he would be more sensitive to the topic."

"I was only one month along. That's not enough time for anything to develop, despite what people say." She explained, suddenly sour. They were both quiet for a moment, and after a moment of deliberation, Erza decided to tell her what was on her mind.

"If you're at Fairy Tail to make amends to your sister, I commend you and wish you luck. However… you should know that I was there when you chose your dragon friend over your sister," Erza spoke, her voice becoming stern and harsh, contrasting greatly with her previously casual tone. "I held her back from jumping over the cliff to chase after you, and I watched over her when her only family deserted her on a world she didn't yet understand. I've watched her grow, I've watched her fight, and I've watcher her become the powerful warrior she is today. If you do anything to hurt her again, I won't hesitate to cut you down."

To emphasize her point, the requip mage summoned 20 of her swords and aimed them at the nude and terrified water mage. Her brown eyes widened in fear, nervous sweat rolled down her skin, and she sat there shaking for several seconds.

"Fairy Tail is a family, and we look after each other." Erza spoke, and once she was sure that her point was made, she made her swords disappear. Without another word she stood, casually grabbed her towel as she emerged from the water, stepping out of the bath and wrapping the white fabric around her.

Carol watched, still shaking in fear, unable to move or speak.

3.

Bickslow and Claire were finally getting the opportunity for a routine.

Michael started school that Monday, and Claire would walk him to the school 30 minutes away. It wasn't an ideal commute, but if they could find the time they would get bikes.

After walking him to school, she would then jog to Laxus's house, and they would proceed to do a morning jog together, followed by some training, and meet back at the guild hall by 2 PM for a late lunch.

In that time, Bickslow would have the house to himself. The time would mostly be dedicated to training his new souls, but some days would be chill time, and he was immensely happy at that. He loved Claire, he loved Michael, and he also loved his new house- especially sliding around in his socks buck naked while singing girly pop songs.

A little before 2 in the afternoon, he would walk over to the guild hall for lunch with his team. They had a new chef at the guild, so they were all looking forward to better food.

At 3 they would head over to Michael's school, pick him up, and do some more shopping for the house. Bickslow and Claire would honestly prefer to get it done earlier in the day, but the kid got upset when he wasn't involved, so they waited for him. It was a good bonding time for them anyway, so it worked out.

After shopping, they would drop their stuff off at the house and head to the guild hall again so that Michael could hang out with their friends for a while.

Then they would have dinner at the guild, and afterwards, head home. If he had homework he would do it then, and once they were done furnishing their new home, the 'shopping time' would be replaced by homework.

The new parents were rather proud of this schedule. Some days they could mix it up a little and it was definitely flexible. It would allow Michael to finally get some stability, to actually feel like he was home. He had been moved around so often with varying degrees of solidarity, that Bickslow wanted so badly for him to have a place to call home, and to have a warm and loving family that accepted him. Bickslow knew that he couldn't be a perfect parent no matter how hard he tried, but he was going to give it an effort.

At 2 PM, Laxus and Claire walked into the guild hall, still in their workout clothes. They didn't bother going home to shower and change, since there were showers at the guild hall and they were running a little behind schedule.

Kana whistled when they walked in, admiring their workout clothing. Laxus was in a pair of shorts and grey muscle shirt, which left little to the imagination. Claire wore compression capris and a sports bra with a sweatshirt wrapped around her waist, which also left little to the imagination. Since both siblings usually wore more conservative clothing, and they were exceptionally fit, they got a lot more appreciative glances than they'd expected.

"Claire! Your sister doesn't think you can beat us in a fight." Gray yelled, getting her attention. His shirt was missing, as usual, but his pants were still remaining. Natsu was next to him, and nearby, Carol was smiling.

"She hasn't seen me fight before. That's not too surprising." Claire replied as she walked over to them. Laxus continued to the showers, and Bickslow hadn't arrived yet.

"I've gotten a lot stronger this past year. You might be surprised." Gray said with a cocky smirk. Claire chuckled at his eager attitude, and looked over at her sister, who was openly staring at her. She looked horrorstruck as she looked at her, and the fire mage suddenly felt uncomfortable in her workout clothes.

"How about we test that later? I need to shower, and I'm meeting people for lunch." Claire spoke, and when she realized that her sister was trying to speak over her, looked at her questioningly. "Sorry, what'd you say?"

"What are those marks on your skin?" Carol repeated, taking a step forward and continuing to stare at the marks on her muscled flesh.

"Scars."

"But… how?" She asked, looking up at her with wide and worried eyes.

"Stab wounds, mostly." Claire replied, and both Natsu and Gray watched their interaction with intrigue. "Illegal iron magic," She said, pointing to the one on her arm. "Harpoon, fucked up and immensely painful harpoon, other harpoon, iron rod, iron rod, iron rod, Laxus punch," She listed off, indicating to each one. When she heard Gray shudder at the mention of the 'fucked up harpoon', she looked up, and saw a matching scar on his upper chest. "Oh yeah, you have a matching one."

"That fucking sucked." Gray groaned, remembering the injury all too well. He'd gotten it at the Grand Magic Games, and it prevented him from competing. Thankfully he'd been unconscious when it was taken out; he had woken up to Claire screaming bloody murder when hers was taken out, and it took him weeks to be able to sleep after that.

"How did you get hurt so many times?" Carol asked, her eyes tearing up.

"Almost all of these are from our sister, Kelsey. The harpoon not from our sister missed my heart by a centimeter, and I got that by taking out a powerful dark guild." She said rather proudly. When her sister just stood there, beginning to cry while looking at her, she rolled her eyes. "Shit happens. I had to survive on this world by getting stronger, because not all of us had the luxury of serving drinks and getting laid everyday." Claire snapped, and walked away to go take her shower. She resituated the backpack on her shoulder, feeling rather self-conscious with the water woman's eyes still on her, and tried to ignore the urge to put her sweatshirt on.

"She's changed a lot since she joined the guild." Gray spoke, and the brunette turned to look at him, wiping away her tears. "I didn't know her very well when she first joined, but she became one of the strongest mages in our guild in a very short amount of time. Some of us have been training to be an S-Class mage for most of our lives, and she accomplished it in basically a year."

"My fire magic is more powerful than hers." Natsu huffed.

"How many times has she beaten you?" Happy asked nearby.

"Next time I fight her she's going down!" He yelled, fire magic blazing as he laughed maniacally, imagining his victory all too clearly.

4.

After lunch, Bickslow and Claire headed over to the elementary school to pick up Michael. Arriving at the same time as several other parents, they nodded and greeted them, although didn't get the chance to start any conversations. Their little man was running towards them full speed, and Bickslow kneeled down to meet the hug halfway.

As the boy's body collided with him, Bickslow made an exaggerated 'oof' sound and leaned back slightly at the impact. "You're getting strong, Mike!" He commented, chuckling softly. He went to unwrap his arms from him, but found that the brunette kept his face planted between his neck and shoulder, crying. "Don't worry, dude. First days in a new place are always hard."

"Are you a Fairy Tail wizard?!" A small third grade boy asked nearby, pointing up at the fire mage. Her emblem was on the left side of her neck, black, and extremely obvious.

"Yes. I'm a fire mage." She replied, and some of the other kids nearby gawked and whispered 'woah, cool!' to each other.

"I am, too." Bickslow added, letting his tongue hang out and show off his emblem. The kids had an even stronger reaction, talking about how cool it was to have a tongue tattoo, and they were getting a small crowd. Some of the parents watched nearby, waiting to pull their kids away if they needed to.

"Do you guys know the Salamander?!" One of them asked.

"Yeah, he's best friends with Michael." Claire spoke, nodding to the child still in Bickslow's arms. The brunette slowly peered up at her, and then at the group of kids that were suddenly clamoring for his attention and asking him what the infamous fire mage was like.

"Michael was just going to the guild hall to see him. Is there anything you want him to ask Salamander while we're there?" Bickslow asked, continuing to stay crouched down behind Michael and gently nudge him to the group of excited kids, although he wouldn't budge. Upon his question they all started talking at once, debating on what they wanted him to ask the fire mage.

5.

Lisanna discovered that she enjoyed spending time with Carol.

The young Strauss sibling had tried to make a connection with Claire regarding their world traveling experiences, but that hadn't ended well. Carol, on the other hand, was much easier to talk to on the subject. They laughed, joked, and chatted about some of the similarities of their worlds, and not all of it was technology. A lot of it was social, and Carol had some interesting insight on the differences of people sexually on the different worlds.

Both of them laughed loudly, sitting to the side of the mess hall and enjoying their drinks. Shortly after the water mage's rather awkward conversation with her sister, the Strauss sibling had walked up to her and started a conversation. Lisanna could relate to the woman, having an S-Class sister as well and lost her parents. She could tell that even though Carol focused on more shallow topics in conversation, it was a front.

Carol had found out that her parents and little brother were dead. On top of that, she learned that after she essentially left her little sister for a dragon, she'd assumed falsely that Claire was okay. Claire had always been responsible, she'd always been resourceful and independent, and there had been no doubt in her mind that the checker woman would be okay. When she learned that her little sister had been stabbed, punched, and nearly killed several times, it made her feel guilty.

"Laxus is really protective of her, you know." Lisanna spoke, noticing that the mage's gaze had wandered to the woman in question. Claire, Bickslow, and Michael had just arrived to the guild hall for dinner with their friends.

"Huh?" Carol asked, turning back to her.

"Laxus, your brother. He's really protective of her." She repeated, giggling when she saw the fire mage thoroughly mess up the lightning mage's hair, and grin sheepishly at the resulting glare. "Even though she can handle herself in a fight, he'll use his lightning magic to attack people that try to fight her. Natsu used to get knocked out by his magic a lot when he used to challenge her everyday."

"It's still hard to believe that he's my brother…" Carol spoke, going back to her drink. "I had lunch with him a while ago… he's a scary guy."

"He's a little intimidating at first, but he's a big softie. Don't get me wrong, he can be terrifying when he wants to be, and he's by far the strongest wizard in the guild- well, maybe tied with Guildarts- I mean, he defeated one of the Ten Wizard Saints, and that's saying something. Claire can be really scary when she wants to be too, though. Not just with her fire magic, but she's crazy smart." Lisanna explained, and Carol looked up at her in surprise for the last part.

"Claire is smart?" She asked, and her friend giggled. "I mean, she's not an idiot, but she wasn't that bright when we were growing up."

"Anyone that's able to take over Fried's enchantments has to be crazy smart. Even Fried couldn't undo the damage she did. It also shows just how resourceful she is, too."

"'Enchantments'?"

"Rune Magic. It's an extremely complex type of barrier magic, and Fried is the only mage in the guild that uses it. Levy uses a similar kind, but she's still working with the Magic Guild in Crocus." She explained. "I'm not sure what specific kind of magic Claire uses, but she's able to use some form of word magic. I've heard that it's quite beautiful."

"How about I go ask?" Claire suggested, and the white-haired mage blinked up at her in surprise, watching the water mage get up and start walking over to the small group enjoying their dinner. Hoping that it wasn't a bad idea, Lisanna jumped up to join her.

When they reached the table, they looked up at the new arrivals, and everyone but Bickslow and Claire smiled up at them. It was a fairly large group consisting of the Thunder Legion, Team Natsu, and a few other mages from their guild. "Hey Claire, Lisanna was just telling me about some word magic you use. I was hoping you could tell me about it sometime?"

Claire gave her a blank look for a moment, and then shrugged. "It's the closest magic equivalent to computers I've been able to find."

"You found computers on this world?!" Carol asked excitedly.

"Well, a computer without internet." Claire rephrased, and the water mage's enthusiasm went down.

"What the use of a computer without internet?"

"Limitless data storage, for one." Claire answered, and seeing that she was still unimpressed, she summoned her small keypad.

"Honey, just ignore her." Bickslow whispered, but she ignored his suggestion, summoning her data compression magic.

Showing off her magic, she opened all of her documents (the Book of Zeref was in a different storage place) at once, and filled the entire guildhall with floating pages and words. Within the rainbow fire dancing beautifully in the air, a fire train rolled through the space and twisted and turned around the room, and Michael openly 'woah!'d at it. Most of the guild hall residents watched in wonder at the spectacular display of her magic, some of them venturing to reach out and touch the flames, finding that they didn't burn.

After a few seconds, she collapsed her magic again, and went back to eating.

"Can you do it again!?" Michael asked, looking up at her with wide and fascinated eyes.

"I can do one better and teach it to you, if you want." She told him, and he nodded enthusiastically.

"You want to learn that but not seith magic?" Bickslow asked, surprised. When they'd talked about teaching him magic in the past, he'd been disinterested in it. Sure, he loved Bickslow's babies, but as for getting his own he had zero interest.

"My magic is prettier than yours." Claire said with a teasing smile, and stuck her tongue out at him. Just like that, the water mage was ignored as the mages went back to their conversations and dinner, and she walked back with Lisanna to their previous table.

6.

Laxus, Makarov, and a few others watched the fights taking place with interest.

It's not like there was anything better to do.

It was Tuesday, and the siblings had accidentally gotten to the guild hall an hour earlier than planned. With nothing better to do, Claire took them up on their challenges to fight, and they took it outside.

"Her fighting style has changed a lot." Makarov commented, sitting next to his grandson on the picnic table. Neither had really talked about their previous conflicts, and simply ignored past aggressions.

"Not that much. She's off her game today." Laxus told him, and the guild master looked up in surprise.

"Even when she's not on her 'A game', she's able to fight Natsu and Gray effortlessly." Makarov chuckled.

"She's insecure about something… I'm guessing that something rattled her recently." The blond continued, and the old man looked up at him with interest.

"Oh? You can tell that from watching her fight?"

"I understand people best when they fight. For example, I can also tell that Gray is particularly stressed by something, because he's letting himself get way too distracted. Claire has been draining his magic in significant quantities to trick him up, and every time he over thinks the situation without fail, and she takes advantage of it. Natsu figured out that she's insecure and simply toying with them to make herself feel better, so he's playing along and acting more frustrated than he is, hoping that it'll lower her guard and she'll trip up."

"Natsu actually has a plan?" Makarov asked in surprise, and the young man nodded.

"Well, a loose one, anyway. He's watching her every move for an opening and studying her fighting style. He and Gajeel did the same thing during the Games against Sting and Rogue." Laxus told him, and Makarov nodded, recalling that fight. "Claire knows that Natsu is good at watching his opponents and matching their fighting style, so she's purposely being overly cautious to keep him from overpowering her. In a way, they're just messing with each other right now. Claire makes sure to best him just enough so that he knows she's more powerful, and he tries to trick her into showing her more powerful cards by mixing things up and trying to catch her off guard. Which, actually is a pretty smart move, since she has a kneejerk reaction of hitting things too hard when she's caught off guard."

"A habit formed from training with her brothers, no doubt." The guild master chuckled, and he shrugged.

"Probably. That and her history with Kelsey."

"Speaking of family… what do you think of Carol?" He asked, keeping his voice low. They hadn't discussed the new mage as of yet, except for the time they agreed to not tell her that they were technically related.

"… she's determined to stay with Claire, which is admirable. Other than that, I don't think much of her."

"Do you think she's working with Kelsey?"

"No. I think she's just oblivious and ditzy." The lightning mage commented, continuing to watch the fight between Natsu and Claire. Gray had been knocked out moments before. "Now that I think about it, it's probably what rattled Claire. She went a bit overboard showing off her magic yesterday."

"That was an impressive display…" He commented, and glanced over at the water mage currently watching the fight. She was biting her lower lip nervously while her sister fought, looking nervous and tense. "Carol isn't much of a fighter, is she?"

"No." Laxus chuckled.

"Why is Claire intimidated, then?"

"I didn't say she was intimidated." He clarified. "She's insecure, and feels that she needs to reaffirm her position as a fighter in the guild… Carol has been questioning her life choices and bringing up a lot of bad memories lately. Not to mention Claire is a parent now and dealing with a bunch of crap, so that no doubt plays a part."

"I'm glad that she and Bickslow are embracing the parenting life. Michael deserves loving parents like them." He spoke with a fond smile, and Laxus had a matching one.

"Anyone else feel like a fight?" Claire asked once Natsu had fallen, and looked around at the small crowd. Most people were out on jobs that day, so the people present were minimal.

"Me." Carol spoke, stepping towards her with her arms crossed. Claire looked at her surprised, and her surprise quickly turned into an entertained smirk.

"This should be funny." Laxus chuckled, and felt Erza's magic as she walked to stand next to him.

"I was unaware that Carol could fight." She commented.

"She can't." Laxus said with a smirk.

"You sure you want to fight?" Claire asked the water mage, clearly entertained by the gesture. The dreadlocked woman got into a fighting stance, a weak one at that, and the bystanders watched curiously.

"It's how people earn respect around here, right?"

"Not really. It's just a fun pass time."

"Well, I could beat you as a kid, and I can do it again now."

"I'm not one to turn down a challenge." Claire said with a shrug. "Come at me, bro."

Carol did as she asked, running at her with her fist aimed for her face. It was all too easy to dodge, and as Claire spun past her in an overly fancy move, she shoved the woman's shoulder to make her knock her off balance. Instead of a solid shoulder, her hand dipped into water, and watched nearby as her sister turned to try and attack her again.

"Interesting, your body turned to water."

"I can set my magic to turn into liquid whenever someone hits me- Joseph taught it to me before he died. You can't land a single hit if you tried."

"Neither can you." Claire countered with a smirk, easily dancing around her sister's clumsy attempts to punch and kick her, hands in her pockets and chuckling at her sister's growing frustration. After a small while, Claire started tapping her in various places to see if she could find a weak spot in her magic, and eventually, she did.

Her magic was set to liquefy her body when she made contact with foreign magic. In other words, it was a perfect defense against mages or normal civilians that happened to have any magic in them.

So if Claire hit her with no magic….

The water mage was sent flying and smashed into the wall of the guild hall, startling everyone that watched along with the people inside. Claire and Carol had been fighting for almost a full minute before she ended it with the one hit.

Fried was the one to run over and check on the groaning woman, who was seeing stars and laying sprawled on the ground.

"That's a pretty good defense." Claire complimented to her sister, who was obviously in pain and not listening.

"You went too far, Claire." Fried told her, and the fire woman shrugged.

"She's durable. She'll be fine." She said simply, and doubting that anyone else would want to fight her, she made her way over to the small group on the picnic table. "Hey Erza, how's it going?"

"It's going well, thank you. What was the defense you were speaking of?" She asked curiously, having been curious about the woman's water magic. Juvia had a similar ability, but they seemed opposite, somehow.

"She can make her body liquefy in the presence of foreign magic. Even the slightest detection activated it."

"Interesting. Juvia's magic works the opposite- her body liquefies whenever she's hit with enough physical force, and whenever something is amplified with magic, it'll harm her."

"That is interesting. They'd probably learn a lot from each other." Claire commented, and Erza nodded in agreement.

"Do you feel better after kicking her ass?" Laxus asked curiously.

"Not really. I think I'm more pissed off, now." She muttered, looking over at her sister, who Fried was in the process of picking up with the assistance of Lucy.

"Why?"

"She said she learned that from Joseph… who knows what else he taught her." She said in all seriousness, and the group looked at her in surprise, and then glanced back to the unconscious girl. Erza and Makarov didn't quite know the seriousness of her words, but Laxus did. Joseph had a known association with Zeref.

"He's the dragon that brought you to this world, right?" Erza asked, and Claire nodded.

"Yes. He was incredibly dangerous."

"Have you two learned anything new about this dragon? All that I know is that he summoned your family to this world." Makarov asked in a hushed voice, looking between the siblings. They both exchanged a glance, deciding it was time to leak their earlier agreed upon information.

"We think he worked with Zeref." Laxus spoke, and both of their eyes widened.

"Are you certain?" Erza asked.

"No." Claire answered. "And we can't disclose our source, but… we're, like, 99.99% certain." Only lying by .01%...

"How were they involved with each other?"

"We think they made a deal at one point. Information on Carol in exchange for something else. Whether they had further dealings outside of that, we have no idea." She explained, and really, it wasn't that far off. Laxus and her had been concerned when they first realized that, since Zeref created the book to summon them he may have asked for something in return, and that 'something' could potentially be bad.

"The water dragon went to Zeref for information on her?" Makarov clarified. "Do you know what he gave in exchange?"

"No idea."

"So Zeref could have a weapon from a dragon somewhere?" Erza asked, and they nodded. "Do you think Carol would have any idea what it is?"

Claire snorted. "He fed her bullshit about our family being safe and sound on our world, and she didn't ask questions. I doubt he told her anything… She thinks he was a saint." She scoffed, chewing the inside of her cheek.

"I'll question her about it tonight. She likes to visit the dormitory baths at night." Erza decided. Claire seemed to stare off into space for a moment, and then turned back to the requip mage.

"Has she been making friends here?' She asked curiously.

"She and Lisanna seemed to hit it off yesterday, and most of the men in the guild enjoy her presence. Why, are you worried about her?"

"I may not like her, but I don't want her to end up like our mom, either." Claire answered, looking back to the guild hall. Nearly everyone had gone back inside, and she presumed that Carol had been carried to the infirmary.

"Your mom?" Erza asked, and then her eyes softened, remembering what happened to her. Makarov was the only one that didn't know, and he looked between the trio curiously.

"My mom killed herself because she couldn't handle living on this world. Carol has been finding out a lot in a short amount of time, and eventually she'll realize just how much blood is on her hands. Can you keep an eye on her, since you both live in the dormitory?" She asked the red head, and she nodded.

"There's also the risk that she'll lose control of her magic." Laxus added. "She could put people in danger, and we have no idea how strong she actually is."

"You have a point. When she first came to this world I found her in jail for destroying a couple of buildings." Claire added.

7.

Bickslow woke up to the sound of rapid knocking on their bedroom door.

He groaned.

More knocking.

"We really need to stop letting him sleep with us." Bickslow grumbled, rolling onto his back and sighing tiredly. When they first took Michael in they slept together because his dad had just died, and they had slowly started encouraging him to sleep in his own room. With the arrival of their new beds yesterday, it made it easier for them to sleep, and they had hoped that it would be an easy transition.

Last night he slept through 'til morning, but evidently that wouldn't happen this night.

"We can have a conversation with him about it tomorrow."

"He needs to learn how to manage his nightmares on his own." He grumbled, and Claire turned on her other side, raising her eyebrows at him.

"You're judging someone else for having nightmares? Really, honey?" She asked, and he groaned, slapping his forehead tiredly.

"Shut up, I'm tired."

"Then go let him in so we can go back to sleep." She grumbled just as tiredly, and rolled back to her other side, snuggling back into the sheets. Bickslow sighed, again, and reluctantly got out of bed to let the panicked sounding boy inside. Upon opening the door Michael wrapped his arms around the man's waist, crying into his stomach, and Bickslow picked him up and carried him over to the bed.

8.

"Everyone laughed at me." Michael pouted, slouched over as he fidgeted with his hands in his lap. After picking him up from school, instead of doing their usual shopping, they decided on going straight home.

"What happened?" Claire asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor near him. Bickslow sat in the middle of couch next to the boy, one arm hanging over the back and a leg folded beneath him.

"I made a friend… she was really nice and pretty, and her name was Stacey…"

"Did they think she had cooties or something?" Bickslow asked.

"No one else could see her." The brunette said, his lower lip trembling. Bickslow's head moved so that he could rub his temples with his hand, feeling bad for his nephew. Claire looked between the pair, unable to make eye contact with either of them. "They thought I was making her up…"

"I had kept an eye out for any wandering souls when I was there, but I must have missed her." Bickslow muttered, keeping his eyes closed as he mentally berated himself.

"Hey, this isn't the end of the world." Claire said cheerfully. "Let's logically analyze the situation and see if we can find a remedy for it. We can't change the past, but we can affect the future. Tell us exactly what they said."

"They said I-I imagined it." Michael stuttered, his eyes red and watery.

"And of course we know you did not. You just have an extra sense that most people don't have, and it allows you to see souls. Kind of like X-Ray vision or heat vision." She explained, and through the tears, the 9 year old smiled. "What else did they say?"

"The teacher said that she's my i-imaginary f-friend."

"We'll have another talk with your teacher." Bickslow told him.

"Anything else?" Claire asked.

"They called me lame…"

"What do the boys in your class like to do?"

"I don't know…" He muttered awkwardly, and shifted in his seat.

"Hey," Claire spoke, and reached up to hold his hands, making him look up at her. "Starting school is difficult, especially when you've never gone before, and we're proud of you for doing this. If you stick with it, I promise that you'll make friends, and you're going to love it. You're not alone, and no matter what, Bickslow and I will be there for you."

"You promise?" He asked, and she smiled up at him.

"I promise. Pinky swear?" She suggested, holding up her pinky. He smiled, linking his own pinky with it.

"Hey, I want in on this pinky action." Bickslow spoke, joining in with his own pinky, and soon after started a tickle fight with him. They laughed and played for a short time, and once Michael had cheered up, he admitted another problem he'd had at school.

"I saw my brother yesterday."

"Nathan?" Claire asked, and he nodded.

"He wasn't allowed to talk to me, but he did, so don't tell anyone…"

"What did he say? How is he doing?" Bickslow asked curiously, although he suspected the answer wouldn't be pleasant. He knew his parents all too well.

"He's going to runaway, and he wants to come here." Michael answered, and the couple exchanged a look. "Can he? Please?"

"We have talked about it…" Bickslow trailed off, looking at his fiancé for an indication of her feelings on the matter. Honestly, he had hated growing up with his parents, and he had no idea how his nephew and niece were being treated there. He also hated the idea of his family growing up with the demons he called 'mom' and 'dad', and had expressed the worry to Claire on multiple occasions.

Adopting children was a big decision, and they had been considerably worried when they took Michael in. He had an extremely troubled past, and they were both terrified of not having the proper resources to help him.

And again… they really had no idea how Nathan and Samantha were being treated there. For all they knew Bickslow's parents had turned into loving grandparents that doted on their grandchildren, or they were the same as when he was a child, getting drunk and screaming at each other every other night.

"How about I visit your parents next week and see how they're doing?" Claire suggested. "They've been adamant about not staying in contact, and I don't want to make any promises to you without knowing the situation better."

Michael grinned at her.

"And if Nathan does come here, we won't turn him away." Bickslow added. "He can't live here, though. Not until we talk to my parents."

"More babies?" Riley asked, popping up and joining them. They'd been so busy lately that they didn't get to hang out as much with their wandering souls.

"Nathan's not a baby. He's my big brother." Michael said proudly.

9.

"How about sexy Egyptian lady?" Bickslow asked, holding up the costume to her body.

"No." She replied immediately, and he made a small 'aaw' sound. They were currently shopping for Halloween costumes with Michael, and each of them had different reasons to be excited for the holiday. Bickslow was ecstatic because he was working at a haunted house this year, and last year was the first in 5+ years that he'd missed working there, so he was extra excited to work on his holiday again. It was a notoriously scary haunted house, in fact one of the best in the country (according to Sorcerer Weekly and several other magazines), and the seith mage prided himself in it. This would be the first time that Claire could really see him in his element, and he was determined to scare her at some point in the night.

Michael, which this utterly baffled his uncle, was less than interested in trick-or-treating. His uncle provided him with so much sugar on a daily basis that there was no reason to get more of it. The young brunette was, instead, interested in the costumes. More than anything he was excited to attend the guild hall Halloween party and then his uncle's haunted house, just to see the costumes and make up.

Claire… well, it reminded her of her home world, and she was a little interested in the haunted house. She had never been to one on her home world, nor this one, so she was curious whether it would actually scare her. She loved zombie, vampire, and other creepy crawly video games, so she expected that she would enjoy this, too.

"Sexy vampire?" Bickslow asked, holding up another skimpy dress to her body.

"Why do you keep pulling out the 'sexy' costumes? And why aren't you looking for a costume for yourself?"

"I already have mine." He said, letting his tongue hang out. "What do you have against sexy costumes?"

"I don't want to dress slutty on Halloween."

"Why not? Why'd you stop wearing those sexy dresses, by the way?" He added, realizing that she'd stopped wearing dresses in general. At Blue Pegasus they wore a specific style of dress, and since Claire's body only really looked good in one style they wouldn't have liked, he understood why she chose the suit. But there had been other formal times when she could have worn a dress, and didn't….

"Wearing dresses makes me feel like a 16 year old, so I stopped wearing them."

"But you don't look like a 16 year old in them…" He said sadly, and pouting. Snaking his hands around her waist and letting his cloak cascade around down her back, he discretely cupped her very nice ass. The part of the clothing store they were at was pretty secluded, so he wasn't too worried about getting in trouble.

"Bickslow…" She giggled, turning and giving him a stern look.

"When you wear sexy dresses you do not look like a 16 year old." He said more firmly and keeping his hands on her. He moved his hands across her body, keeping one arm wrapped around her and bringing her flush against him, meanwhile Bickslow went back to pulling out skimpy outfits. "Sexy nurse?"

10.

Apparently, up until 10 PM, the infamous haunted house had a 'kids version'. It was more of the classic and tame haunted house, with plenty of dancing skeletons and devils prancing about. Overall it was very artistic and costume oriented, which made Michael more than happy. When Claire and Michael went inside she was pretty sure that she recognized Bickslow as one of the skeletons, and figured that that was his 'Halloween costume'.

The seith mage had convinced her to buy the stupid nurse costume. Granted, she got to alter it to be a 'zombie nurse' costume, but still. He got to wear black from head-to-toe with glow in the dark paint on it.

She had never seen so many 'sick' guild mates before in her life when she arrived at the mess hall with Michael, and she heard more than a few men cough around her when she had to wait in line for a half hour for the haunted house, trying to get her attention. It technically wasn't Halloween yet, but in Magnolia people liked dressing up early for it, and Michael had convinced her to wear a costume with him so that he wouldn't look stupid.

Laxus would likely never stop making fun of her for it, and Rufus did a drawing of her, which a surprising number of people tried to get their hands on.

October 25th, 1:00 AM

After 10 PM, the haunted house 'got serious', as Bickslow put it. It wasn't about the classic Halloween basics, and instead about getting screams.

And they sure as hell got them.

While Claire waited in line, she had heard more than a few screams come from within the mansion. For the entire week leading up to Halloween, this haunted house was fully booked. Every other night it was open to the general public, where they would wait in line for sometimes an hour to get in; while on the other nights it was restricted to people that paid extra in advance to not wait in line as long, and one person of choice from each staff member. Claire was one of the latter.

Every year, Bickslow chose a different person. He'd gone through his entire team plus two other random friends. All of them screamed at least once, if not multiple times, although Laxus would never admit to it.

Most of the people she waited in line with had paid a lot to come to this, and wouldn't shut up about how amazing it was. They were haunted house enthusiasts that attended this haunted house every year, and apparently they never failed to scare them. It was supposed to be the most elaborate, terrifying, and horrifying event of the season.

Bickslow told her, promised her, that he would get her to scream at some point in the night.

"You must be Bickslow's girlfriend." The woman accepting tickets said with a smile. She was covered head-to-toe in tattoos, and her booth was in the style of old fortune teller machines.

"Yeah, this is my first time going to a haunted house."

"Ever?"

"Well, I came here a few hours ago with Bixy's nephew," Claire explained, and the green-haired woman smiled.

"He said that you would be difficult to scare, and to try extra hard when it's your turn. The staff actually turned it into a challenge, and when you got here, I was supposed to notify everyone."

"Goody."

"It'll be another 5 minutes until you can enter. We have to have enough space between each person."

"I understand." Claire replied, and stood there awkwardly.

"Nice nurse costume." She said after a moment. The checker woman was wearing a dress that was a little too short and showed off her cleavage, and she wasn't sure how she let Bickslow talk her into wearing it. She suspected that he just wanted to show off his 'hot girlfriend' to his friends.

"Thanks."

After about five minutes of standing around and hearing screams of terror through the mansion, she was finally able to enter. She was instructed to enter through a door, and like the 'kids version', she would proceed room by room through the entire mansion.

To her annoyance, when the door slammed shut on its own, she was left in complete darkness. Standing in the middle of the room for a moment, waiting for some kind of light to come on, she sighed. This was the 'mummy room', if she remembered correctly. "Was I supposed to bring a flashlight?" She asked, staring into the darkness and unable to find any source of light whatsoever.

Feeling a presence in the room, she realized that a wandering soul was in the dark space.

"Hey dude. Or girl. If you're in a vessel, can you glow or something? Or, I guess I'm technically not supposed to know you're there…" She rambled, sensing that the wandering soul was touching her arm. "I wonder if you're just a friendly ghost helper, or if another seith mage works here?" She talked to herself, and when she was simply met by more silence, she sighed.

It didn't smell pleasant, and she suspected that they had rotting road kill all over the mansion to add to the rotting corpse atmosphere. To most people, even those with sensitive smell, it was pretty convincing. For someone that had actually been in a decrepit crypt with half dead corpses writhing in agony, it was easy to tell the difference.

Carefully, she reached her hands out in front of her and started navigating the room. Heels clacked against the ground as she walked, and she hoped that there was nothing on the ground for her to trip over. She was pretty good with heels, but she doubted herself when she couldn't actually see her feet.

"Getting bored…" She spoke, and finally found a door. When she felt around for the handle, she realized that it didn't have one, and was replaced by a metal circle. "Lame. Still bored.

Her hands touched something hairy, and she flinched away, going around it.

Finally, something happened.

Two hands landed on her upper arms, holding her in place.

And… stood there.

"Sup." She spoke, and reached her hand up to start tapping various parts of the hands, arms, and chest. It was a man in a suit of armor, probably to keep people from hurting him when he did that. "This is like a poorly planned sex game."

Well, at least she didn't expect what happened next.

The suit of armor snorted, and then started chuckling, and it turned into full blown laughter. Probably upon realizing that he'd ruined any chance of scaring her in that room, he turned on the lights, which basically lit up the room with black lights. The suited man was covered in strange glowing colors, and he let go of her, still laughing and doubling over in his hysterics.

She smiled triumphantly as the door opened, and she felt rather proud for tripping up one of the 'experts' of the haunted house.

"Charisma: +1." She said softly, and walked out of the room to the next one. Between each main room, there were waiting rooms so that people wouldn't accidentally catch up to each other. A door leading into the next room was open, and she could hear someone inside. Walking into the hospital style room, or dentist style, she looked around to see where the person was.

When she got close enough she smiled, realizing that it wasn't a person.

It was her babies.

The sound kind of freaked her out, because it was the exact same sound they made when they were bound to decaying corpses last year, but she was just proud that they were able to reenact it so well. Smiling, she walked over to the 'person' in the dentist chair, who was leaning back with his face half off and teeth full of extremely sharp and grotesque metal. Halfway between the door and the chair, the door slowly closed, and when she looked back to her babies, they had fallen from the chair. Their make up was exceptionally done, and whoever did the manikin did a good job. It looked very realistic, and only someone with enough experience around dead bodies would be able to see the small imperfections.

Her babies walked towards her like the classic half-zombie reaching towards her, as there was a soul in the head and each hand of the 'body'. Its hands screeched on the floor as it gripped the smooth white surface, staining it with blood as it moved.

"Aaw, babies, I'm so proud of you. You're doing such a great job." She cooed, crouching down and holding her arms out to them.

"Moooommy, you're supposed to be scared of us." They whined in unison and breaking character.

"I'm a zombie nurse, it's okay for me to hug fellow zombies." She said, and fell to her knees as they hugged her, humming against her skin and avoiding scratching her with the metal mouth.

In the observation room, Bickslow smacked his palm against his forehead as his coworker howled in laughter.

The next room was filled with creepy crawlies, which, annoyed Claire more than anything. There was a giant spider, lots of little spiders, giant centipedes, the ground looked like it had been covered in vegetation (she cursed at Bickslow when she had to take her shoes off) and plenty other bugs she didn't recognize. A few snakes slithered across the ground, and she kicked one of them into the wall when it touched her foot.

Most of the haunted house went on in that fashion, and although she was impressed by the time and effort they put into it, wasn't 'scared'. She probably laughed more often than not, and managed to get a couple of other staff members to break character like the first one. Those were probably her favorite moments.

It was too much like the video games she played on her world, and it felt more nostalgic than anything.

By the end she had had a good time, but the entire thing went on for a lot longer than she would have liked, and she walked home yawning tiredly.

11.

October 26th, 12:03 PM

As promised, Claire walked to the Yoshino residence and knocked on the door.

She had kind of hoped that no one would be there at that time of day, and she could simply leave her note and head home. The note was an envelope with a letter addressed to them, asking if they could meet sometime in the near future to discuss Nathan and Samantha.

To her misfortune, the door clicked and swung open, revealing a very tired looking Mrs. Yoshino. She was in a paisley red and white dress, 5 year old girl in her arms, and her hair was a mess. Bags were under her eyes and her skin looked pale and ashen.

"Hi, Mrs. Yoshino. I don't know if you remember me, I'm Claire Groh."

"I remember." She said simply, and standing there like she was ready to slam the door in her face. The little girl in her arms waved cutely at the fire mage, smiling as she remembered her checker hair.

"Look, I was hoping that we could talk about Nathan and Samantha sometime? Michael really misses his brother, and-" Claire spoke, and as predicted, the blue-haired woman slammed the door in her face. "… we could have lunch sometime. You know what? I'll just leave this letter here. It has our new address and if you change your mind, I have contact information inside, and of course you can contact me through the guild." She continued, talking through the door.

The door clicked again, indicating that it was locked.

"I hope you reconsider. Bickslow really cares about his family, and so do I." She spoke, and set the envelope on the door.

12.

October 26th, 2:10 PM

"You're doing the haunted house again!" Bickslow announced when he arrived, staring down his girlfriend who had a spoonful of soup in her mouth. She blinked up at him as he sat down, confused as to why he seemed angry.

"… okay." She shrugged indifferently.

"Why the enthusiasm?" Fried asked curiously.

"She didn't scream once the entire time last night, and made half of the staff laugh during her walk. They have never done that before. Well, except Jane, but she's a giggle freak. Claire made them laugh!" He said exasperatedly.

"You weren't scared?" Evergreen asked, surprised.

"Eh." She shrugged. "I mean, the effects were great and they did a bunch of classic video game stuff, which was awesome, but it didn't scare me. Most of the anatomy on the corpses were pretty realistic, so kudos to whoever did that. I see why your haunted house is so popular."

"But it didn't make you scream." Bickslow said, glaring from beneath his visor with his jaw on his palm.

"… well, think about the person you're trying to scare." Laxus spoke, and the seith mage turned to him. "Claire, remember that zombie job we did?" He asked her, and she grinned goofily at the memory.

"Yeah, but it wasn't just zombie stuff. There were spiders, ghosts, vampires, demons, you name it we have it. None of it scared her. She didn't even flinch at the jump scares."

"Bacchus pretty much made her desensitized to any and everything." Laxus told him.

"And then you further desensitized me in training…." Claire added, looking at him pointedly. He merely smirked and went back to his soup.

"We've never had someone not scream. No one. We even test it on each other before the opening to make sure that it's solid." Bickslow spoke, going back to the haunted house.

"It probably didn't help that I made the first guy I met fall to the floor laughing." She said, and Bickslow tried not to smile. His colleague had to replace him after that because he couldn't stop laughing.

"So you really weren't scared?" Ever asked again.

"I'm pretty sure you made me partially deaf from all of your screaming." Bickslow said, turning to her.

"Are you guys talking about the haunted house?" Carol asked as she approached them. Fried instantly scooted over and invited her to join them, to which Bickslow glared behind his visor and Claire visibly stiffened. The brunette sat between her sister and Fried, and she set her bowl of soup on the table space in front of her.

"Yes, we are. Have you gone before?" Fried asked politely.

"I was invited to go tonight." She replied with a smile.

"Bickslow works there."

"That's cool. I haven't been to one in years, so I'm excited to check it out. Have you been to it, Claire?"

"Yeah, I went last night." She replied, going back to her soup.

"Oh man, I wish I had been there. You've always been a scaredy cat with that type of thing- remember 8th grade?" She asked with a laugh, and the checker woman nodded.

"Yeah."

"It was always so weird." Carol spoke. "Claire loved the creepiest video games, but when it came to real life, she was such an easy target. Remember when we got those monster masks and scared the hell out of Corey?"

"Yep. So Bickslow, I stopped by your parents house today. I left a note telling them to contact us." She asked, looking up at her fiancé and ignoring the dejected pout from her sister.

"They weren't home?" He asked.

"Your mom slammed the door in my face, so I left the note and said I looked forward to hearing from her."

"Sounds like something she'd do."

"Why'd you talk to his parents?" Ever asked curiously.

"We want to check up on Nathan and Sam." Bickslow replied.

13.

October 26th, 8:23 PM

Claire sat in the living room of her home, clad in her pajamas and slippers, leaning back in the love seat and staring at her current dilemma.

Nathan was there.

The ten year old arrived on her doorstep five minutes earlier with a backpack. His brother currently sat next to him with pleading eyes, and she was slightly conflicted on what to do. First thing she would do is hear him out, second was take him home.

"Do your grandparents know that you're here?" She asked, even though she suspected the answer. The short brunette shook his head, sitting up straight with his chin up.

"If they know I ran away, they'll send me to military camp."

"So why'd you run?"

"I can't live in that hell hole anymore." He told her, and she raised her eyebrows at his language. His gaze was determined, set, and stayed locked with hers.

"Are they abusing you?" She asked bluntly. Under normal circumstances she probably wouldn't be as direct with a child his age, but she knew what he was like from what Michael told her. He was the one that looked after his little brother and mother growing up, and had likely seen horrors she couldn't imagine. Nathan was smart and wise beyond his years.

He didn't answer her, so she guessed that the answer was more complicated than that- or maybe she overestimated his maturity level.

"Walk me through a normal day for you, Nathan. Tell me about your grandparents."

"… what if you don't believe me?" He asked, suddenly skeptical of her. She shrugged.

"So long as you don't lie, don't worry about it. I'm a woman of evidence, so anything you tell me I'll try to confirm before taking action."

"What if there's no evidence?"

"If there's absolutely no evidence, I'll stay neutral. However, if what you tell me is serious enough or I deem it necessary, I'll involve law enforcement. My concern is your safety and well-being." She explained. "In other words, I'm an adult, and if you're in trouble I'll help you."

Nathan squirmed in his seat for a moment, avoiding her gaze, and then looked up again with a determined stare. "My grand-" His words were interrupted by a loud banging on the door, which caused the boys to jump in alarm.

"Open this damn door, you demon freaks!" A loud and angry man yelled from the front door. Claire got up and walked over to Michael and Nathan.

"I'll take care of this, alright? It's going to be okay." She told them, placing a comforting hand on their shoulders. Nathan looked especially frightened, and she gently held him down to keep him from going anywhere. "Remember that fire magic I have?" She asked him, looking him in the eye. It was hard for him to look at her with all the yelling from the man at the door, but he did, and he nodded. "I'm one of the strongest mages in a world. That man doesn't stand a chance against me. So stay here while I take care of him, and I promise you, he won't harm you."

He nodded, and she leaned in to give both of them a kiss on their temple. Unfortunately Riley was working with Bickslow for the night, or else she would have asked him to watch the boys, but she figured they would be okay if they had each other.

Claire abruptly opened the door, not surprised by the man she found on the other side.

Mr. Yoshino stood there, eyes wild, and reeked of beer. He wore a stained gray shirt and jeans, his face was unshaven, and he stood at 6 ½ feet tall, towering over her. "Where the hell is my grandson?"

"Mr. Yoshino, please calm down."

"Where the HELL is my GRANDSON?"

"Either calm down or I'll restrain you until you do calm down." She told him, and before he could grab her, she grabbed his wrist and bent it at a painful angle, causing him to fall to his knees. "You may be taller but I am much stronger, Mr. Yoshino. Threats will not work against me." She seethed, and he stared up at her enraged.

"Return my grandson or I'm calling the cops."

"I'll make the call if you're willing to wait outside. You're intoxicated and caused damage to my property. So you should either calm down now, or you'll spend the night in a jail cell."

"Go to hell."

"Go fuck yourself." She said, and pushed his wrist further to make him cry out in pain. "Go home. If Nathan shows up, I'll let you know."

She kicked him down the few stairs leading up to her porch, and watched him leave while grumbling under his breath, holding his injured wrist.

Closing the door and locking it, she listened for the boys in the living room. "Michael? Nathan? He's gone." She walked back into the living room portion, and her shoulders slumped when she saw one of the boys missing. Her adoptive son looked guiltily at his lap, fidgeting with his hands as tears fell onto his sleeves. "Where did he go?"

Not surprisingly, Michael said nothing. Claire smelled the air and followed the boys scent to the back door, and when she peered into the backyard, found that there was no sign of him. She stood in the open door for a moment, letting the cool fall breeze roll into the house. It was dark outside, even with their pathetic porch light, and it was also cold.

"Nathan, if you can hear me, Mr. Yoshino is gone. You're always welcome here, please be safe." The fire mage spoke into the darkness, and after waiting a few seconds, closed the door.

14.

October 27th, 3:00 AM

Thankfully, Laxus was babysitting that night.

Even though she knew that he would look after Michael, she couldn't help feeling nervous about leaving him alone. She felt bad for the entire thing and hoped that Nathan was alright. After she had contacted Bickslow about it, she searched backyard and the surrounding streets for the runaway child, calling out his name and hoping that he had stayed in the area. Nathan was alone and probably scared, and with his drunken grandfather running around, she didn't want to think about what could happen. Both Laxus and Bickslow assured her he would be fine, as Magnolia was an exceptionally safe place and the only 'bad people' were the violent ruffians of Fairy Tail, which if any of them found the little brunette they would take care of him. Not to mention this apparently wasn't the first time that Nathan had run away from home, and he always turned out fine.

More than anything now, she didn't want to be walking to the stupid haunted house at 3 in the morning in a skimpy nurse costume. It wasn't even a zombie costume anymore because she didn't want to put the stupid make up on.

Claire, unlike Nathan, and going to 'get the scare of her life'.

"Right on time." The fortune teller said with a smile. "You ready to be scared?"

"If I fake scream, can I go home?" Claire asked, and the woman laughed. As she continued laughing, she disappeared into darkness. "I'll take that as a 'no'…" She muttered.

The house felt unusually vacant, with the usual screams unheard. The fire mage guessed that this was an after hours project, and wondered if the staff were actually up for the challenge or if Bickslow just talked them into it. Although, she supposed that she would make for a good guinea pig if any of the staff were hoping to try out some new material, so she hoped that this wouldn't be a complete waste of time for them.

Unlike the other two times she had been in this house, as soon as she entered the massive closed doors, there was no indication for where she should go.

And, unlike last time, the massive front room wasn't a tourist section. Earlier there was a gift shop to the side neatly open and overflowing with people, signs pointing to everywhere, and an 'enter' sign to the door she was supposed to go to. This time, however, nothing was clearly labeled, it was dark, and she guessed that the entire staff was in that room.

The black lights were on, and everyone was moving in the darkness with their glowing skeleton paint sometimes peeping through. It wasn't scary per say, but it was immensely cool to have waves of people swarming around her in the darkness and occasionally grabbing her ankles or arms. It was surprisingly quiet, too, which she gave them major props for.

"Even with my heightened hearing it's hard to pick up on you guys. Nice." She said with a grin, and walked further into the house. "Now, should I go the previous route, or-?" Before she could ask, her legs were sweeped out from under her and she was carried to a different room.

"Ow…" She whined after they tossed her on the floor and shut the door, leaving her alone in a room. There must have been secret doors leading into every room, which was to be expected, and she found herself in a room that was halfway through the walk. At least this will be shorter than the last two tours….

In the middle of the room was a small round table with a crystal ball on it. In front of it was a piece of paper saying "DO NOT TOUCH!", and it wasn't there yesterday.

Yawning, she pushed herself onto her feet, and walked over to the ball. She glanced around first, making sure there wasn't anything else obvious she was supposed to do, and then tapped the smooth object.

She fucking hated illusions.

In front of her the floor turned into a grotesque, tar like substance that swallowed the table and ball. She found herself unable to move, her stupid 4 inch shoes caught in it, and slowly sinking.

From within the bubbling tar something reached out to her, and as she sunk lower, something grabbed the back of her calf. "Mom…" One of them groaned, although it was such a strange sound, she doubted that's what it actually said. Nonetheless that's what she heard, and her heart sunk.

Small creatures started emerging from the tar and reaching out to her, and all she could see were the dead children in her life. Her two nieces, the baby that Carol aborted, Michael, Nathan, Sam….

They continued reaching for her, grabbing her, and pulling her down.

She felt depressed.

So many dead babies… and I couldn't do anything for them….

Once her head had been submerged, she found herself back in the untouched room, still touching the 'DO NOT TOUCH!' crystal ball. She removed her hand, pouting and now feeling sad, and looked around the room for an indication of where she should go next. One of the doors burst wide open.

Leather straps immediately attacked her ankles and wrists, pulling her into the air and then strapping her down to a metal slab in the next room. It was much rougher than anything in her earlier experiences, so she guessed that Bickslow had given them the okay to be a little less gentle. "Not again. This might be scarier if-" Before she could further comment, a strap covered her mouth, and she squeezed her eyes shut when a harsh light shined on her face.

Like most of the house, it smelled like death in the room, but it was particularly strong in this one. She could hear drills and other eerie sounds nearby, which, considering that she had been in this position before in real life, it wasn't that realistic….

"Alright, Miss Groh," A voice now spoke, and moved the light slightly so that she could make out his form. "You've been scheduled for a heart transplant, and after I take the organ out…" He began to explain all the 'horrors' he would perform on her. She started taking mental notes on the parts he was blatantly 'wrong', or just a little off on, and after a few minutes of him trying to be scary, he took the strap off.

"If you're trying to go for a necromancer feel, you might want to focus more on…" She spoke, and started listing all the things he'd done wrong. Although he was a little surprised at first, he then took out a small notepad and started taking notes. "… which, if you're going purely for theatrics, you did a pretty decent job, but if you find yourself operating on a doctor or anyone that knows anatomy, you're more likely to make them laugh when you…"

"Uh… thanks?" He asked towards the end. "Mind if I ask how you know so much about necromancy…?"

"The leader of the Ghoul Guild is a necromancer, and he tried to recruit me a while back. Used his body possession spell to keep me still and listen to his entire process."

"Really? He just… sat you down and explained everything?"

"Pretty much. I can't go into detail about the circumstances, but that pretty much covers it." She said, and they sat there in silence for a moment, just laying/standing there. "So, uh, how's your day going? I hope this wasn't too much of a bother for you guys, I know that Bickslow can get carried away sometimes."

"Oh not at all, we were pretty excited about this. Just like I am about cutting out your organs! Mwahahaha!" He laughed theatrically, and when she merely smiled up at him, he sighed. "Really? Nothing?"

"I think you're doing a great job?" She said with an awkward shrug. "I might be a little more into it if I hadn't just gone through the illusion room. It made me kind of depressed."

The man took the paper barrier off his face, so she could actually see him for the first time. "Really? Depressed? The girl that sets that up usually does a really good job- I've never heard of someone saying they got depressed. Scared and sometimes a 'meh', but never depressed. Oh, I'm Simon, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Simon, I'm Claire. And I have a bad history with illusions, and the small creatures made me think of dead children, which was depressing. I have a little boy at home right now and his brother is missing."

"Do you and Bickslow have a kid together?"

"Yeah. Well, kind of. He's Bickslow's nephew and we adopted him."

"Oh that is too cute. Bickslow doesn't talk much about his personal life, well most of us don't, but I never pictured him as a dad. Anyway, good luck finding his brother, I should probably let you move onto the next room."

"Alright, well have a nice night." She said, and pulled at the restraints, but found that they weren't moving. Instead, the table beneath her started to move.

"Thanks, you too." He waved, and watched was she sped off on the dissection table. "Thanks again for the notes!"

The table sped up and zoomed out of the room, and she found herself a little more than unnerved by it. This was probably the 'scariest' part she'd seen so far, as it felt like the mode of transportation beneath her would collapse any second and send her flying.

Which, is exactly what it did.

After traveling through room after room, and practically the entire mansion, the front of it buckled and fell, the straps came undone, and she went flying into the air. Now, this wasn't the first time she'd been spontaneously flown into the air (thanks to her brothers) but it was the first time this had happened in a mini skirt and heels, and she was a little nervous about how she'd land.

She found herself flying into an empty ballroom, which was much more lit than most of the house, and there didn't seem to be anything to catch her.

As she plummeted to the ground after grazing the ceiling, she felt her body catch on webs. Everytime she broke one another was there to catch her, and it felt like she fell through 50 of them before she softly touched to the ground, safe and sound. "… huh." She muttered, and looked around, curious by this set up.

Carefully, she moved back to her feet, finding that there were spiders moving along the sides of the room, and she could sense a ton of wandering souls in the immediate area. Looking around, aside from the spiders, she couldn't really find anything creepy or odd about the situation.

She rubbed her arms and legs free of the webs, which were still clinging to her, and continued looking around.

"What are you planning…?" She wondered, feeling curious about the sheer number of souls around her. They seemed to be moving, possibly in a clockwise direction around her, but she couldn't be certain. It was odd, to say the least, and she hadn't sensed so many wandering souls in one room before. I wonder how many seith mages are part of this…?

A sign blinked on above one of the doors, signaling 'EXIT'. "… alright…" She muttered, and started walking to the stairs on the other side of the ballroom. She got closer and closer to the mass of souls, and paused just in front of them, making a whining sound.

There was no other route to the 'EXIT' sign, so she would have to go through.

"Here goes nothing…" This is supposed to scare me, not hurt me, so-

As she submerged into the soul wall, she was dead wrong.

It felt like her entire body was hit by a truck, and her senses completely overloaded in those seconds. She fell, holding her head and curling up into a ball to try and reduce the space that it would hurt, but it didn't help. Her 'extra sense' felt like it was being torn to pieces, and with it her entire body felt it had been submerged into a snowstorm. When her eyes blinked open, it looked as if she was in a tunnel of rainbows and colors, and if she wasn't in so much pain, she'd think that it was beautiful.

All she could hear was a roaring thunder.

After what felt like hours, something grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her out of whatever the hell she'd gone into.

"You okay?" A feminine voice asked.

"What the hell was that?" Claire asked, still curled up in a ball. She felt sore all over, and the sensation wasn't unlike hearing a massive explosion way too close by, except the ringing in her ears was across her body.

"We call it the 'soul train'. All of the seith mages put their wandering souls in this room, and they move in a large circle around whoever is inside."

"A little warning would have been nice…" She muttered, trying to recollect herself and sit up, but the sore sensation was still there and it hurt. It felt like someone threw a million razorblades at her. "Hurt like a goddamn fuckerfucker…"

"Bickslow mentioned that you could sense souls, but not see or hear them…. It probably just overloaded that ability. We usually don't use this on people sensitive to souls without warning, but those people can usually see what they're walking into…." The woman watched Claire for a moment, wondering just how bad her condition was. Children would sometimes react this way, but she couldn't recall a time it happened with an adult. Her coworker specifically told people that they didn't need to go easy on her, that she was an S-Ranked mage at Fairy Tail after all, and yet here she was curled up on the floor like a kid. She reached for her communications lacrima and pulled it to her mouth. "Bicks, you should come over to the ballroom."

In the next room, Bickslow blinked in surprise and then sulked. He'd been waiting perfectly still for the past five minutes waiting for Claire, excited for her to go into his room, and now it was ruined. He reached for his own communications lacrima hanging from his belt. "Is she okay?"

"The soul train took her out."

"Soul train? Really?" He asked, and after a moment, he sighed. Jumping down from his perch he went over to the door and walked through, going into the ballroom. As he walked forward and looked down at the dance floor, he could see the rainbow of souls still moving around in a large circle below, while his fiancé was curled up on the floor next to his coworker in a skeleton suit.

"I thought your girl was going to be a challenge?" The skeleton woman asked as he made his way down the stairs.

"I thought this was about scaring me, not causing physical pain." Claire growled back, and the skeleton chuckled.

Bickslow had gone through the soul train hundreds of times, and although the first few times had been a little intimidating, he'd learned to grow indifferent to it. Sometimes it was kind of fun to walk into a river of rainbows and glowing colors, and he'd heard of his coworkers getting high and laying around in it.

When he got to Claire he sat down in front of her, taking his mask off in the process and getting a good look at her. She was shaking, curled up in a ball, and her eyes mostly stayed closed but occasionally blinked open. "You okay?" Bickslow asked softly, and reached over to touch her cheek. She flinched at the contact.

"Can we go home now? I'm freezing cold, my everything hurts, and I'm worried about Michael and Nathan."

"Have you heard of the soul train hurting anyone, Carla?" Bickslow asked, looking over at his colleague who had started to walk away.

"I've heard of it happening to children." She replied, smirking beneath her mask. "You mentioned that she's sensitive to wandering souls. How ever she senses them probably just got overloaded, and she'll be fine."

Bickslow frowned, looking back down at his fiancé. She did have heightened senses, not just for wandering souls, so it was possible that those got 'overloaded' in the train, too. The souls were supposed to be quiet when they did it, but sometimes they giggled or got bored and could get loud. Not to mention Fried had cast an extra enchantment around the mansion so that Claire wouldn't accidentally burn things with her magic, so the added drain may be contributing. Claire had been around poltergeists and his souls so often he never considered this would have been an issue. "Can you walk?" He asked after a while.

"I'll let the others know that it's over." His coworker spoke as she walked away, already getting her communication lacrima out again.

Claire shifted, slowly, and tried to uncurl herself. She was shaking, something that Bickslow wasn't accustomed to seeing her do, and she looked absolutely exhausted.

"How about you let me carry you home?" He asked, letting his tongue hang out. In all honestly he was pretty exhausted from his 10 hour shift, but it was his fault she got hurt, and it was pretty rare he got to play the 'knight in shining armor' card. Even when Claire was injured she was pretty self-sufficient, and he liked the idea of being all manly and carrying his girlfriend home. "I just need to stop by the observation room to get my cloak and a few other things, and then I can head out."

"I guess I'll wait here?"

"No way. You put up with the 'challenge' tour, so you get to see the behind the scenes." He said with a grin, and before she could try and stand, he hooked his arms under her back and knees, picking her up. Holding her against him, he dismissed any objections she had and took an alternate route out of the ballroom.

After showing her around the mansion a bit, and showing her off by being less than subtle in his 'check out my hot girlfriend' attitude when they happened across his coworkers, they eventually made it to the observation room. It was connected to the break room, and next to that was the men's locker room, and on the other side of the room was the women's locker room. Bickslow set her down on an empty couch, got his cloak hanging from a coat rack to put around her shivering body, and then went to the locker room to change.

She helped herself to a cookie while she waited, and recognized Simon as he walked in. "Hey Simon." She greeted, and he smiled as well, still clad in his doctors outfit.

"Hey Claire, how's it going?"

"Not too bad. Bickslow just showed me around the building, and I'm waiting for him to change."

"Cool, how far did you get tonight? Did you get to the alligator room?"

"No, the soul train took me out."

"The soul train? I thought you were used to being around wandering souls?" He asked curiously, standing by the snack table and popping a few pieces of popcorn in his mouth.

"It didn't scare me, it just overloaded my senses. Hurt like a motherfucker."

"Really?" He asked, surprised.

"Yeah. It sucked." She said with a frown.

"Huh. Well, sorry to hear that- usually people just get weirded out by it and keep walking. Most people scream, and we normally use it on people that are hard to scare."

"How many seith mages work here?" She asked curiously, and he smiled.

"Too many." He chuckled. "There's about 10 that I know of, and the rest are non-seith mages, like me. This haunted house was founded by dark mages, but light mages came in and redid it. Now it's a way for seith mages around the country to gather for a common interest, along with other people interested in the dark arts that don't want to do it for real."

"That's really cool." She said with a grin. "Are the seith mages all specialists with human souls, or are there the animal ones, too?" As she asked the question, someone else came into the break room and headed to the snack table. The skeleton woman took her mask off and started filling up a paper plate with food, and Claire noticed that she had the same tattoo as Bickslow.

"The 10 I mentioned specialize in human souls, and there's a few animal soul specialists, but not that many. They're usually the ones to provide the animal carcasses."

"Which smell terrible." Claire added, and both of the snacking staff chuckled.

"We're around it so often that we've gotten used to it." Simon replied. Claire blinked and rubbed her eyes tiredly, wishing that her vision would go back to normal. Everything was blurry and glowy, and would shift back and forth between normal and weird every few minutes. Her ability to sense when wandering souls were nearby was completely shot, and even though she knew souls were nearby, she couldn't sense them.

It was frustrating, and 4 AM, and she was worried about Michael waking up in the middle of the night with no one to comfort him. "How long have you guys been working here?" Claire asked, looking back up at them. Conversation was a good distraction.

"I've been here for 3 years." Simon said.

"8 years." The seith mage replied, stuffing her face with food. Hearing her voice, she recognized her has the skeleton that pulled her from the soul train.

"YOU!" Someone yelled, entering the room and stopping to point at the sitting fire mage. She blinked up at the large skeleton man, who was still in costume.

"Oi, oi, don't block the doorway." Someone spoke behind him, and the large skeleton stepped out of the way for them to walk past.

"… me?" Claire asked, looking at the skeleton still pointing at her.

"He was the one you made laugh with the sex joke." A red headed woman stated as she pulled off her hood, and started filling up a plate with food.

"It was so freaking accurate!" The large man stated, bursting into laughter that she instantly recognized, and watched as he once again fell to the floor laughing. More and more people started filling the room, and Bickslow finally emerged from the locker room in his usual striped shirt and skirt.

"I see you met Greg." He said with a chuckle, seeing the large man still laughing on the floor.

"Kind of." She chuckled, and looked back up at her fiancé. "Ready to go?"

"Yep." He said, and he helped her stand, clad that she could walk on her own.

"Bye guys, happy Halloween." She waved, and some of them waved back while the others were too busy or just ignored her. Bickslow waved as well, and they made their way out of the mansion.

15.

October 27th, 9:00 AM (Tuesday)

Bickslow had been nice enough to walk Michael to school and let Claire sleep in a little bit, but her brother wasn't as nice. After the uncle and nephew left, Laxus banged on her bedroom door announcing that they would still train that day, and to 'get her ass out of bed'.

When he heard movement within the room, he smirked and went down to the kitchen for breakfast.

After she got showered and dressed, she met up with the lightning mage in the kitchen, surprised when her brother handed her a cup of coffee already made. "Hurry up." He said simply, and she grunted as she made her way to the dining room table, where a plate of pancakes was waiting for her. She couldn't remember her brother ever being so nice to her, although his constant glares and comments took away from the generosity of the action.

"I'm injured, dude, be nice."

"When has being injured ever stopped you from training?" He glared, watching her bite into his pancakes. He'd already finished half of his meal, but he was still working on it. "Gajeel told me about those early morning jogs."

"Traitor." She grumbled, closing her eyes when it did the stupid shifting thing again. "My vision is off today, so let's stick to lighter jogging routes. I also can't use Riley, so no cliffs."

"What kind of training would it be without either of those things?" He asked with a smirk. "And what the hell is wrong with your vision?"

"I went through this stupid 'soul train' at the haunted house, and it hurt like hell. My vision and hearing have been off ever since, but my hearing isn't as bad."

"Should we visit Porlyusica later?"

"No, I think it'll wear off in a couple of days… did Michael wake up at all last night?"

"I woke up at one point hearing him crying, but he went back to sleep after a while."

16.

October 27th, 1:30 PM

Claire sat in the guild hall, headphones on, and purring softly as she got a nap in. Laxus hadn't been lenient in their morning workout despite her protests, and she'd fallen more than once that morning. The only good part was finishing up early, and since they started late, it had been a shortened but intense experience.

Laxus off-handedly pet her hair while reading a book, waiting for lunch to arrive. Bickslow told them that he would be sleeping in and to not wait up for him to get food, so the siblings had ordered upon their arrival. Ever sat nearby filing her nails, Natsu had (at some point) snuck over and hugged her, falling asleep on her shoulder. Fried and Carol were chatting across the room together. Gray, Erza, and Happy all sat at the table with Natsu discussing one thing or another.

"If Claire has a fiancé, why is she sleeping with that man over there?" Carol asked the green-haired mage, and he chuckled.

"It's a dragonslayer thing. The dragonslayers that grew up with dragon parents love the purring sound she makes, and both Natsu and Wendy will cuddle up to her when they can. The Exceeds will, as well."

"And Bickslow is okay with it?"

"No, he usually attacks Natsu when he tries it, and Laxus usually electrocutes him, but he seems to be in a forgiving mood today."

"And Claire sees nothing wrong with letting a man cuddle up to her like that?"

"Claire is just a cuddly person, and she knows that Natsu doesn't have any ill-intentions. They have an… interesting friendship." Fried summarized.

"… huh. Claire used to be really awkward around strange men getting too close."

"She's not the same person she used to be." He said simply. It wasn't the first time he had had to tell her that, and he suspected that it wouldn't be the last. Carol loved telling stories about her childhood with Claire, but almost every time she made a comment about the woman's personality, someone would have to tell her that she wasn't like that anymore.

"I'm starting to get that…" Carol spoke sadly, and as the various mages would occasionally walk over and pet her sister's hair, she wondered if she should, too. A little girl in particular had wandered over, hugged the woman, and then took a seat across from her with a nostalgic smile on her face. Like the checker woman, she folded her arms on the table and took a nap. "So random people just… walk up and pet her like a cat?"

"Basically. The sound she makes really is relaxing, and Claire doesn't seem to mind it. She told me that it makes people less intimidated by her magic, so she goes with it. Do you make that sound when you listening to headphones?"

"No. I've made a lot of sounds, but that's not one of them." Carol replied, and the word mage blushed softly at the insinuation. The brunette watched her sister for a moment, debating whether to do as the other mages did, and with a decisive nod she decided she would. With an extra strong sip of her drink, she then stood and walked over to the table where 3 S-Class mages sat. She acted confident in her movements, walking as she always did and trying to act casual as she walked over, and no one looked up at her. Casual. Normal. Just as the other mages had done, she reached out to pet the part of her sister's hair that Laxus's hand wasn't occupying, and was surprised by how soft the short hairs were. "Ow!"

She recoiled her hand at the burning sensation, and everyone looked up at her. Her face heated up, color akin to a tomato, and she heard both Claire and Natsu snicker at her.

Without another word she went back to Fried, her face feeling like it was on fire, and quickly sat back down. "She burned me!" Carol complained, and the word mage couldn't help but chuckle, smiling at the angered expression of his friend.

"Let me look at it." He instructed, and she showed him her hand. The tips of her fingers were red, along with part of her palm. "You'll be fine." He said, and took his cold drink and pressed it against her hand.

Carol pouted, shooting glares at the smiles and chuckles from the table.

"How did the haunted house go last night?" Fried asked, changing the conversation.

She made a whining sound, very similar to the one he had heard Claire make several times, and visibly cringed at the memory. "It was the most terrifying experience of my life."

"You went with a date, right?"

"I nearly clawed his arm off." She continued pouting, and the word mage chuckled. "It's not funny."

"You probably shouldn't have mentioned to Bickslow when you were going. I wouldn't be surprised if he made it extra 'scary' just for you."

"Bastard." She whined, slouching at the memory of the previous night. "I won't be sleeping for weeks after that."

"I thought it was rather terrifying as well. I went as Bickslow's guest a few years ago, and never went back. The children's version is supposed to be very artistic and nice, though. I might be going with Michael tomorrow."

"Mind if I join you?"

"I wouldn't, but…" He trailed off, suddenly feeling awkward. "It's Bickslow and Claire's nephew, so you'll have to ask them."

"What if we just happened to be going at the same time?"

"I wouldn't feel right tricking them like that."

"Oh come on, it's just a haunted house." She said, and reached over to his hand that was still pressing hers against his cold glass. "Please?"

17.

October 28th, 7:30 PM

It made Bickslow extremely happy that Michael loved the haunted house so much. Even if Claire had been a bust, he could at least pride himself in making it an awesome holiday for his nephew. He only wished that he could take his nephew backstage to meet the other seith mages, but alas, he wasn't old enough and would get scared.

One of the nice things about the haunted house, particularly the 'kids version' was that they considered gifted people for the event. It wasn't uncommon for children to be able to see ghosts and lose the ability later, so all of the wandering souls present got to be part of it. Some of the more grotesque spirits would hide for it, so that they wouldn't scare the kids too much, and so Michael got to see happy souls.

Bickslow may have gushed about his nephew, just a little, to his coworkers when they were first setting up the kids haunted house, so some of them kept an eye out for the future seith mage. (Well, maybe future seith mage, if interior decorating didn't work out)

When Michael first walked through it, the wandering souls would make silly faces at him and do silly things to the adults that couldn't see him, which had him giggling and laughing the entire time. It freaked the adults out to no end which added to the staff's amusement, and the other children were so preoccupied by the dancing skeletons that they didn't even notice.

His second run through, however, Bickslow was livid.

She was hanging off of Fried's arm, while Michael would sometimes talk to her and gush about the costumes and effects. Michael apparently took up to calling her 'auntie Carol'. His nephew had a habit of referring to people as 'Auntie' and 'Uncle', but when he called her that….

He was going to kill Fried.

On occasion when staff members saw people they knew walking through the house, they would 'kidnap' and sneak off with them, later returning them to the group they arrived with. It added to the event, and it was particularly fun when they played along.

Bickslow, dressed in his skeleton costume head-to-toe, snuck into the group and grabbed the water mage, hoisting her onto his shoulder. "I- hey!"

"Mwahahahaha!" He cackled, and the other dancing skeletons would join in clicking and clacking and theatrical 'evil' laughter, adding to the humor of it. The surrounding folks pretending to fear for her life, the kids yelled at him to return her, and he ran off and disappeared into a secret door.

"Ooh, I heard that you guys sometimes steal people. This is fun!" She giggled, and he abruptly shoved her off his shoulder, only helping her get on her feet.

"What the hell are you doing with my nephew?" He demanded, pulling his mask off to glare into her startled brown eyes. The secret hallway was currently empty, and was one of the many that ran through the entire mansion.

"I- we happened to get here at the same time, I just-"

"Stay the hell away from him."

"Oh come on, he's the son of my sister. You can't keep me away from him forever."

"Like hell I can't. You lost your chance to be that person when you dumped your sister for a dragon and said 'good luck'. I was the one that took care of her, I was the one that helped her get over your leaving, I was the one that stayed by her side through everything while you were in the next down over boning every guy you could instead of helping her. Michael is my nephew, he is Claire and I's child, and I will not let someone that kills souls without a second thought anywhere near him."

"And what will you do if I don't back off? Kill me? I know I messed up in the past, but I'm here now and I'm trying to make up for-"

"I won't kill you but I can and will make your life a living hell if you don't stay away from us."

"Claire is my sister, and if she wants me around, I-"

"She doesn't."

"Do you let anyone finish a sentence?"

He glared at her, angered that she wasn't the least bit frightened of him anymore. He had thought that their last encounter would keep her intimidated by her, at least a little bit, but she seemed to have gotten over it. Considering how much she screamed last night he thought she would be easy to keep at bay.

Evidently not.

"Now, are you going to let me go back to Fried, or-"

"I'm taking you to the exit."

"I paid to be here."

"You're banned from the haunted house. No refunds." He said simply, and grabbed her arm with a steel tight grip, practically dragging her to the exit.

18.

October 28th, 7:30 PM (Wednesday)

Claire sat in the living room, in the same spot as when Nathan was there, leaning back in her pajamas with a drink in her hand.

Her pajama pants were loose, black, with little penguins printed on them. She wore a black tank top with it.

She liked their living room.

They had finished furnishing it over the weekend. They had one main couch which was black, a white and black love seat she currently sat in, and a beautiful black, white, and brown coffee table. White, black, brown, green, and purple made up most of their house. Their living room in particular was most modern, with styled bookshelves, a cool almost tribal looking clock on the wall, a desk in the corner, and other various artifacts. A lot of their hand crafted furniture came from the artist that Bickslow and Clare got their vessels.

It didn't take long for Claire to figure out why her vision was so wonky. The shifting never stopped, although when it changed to blurry, it had started getting clearer and clearer. Just like how going to Death Forest had made her more sensitive to wandering souls around her, the 'soul train' had made her more sensitive with her other senses.

She took another sip of her mixed drink.

Claire now had 'the gift', and as of yet, she didn't know for sure if it was permanent. She hoped not, but every time her vision shifted it would stay that way for longer and longer, and now it was becoming clearer. Her ability to sense wandering souls nearby stayed the same, although was still sore from the haunted house incident. It felt strange to say the least how a sensory organ she couldn't place or point to was injured, and she hated trying to explain it to Laxus, who rolled his eyes and called her a baby.

Hopefully this wasn't permanent.

19.

October 29th, 1:30 AM (Thursday)

A loud banging on her front door startled her from her sleep, along with the sounds of a drunken man yelling for his son. Claire quickly pulled herself out of bed, grabbing her bathrobe as she did so, and threw it on as she ran downstairs. By the time she got there he had caved in part of her door and it was beginning to split in half. If they hadn't reinforced the frame so well, it no doubt would have fallen off by now.

"Give me my grandson, you freak!"

"Mr. Yoshino, your son isn't here and neither is your grandson." She told him, but he simply continued banging on the door. Standing to the side of the door when she opened it, so that when he forced it open it wouldn't hit her, she glared up at the man. Unfortunately, her vision shifted in that moment, catching her off-guard.

20.

October 29th, 1:45 PM

"Stop staring." Claire seethed, hating all the eyes on her. Of course, her brother had to drag her to the guild hall despite her protests, and the make up she used to try and hide it didn't work.

"Who hit you?" Natsu asked.

"You're actually concerned, Natsu?" Lucy asked, surprised.

"He just wants to know so that he can do it, too." Gray told her, and a sweat drop appeared on their heads, knowing that he was right.

"He got a lucky shot. Shut up." She glared at Natsu, who was smirking at her. Bickslow's dad had landed a pretty solid hit to her face, so now her eye was slightly swollen and cheek was deeply bruised. It was extremely rare she got hit in the face, even when she'd first started fighting, and she could never recall a time she'd gotten punched so hard in the face.

"Was it because of the vision thing?" Laxus asked, not bothering to hide his smile. He'd spent the entire morning teasing her, and since he'd recently started babysitting Michael, he could get away with it.

"It was 2 in the goddamn morning and I was fucking tired and caught off guard. Shut up."

"What were you doing out at 2 in the morning?" Lucy asked.

"I wasn't. Someone came to my house pounding on the door, woke me up, and when I went to answer it he slugged me in the face." She said, and getting tired of Natsu sitting next to her and grinning, she punched him in the face, effectively knocking him out of his seat. "Like that."

"What vision thing?" Gray asked Laxus.

"She's getting old and her eyes have gone bad." He answered, and his sister punched his shoulder.

"Don't go telling people I'm old."

"Those wrinkles are pretty deep…."

"We're the same age, idiot. And you have more wrinkles than I do."

"Nuh-uh."

"Who beat you up, damn it!?" Natsu yelled as he got up from the floor.

"No one beat me up, they got a lucky shot and then I knocked him out before calling the cops to pick him up." She explained, annoyed when her vision shifted again. Everyone's souls glowed softly, and although it was kind of pretty, her vision was still blurry in this 'setting'.

"Hey Claire, what does this say?" Laxus asked, holding up the menu to her and pointing at something.

"It says 'go fuck yourself'." She replied, flipping him the bird.

"Claire is getting ooold~" Happy teased on the table.

"Claire is annoyed by her nosy friends picking on her. Don't you guys have work to do or something?"

"We just got back from a job, remember? Are you losing your memory, too?" Happy snickered.

"If you need glasses, Claire, I know a good place to go. I think you'd look cute in glasses." Ever told her with a genuine smile.

"I don't need glasses." She snapped.

"Then tell me what this says." Laxus said, still holding up the menu to her.

"This is stupid, you're stupid, and I don't need glasses."

"Then read the menu."

"Are you sure that you don't need glasses? Read it yourself. Has anyone else been to the haunted house?" She asked, trying to change the conversation. Her sister, unfortunately, was the only one to help her. The water mage sat down next to Fried, and Claire was surprised to see someone next to her.

It was Puppu, and she only knew that because he was within sensory range. It was an older man, looking to be in his mid 50's and wearing a suit and tie. Claire had never really imagined what her babies looked like, but she never really expected them to be adults.

"Your fiancé kicked me out of the haunted house yesterday. It was such a drag." Carol complained, and ate one of the French fries on the table. Remembering that the others couldn't see Puppu, she returned her gaze to her sister, trying to ignore the wandering soul that was actively trying to freak out Carol.

"He kidnapped her towards the beginning, and I didn't see her again until Michael and I finished going through the entire mansion." Fried added.

"You two went to the haunted house together? With Michael?" Claire asked, turning to the word mage.

"Well, no, we saw each other in line and decided to go in together." Fried said awkwardly. The green-haired mage wasn't a good liar, and she knew how close the two were.

"I'm officially banned from the haunted house, even though I paid to go in and everything- just because I happened to get there at the same time Michael and Fried did." Carol further stated.

"You should have let other people go ahead of you, or waited to go another time." Claire told her, and the brunette glared.

"Who hit you?" Carol asked, smirking when the checker woman grunted and looked away, glad when Mirajane came over.

"Can I get lunch started for you guys?"

20.

October 29th, 3:30 PM

"Again? You've already gone twice." Claire asked, her shoulders slumping. They had just gotten home from his school, and the only thing he would talk about what Bickslow's haunted house. The decorations, the effects, the wandering souls that would make funny faces, and how his uncle was absolutely amazing for being part of it. He loved it, and Bickslow loved that he loved it.

She had a feeling that Michael would be dragging her to it every night until they closed. "It's so awesome! Please? Please, please, please?" He pleaded to her with his hands clasped together. Claire had taken a seat on the love seat, which was beginning to become 'her spot', and debated his plea.

It is only once a year…. She reasoned in her mind, and if she hadn't had the recent vision issues, she would be more up for going. The idea of going to the haunted house, which was filled with wandering souls, and actually seeing all of them sounded not fun.

"Please?" He pleaded again, and added a pout.

The goddamn pout.

He was way too good at that.

"Pretty please?"

"Fine, get your homework done and we'll go." She caved, and the little boy jumped on her to give her a hug and kiss on the cheek, and then ran over to the desk in the corner of the room.

Two hours later, Claire found herself walking through the mansion for the fourth time, although this time she forgo the costume. She wore Fairy Tail sweatpants and a black tanktop, and she got a lot of compliments for her unique hair. Since it glowed when they walked through the black light sections, she was extra popular for that day. Michael wore his disco costume, set with a massive afro.

Michael kept his hand held in hers, squeezing it and giggling for most of the walk. She had never seen him so delighted before, and when her vision shifted about a fifth of the way through, she could see why. Bickslow wasn't kidding when he said that they considered 'gifted' people for the walk.

As she walked through the mansion with the others, she realized that it was almost an entirely different experience. The wandering souls were extremely active, and although she could sense them walking around before, now she could actually see what they were doing and why Michael giggled and laughed when he saw them.

They were rather playful.

Wandering souls of all ages wandered around, occasionally possessing objects for show, but mostly entertaining the children or rare adult that could see them. This was the one time of year when they could be celebrated instead of feared and hated, and they seemed to love the attention.

She managed to keep her laughs to herself, but she openly looked at the wandering souls, since both Michael and Bickslow knew that she could sense them. Bickslow had told her that he would sometimes forget that she couldn't hear/see them, since she was so good at acting like she could.

When they finished walking through, he begged her to go a second time that night, and to her amusement she heard other children making the same pleas. Some of the parents had already gone through it 3 times that day, and while most of them refused and went home with a crying child wanting to stay, the others ended up going through again with Claire and Michael. When the fire mage realized that they were kids from Michael's school, she got to chat and talk with the parents while their kids all gushed and talked about how awesome the haunted house was.

21.

October 30th, 3:30 PM (Friday)

Bickslow hadn't left for work yet, so he hung out in the living room with his fiancé and nephew, slowly drinking his coffee (which, he'd somehow gotten addicted to after only a few sips from Claire's cups). Michael was playing on the floor with toothpicks and glue working on a history project, and he would occasionally ask Claire for helpful suggestions. Sometimes he was just fishing for compliments, to which both Bickslow and Claire had plenty to give.

When he wasn't working on his project, he was talking animatedly about the haunted house and how he wished that it wasn't just once a year. He talked about his favorite costumes, wandering souls, and generally how amazing his uncle was.

Bickslow almost wished that he didn't have to work just so that he could spend more time with him, or that he could go with him through the haunted house and hear all his comments and critiques. Alas, when you sign up for the job, they don't let you take long breaks like that.

He kind of wished that Claire was a little more excited about it, but after going through the haunted house four times, he could see how it would start to lose its edge. She also got hurt one of those times, even though he didn't really understand how, and he had no doubt that it colored her view of it. Not to mention her new injury… which, he'd ignored or forgotten about in his tiredness until now.

"Who'd you get in a fight with?" Bickslow asked her, and she made a face and looked away.

"Grandpa Arnie was here the other night." Michael answered for her, and Bickslow stiffened.

"My dad hit you?" He clarified, looking over at his fiancé who was avoiding his gaze. She was sitting in her usual spot, staring at the clock, and at the angle he couldn't see the bruising very well.

"He came here raging drunk in the middle of the night and got a lucky shot at me." Claire explained, and the seith mage got up from his spot on the couch and knelt in front of her, gently turning her face to get a good look at it. Most of it had healed, but it was still there. "I called the cops and they took him to jail for the night. I told them that if he came here again like that I would file charges."

"Why didn't you file charges this time?"

"Because it's your dad, and since we're trying to get through to Sam and Nathan I figure the less bad blood the better."

"Is it too late to file charges?"

"Technically no."

"Go to the police station today and tell them you changed your mind."

"Do you have any idea how much paperwork that'll be?"

"It'll get him off the streets at least for a few weeks, and maybe when he's rotting in jail he'll have an epiphany and become a better person. Or maybe child services will look into Nathan and Sam for us when they hear about it. Either way, I don't like the idea of worrying about you two all night because of you're letting your pride get the better of you." He spoke, and narrowed his eyes at her towards the end. Whether it was a 'lucky shot' or not, Claire had gotten hurt as a result of his dad being irresponsible, and if she could get hit by that bastard it meant that Michael was in danger.

"Fine, I'll do it tomorrow when Michael's trick-or-treating with Ever."

"Why not today?"

"It could take hours to get the paperwork done, not to mention the long wait since it's almost Halloween, and they're no doubt busy as hell. I don't want to take Michael with me."

"Don't worry about Michael. I'll take him to the haunted house with me, he'll go through as many times as he wants, and I'll have Pappa stay with him for it. It'll be even worse if you wait until Halloween to do this." He told her, and even though he was still angry that this happened, he hated that look in her eye just as much. It was a mix of anger, annoyance, frustration- she was pissed off too, and she was trying to be good by not showing it. "Hey, I love you and I'm sorry you got hurt." He added softly, and reached up to pull her down for a short kiss.

"Thank you. You know, you're the first person to actually give me sympathy for getting punched in the face. Everyone else just laughed."

"He's not exactly a trained fighter… well, no, he technically is. He was in the military for most of his young adult life."

"That makes me feel a little better."

"You've escaped dark guilds drugged before without a scratch… how'd you get hit by an old drunk?" He asked curiously, and again she looked away, annoyed at him.

"He was scary." Michael spoke for the first time in a while, and Bickslow looked over, realizing that the young boy had been watching their interaction. Sometimes he got so quiet that the mage forgot he was there. I'm supposed to be the man of the house, and I let my old man hit my girlfriend and scare the hell out of my nephew… I suck.

"I'll ask Fried to come by later and put an enchantment around the house so that he can't bother you again. I promise you, he's never going to hurt you."

22.

October 30th, 6:30 PM (Friday)

It ended up being a lot faster than she thought, and as she left the building, two officers were leaving to go pick up Mr. Yoshino. They told her that he would be held in jail for 5 weeks and since she was the second person that week he had attacked, he would be forced to take an anger management seminar to work through his issues.

When she brought up Sam and Nathan, they said that they would make a request for child services to look at the Yoshino residence to check on them. Unofficially they said that it was unlikely for them to check, and even if they did it was less likely that they would deem the house unfit even if the children were being hurt. The agency was under-staffed and under paid, and really, so long as kids had food and a place to sleep they weren't that concerned.

So her options were limited, but if Nathan stepped up and told the police he wanted to be with Bickslow and Claire, there was a chance that they could get custody. Fiore Law was weird in how it ran things, so Claire would have to do some more homework on it before coming back.

In the mean time: Mr. Yoshino would be behind bars, unable to hurt anyone, and that was good.

She made her way over to the haunted house and waited by the exit until Michael emerged, and smiled at how excited the young man was. He was holding hands with Pappa and talking animatedly about everything he'd seen.

23.

October 31st, 11:30 AM (Saturday, Halloween)

"A sampler pack? Seriously?" Claire asked, and heard Michael yell in frustration upstairs. I feel your pain, kid.

"The guy at the glasses shop owes me a favor, and when I told him how stubborn you were, he leant me this. Now just try the goddamn things on." He ordered, and without waiting for her to comply, put one of the glasses on her face. "Can you see?"

"No." She replied, and he put another pair on her. "A little better. I told you, my vision will be healed after another week, so there's really no point to this."

"If you're getting punched by drunks because you can't see for shit, then obviously you need glasses even if it's short term. How about now?" He asked, putting another pair on her face.

"Slightly better, still blurry."

"Geez, your sight is shit."

"It's not shit all the time… it goes in and out of focus." Of seeing souls.

"How about now?"

"Better, but still a little blurry." She answered. Even though her sight was terrible at the moment, her hearing and sense of smell were still good enough to get her by. Granted she could now hear 'extra' sounds, but it was still high quality hearing. "Do you have a date for the Halloween party tonight?"

"No. I figure I'll hook up with someone there." He answered, sorting through the box of glasses. They were out of order and the numbers marking their strength were in different places on the glasses, making it difficult to find the right pair. "Should be fun. I heard they're going to have a DJ and everything."

"Evergreen is practically forcing me to go. She's coming over at 2 to pick Nathan up, and will babysitting him for the day."

"That's nice of her. Will Bickslow be there?"

"Nah, he's working late. He's going to try and catch the tail end of the party, but he told me to not get my hopes up. Even if he does get off early he'll be exhausted from working all day. They opened up the haunted house at 1 today."

"Okay, if these don't work, I'm giving up." Laxus spoke, and put a pair of simple black glasses on her face. She blinked, staring at him, and was temporarily amazed. It was like suddenly being able to see his soul in hi-definition, and the beauty of it was remarkable. "Do they work? Can you see?"

"… yeah." She muttered, and tore her eyes away. Finding a magazine on the coffee table, she reached over to grab it and read some letters. "I can read again. Cool."

"Those are the strongest glasses in here."

"How do I look?" She asked curiously, having no idea what she looked like. Both of her parents had fairly poor eyesight, so she knew it was inevitable that she'd eventually lose her sight, and even though the circumstances were weird it was going to happen sooner or later.

"You look like a nerd." He smiled. "It'll go good with your slutty nurse costume."

"What are you going as tonight? Do you have a costume?"

"Of course I have a costume." He said, and rolled his eyes, grabbing her glasses and putting them back in the box. A frown tugged at her features as she was met by blurry blobs again. "I'll be back in a half hour."

"Where are you going?" She asked, confused. "You just got here." And he had- he literally showed up, shoved some glasses in her face, and now he was leaving again.

"I'm going to get you glasses." He stated.

"… why?" She asked, still confused. It seemed like he was being nice, but… it was Laxus. His version of being helpful usually meant shoving her around and telling her to 'not be stupid', especially when it came to such simple things like this.

"Because I know you're too stubborn to do it yourself. Now shut up and say 'thank you'."

"… thank you?" She said, more as a question, but the blond seemed to accept it as he promptly got up and walked away, leaving the house. Michael was still making aggravated sounds upstairs, probably having trouble altering his costume for that night. It had ripped the previous day and even though Claire had offered to help him, he told her that she 'sucked at stuff like that', so she left and hung out downstairs.

She was feeling inadequate in a lot of ways that morning.

Laxus, along with most of the guild for that matter, had been acting… weird, the past couple of weeks.

She could exactly place it, and it was especially hard to tell since the guild had just been started up again. Everyone was extra attentive to each other and happy to be around each other again, but for some reason they'd become particularly honed in on Claire the past couple of weeks. It could be that she was simply extra self-conscious, or perhaps a bit conceded for thinking the guild was giving her extra attention….

Maybe her brother was just being nice in his own annoying way.

No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't explain everyone's fascination with her injury. I mean sure, it was rare for S-Class mages to get hurt, but not that rare. Erza came in with her fair share of bruises and it happened on rare occasions with Laxus when he got hurt during their training. Yet, everyone focused on her one injury.

Maybe it wasn't the entire guild, and she just thought it was because she was self-conscious about it.

Maybe she just wanted them to be the ones acting weird because she wanted to focus on something else. Having 'the gift' was kind of cool in its own way, but it was also incredibly annoying and stressful. It left her unable to see half the time and it was difficult to not be distracted by people's damn souls. She was having normal sight less and less often, or so it felt.

Feeling yet another headache come on, she sighed, reaching for her soothing mug of tea on the coffee table.

24.

October 31st, 9:30 PM

Claire blew a pillar of fire into the air, and the fire mage next to her laughed joyously.

It announced the beginning of the official Fairy Tail Halloween party, and a round of cheers rang out through the building. For most it was an excuse to drink, and for others an excuse to dress up. In either case everyone was determined to have a good time.

Evergreen had volunteered to both go trick-or-treating with Michael and attend the haunted house with him, since she hadn't been yet. The fairy woman encouraged Claire to attend the party at the guild and that she would take care of the disco boy for the night.

Sometimes she loved her friends.

Natsu was dressed as a vampire, and Lucy was in a cat costume. Although they weren't a couple, they did look adorable together, and more than a few people told them that throughout the night.

Halloween themed drinks were plentiful, as was the guest list. She didn't even recognize half the people that showed up and with her rather exposing costume, she didn't need to pay for any of her drinks.

To her utter and complete surprise, Laxus showed up in a doctor costume.

When he got close enough, she hit his arm.

"A doctor costume? Seriously?"

He shrugged, smirking.

"Why the hell are you dressed as a doctor?"

"I thought it would be funny." He admitted, smiling. He then grabbed her shoulders to pull her closer, turned her to the camera, and smiled. Instinctually she did the same, and when the camera person went away, she turned and glared at her brother. "See? Hilarious."

"How is it funny? These are couple costumes."

"It's funny because we're twins." He said with a grin, and reached behind her to the bar. His hand reemerged with her drink, and he took a sip of the 'bloody' concoction.

"The twin thing would only work if you were in a slutty nurse costume, too."

"Who said I'm not slutting it up tonight?" He asked, and when she looked closer at the shirt under his white coat, realized that he was wearing a fishnet shirt and tight black booty shorts. "Speaking of which…" He said, handed back her drink, and then disappeared into the crowd.

"… did he get possessed by Bacchus?" She asked, completely dumbfounded out by how uncharacteristic her brother had been. But, she guessed that just like how girls wore slutty outfits on Halloween, it made sense that some guys were doing it, too…. And he was still getting over Gajeel, so it was good that he was seeing other people.

And he wouldn't be able to mock her for her costume anymore. So that was a plus.

About an hour into the party, she found herself chatting with Kana, who was in a sexy pirate costume. She was enjoying her fair share of drinks, and had been eyeing a male pirate across the bar for several minutes, when she'd asked Claire to join her.

"Ya know, your sister isn't that bad. I mean, she's slutty, and your boyfriend hates her, and so does Erza for some reason, but she's not that bad." Kana spoke told her, swaying slightly. It was rare to see Kana past buzzed, so the fire mage smiled when she realized just how far gone the brunette was.

"How would you feel if your sister ditched you to bone a dragon?"

"Depends on how hot the dragon was."

"He murdered your parents."

"… okay, maybe that's a deal breaker." The brunette shrugged. "She definitely knows how to party, though." She said, looking up. Claire hesitated to look, having a good idea of the drunk was looking at. Cheers were ringing out, and just like Blue Pegasus, she turned to see her sister dancing topless on the bar.

I wonder what gramps and Laxus will think of that…. She thought with a chuckle, and it wasn't long before her question was answered. Makarov turned giant and grabbed her around the waist, picked her up, and carried her across the room before beginning a stern lecture on what was 'appropriate and not appropriate behavior in public'.

"What's up the guild master's ass?" Kana asked, and took another drink.

Claire simply laughed.

25.

October 31st, Midnight

She wasn't sure how she managed to get roped into going to the haunted house again.

Probably because they asked her just after her tenth shot, and at that point, she was pretty easily influenced. Kana brought a bottle of booze with them, not surprisingly, and shared with Claire on the way there to keep their buzz.

Natsu, Lucy, Kana, Laxus, and Happy had decided to drag Claire with them to the haunted house, for whatever reason. She greeted the ticket woman, since she had been there enough times to be on a first name basis with her, and with enough alcohol their systems the half hour wait passed by quickly. The other people in line were immensely grateful when someone else let the group go ahead, in fact they got to cut in line quite a bit just because people didn't want to wait in line with them.

As they entered the mansion, the dragonslayers heard the ticket woman announce through the communications lacrima that an 'annoying group of Fairy Tail wizards' were going in. Claire was actually surprised that they didn't have to wait longer to get in.

It was a bit more difficult to act like she couldn't see dead people when she was intoxicated. She had gone through with Michael the other day and could see the souls, but now that she had glasses, she could see them clearly. Some of them looked cool, some of them looked creepy as hell, and some of them she couldn't tell if they were actual people in costumes or souls. She had more respect and sympathy for Michael, since he'd had that problem in the past: distinguishing the living from the dead.

"Wh-wh-why d-d-d-did the lights g-go out?!" Lucy stuttered in the first room.

"I wonder if Greg is working this room again." Claire mused outloud, and she frowned when she didn't hear the familiar laugh. "Guess not."

"Is Lucy scared?" Happy snickered, to which the blond simply groaned in response.

"This is a lot more fun with more people." Claire commented.

"You've been through this already?" Kana asked.

"Yeah. I made the guy in this room crack up laughing- it was pretty awesome."

"So we just stand in the dark waiting for something to happen?" Laxus asked, bored. Unlike last time, Claire was able to see the souls in the room, which was a pretty awesome advantage. She could see the man in the suit of armor get closer to Lucy, and a few seconds later, the blond was screaming her head off while the lights ominously turned on, and scared the rest of the group.

Claire laughed boisterously, thoroughly entertained by their reactions. Even Laxus had jumped back in surprise.

Kana hit the laughing woman's shoulder, and continued with the group to the next room. "Oh! I wonder if my babies are still in the next room!" Claire spoke happily, following after them.

Natsu, to Lucy's hatred, shoved her towards the next room. "Come on, Lucy. Go into the room or I'll suck your blood!" He threatened, to which she glared and continued walking. The pair were the first to go into the dentist office, and before the rest of the group could go in, the door slammed closed.

"Wh-what!? Why'd it separate us!?" Lucy stammered.

"I wonder what this- OH SHIT!" Natsu yelled, likely finding Claire's babies.

Laxus crossed his arms, bored, and looked around the room. When they heard both Natsu and Lucy banging on the door and pleading for it to let them out, a small smirk graced his lips. "Never thought I'd hear Natsu scream like a girl." He commented.

"Man, listen to them scream." Kana chuckled, trying to mask her own unease. A wandering soul was currently standing right next to her, leaning over her and staring her down, and Claire had no doubt that it was having an effect on her.

Suddenly, the door burst open and both Natsu and Lucy fell through, landing on top of each other and clamoring into the room.

"You guys are wimps." Kana stated.

"Mommy!" The 'dental patient' yelled, and the drunk brunette when the creature launched itself at Claire, wrapping its arms around her in a hug. Laxus had jumped in surprise and yelped at the surprise hug, but recovered quickly and coughed, acting like he didn't.

"Babies!" She giggled, holding them close.

In the observation room, Bickslow laughed merrily at the situation. Seeing Kana and Laxus jump like that totally made his night, and he was going to keep it for their stock footage of 'best reactions from customers'.

"Th-those are your babies!?" Lucy shrieked, sitting on her knees and shaking.

"They're not so cute right now." Happy said, hiding behind her.

"We're scary!" The babies cheered in unison.

"Yeah you are!" Claire agreed with a wide grin, hugging them close. The door to the next room clicked, and slowly creaked open, getting their attention. The fire mage walked in the back of the group, and dropped off her babies back on the dentist chair on her way to the next room.

It was a waiting room, which led to the creepy crawly room. As expected, Lucy was the one to react the most, although Happy screamed quite a bit when Natsu put a spider on his head.

Most of the night continued in this fashion. Lucy and Happy would scream, Natsu would laugh or more often join them, and the other three enjoyed watching their reactions while drinking. The wandering souls gave Laxus and Kana quite a bit of attention, making them on edge and Claire heard her brother scream more than once.

When they made it to the ballroom, she was absolutely amazed.

The lights were dim and to the others it just looked like a regular ballroom, but it was filled with dancing wandering souls. "This doesn't look so bad." Natsu stated bravely, and strutted into the room with his chest puffed out, right into a dancing couple. They acted like they didn't even notice him, but Natsu shuddered and jumped back in terror. "Something touched me!"

"Are there wandering souls in here?" Laxus asked, turning to his sister.

"A lot of them." She said, smiling. Given her ability to sense souls, it wasn't a strange question to ask, and he had even asked her a few other times on this trip.

Now, though, she could see a beautiful rainbow of dancers floating across the dancefloor they had to cross in order to reach the other side. No doubt her group would be screaming and running, but she couldn't help but stare at how beautiful it was.

Laxus bravely strode forward, ignoring the extremely unpleasant feeling of walking through a floor of dead souls.

Claire followed, although at a much more leisurely pace, and was a bit disappointed when she felt Lucy and Natsu latch onto her arms. "They're just souls." Claire said with a roll of her eyes, continuing to look at the beautiful arrangement of colors. She wished that Michael was there to witness it, but as she saw a particularly grotesque soul dance by, realized why Bickslow hadn't brought him there.

Still, though. It was amazing to see.

26.

November 2nd, 11:00 AM (Monday)

"You're totally not into this." Bickslow told her, rather than asked. He was full to the hilt inside her, and although she had started out aroused… well, she lost it, and she was bad at faking it. Not that he wanted her to at all, and he was actually glad that she could be so obvious about when she did or didn't like something. It was fairly rare that this happened, since usually when one of them 'lost it' it was him, and she had always been loving and supportive when he couldn't get it up.

"Sorry." She apologized, unsure of what else to say.

Her eyes hadn't shifted back ever since she got the glasses, and it was distracting to say the least to see her fiancé's soul for the first time during sex. It was beautiful and she loved staring up at him, reaching up and feeling everywhere she could touch, but…

"You can, you know… finish without me. I won't mind."

"I would." He said, and leaned down to give her a short kiss. "I'm going to go shower, and maybe we can do an early lunch afterwards?"

"Sure." She smiled, and he kissed her again before pulling out.

27.

November 2nd, 4:00 PM

After picking up Michael from school, they headed to the guild hall to visit their friends. Michael was still talking about how awesome the haunted house was, and they all wondered if he would still be talking about it until next Halloween.

He was so thrilled about it that he wanted his birthday party to be Halloween themed. Makarov and the others tried to convince him that it wasn't a good theme, but he was set on it, and he was especially set on everyone wearing costumes. He also wanted the entire guild to be there, but Claire and Bickslow limited it to 10 people from the guild, and as many people as he wanted from school.

"You okay?" Ever asked her, and Claire paused before answering. Was I staring again?

"Yeah, just a little spacey today."

"Maybe that mystery person hit you a little too hard? Have you seen Porlyusica about it?"

"… no, I'm fine. Thanks for the concern."

"How are those glasses working out for you? Laxus said that it's a really strong prescription."

"… they work well." Claire answered, looking at her suspiciously. Since when does Ever care about my well being? Maybe my friends are acting weird…. "Why the sudden concern for my wellbeing?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm just making conversation."

She also offered to babysit Michael all of Halloween, and insisted that I go to the Halloween party….

"Oh, how'd the Halloween party go, by the way? I heard that you ended up going to the haunted house?"

"… why are you being so nice?"

"Ugh, you're hopeless." She finally huffed, and walked away to the other side of the room to chat with Fried and Carol. Claire watched her curiously, and took a sip of her water.

"Nice glasses." Erza complimented as she approached her.

"Thanks."

"When I saw you wearing them on Halloween, I thought that they were part of your costume. You pull them off well."

"Thanks."

"Do you mind if I ask what happened to your eyes? I heard Laxus mention it had something to do with the haunted house?"

"Yeah, went through this 'soul train' thing, and since I'm sensitive to wandering souls it overloading my senses. My eyes haven't been the same, but they're slowly getting better." Kind of not really.

"I never realized the haunted house could be so dangerous."

"It's not, I'm just a danger magnet." She replied, and the red head chuckled. "Did you visit the haunted house this year?"

"No, but I've gone on previous years…. I was banned from ever returning." Erza sulked.

"It seems like a lot of people from our guild are on the 'banned' list." Claire chuckled.

"I heard your sister was banned." She said with a smile, cheering up slightly. The checker woman chuckled.

"Bickslow was pretty mad when he saw her with his nephew. I don't know what she was thinking."

"I think she just wants to be close to you guys. I've seen her trying to talk with Laxus quite a few times with limited success. She probably thinks that befriending Michael will help better her chances with you."

"Because sneaking around with my son without permission will get me to like her." Claire said with a roll of her eyes. "She is so immature."

"I think that's the first time I've heard you refer to Michael as your son." Erza commented, and the checker woman blushed.

"… it's hard not to when Michael, the babies, and Bickslow keep calling me 'mom'."

"I think it's cute."

28.

November 2nd, 8:30 PM

Claire was beginning to hate answering the door.

When she opened it, she was met by the angry face of none other than Mrs. Yoshino. The fire mage could smell wine on her breath. "Drop the charges."

"Excuse me?" Claire asked, standing in the doorway. She was in her pajamas and had been looking forward to a nice glass of non-caffeinated tea with a good book.

"Drop the charges against my husband." She clarified.

"… why?"

Her mouth turned into a thin line, her lips pursed in annoyance.

"Bickslow is upstairs reading to Michael. Should I go get him?"

"I'm not talking to that filth. I want you to drop the charges against my husband."

"Are you willing to talk to me about Sam and Nathan?"

"They are my children. Don't you dare try to tell me how to raise my children when you've only had that piece of crap for a few weeks." She spat, her words practically dripping with venom.

"Your husband is a raging alcoholic that caused damage to my property-"

"Oh please, I've seen Fairy Tail wizards cause worse damage in common day bar fights."

"Your husband is not part of a guild and this was no accident." Claire seethed, pointing at her still damaged door that was barely staying together. "He lost control of his anger and hit me unprovoked-"

"You stole our grandchild!"

"He ran away from home and if your house is as dysfunctional as I think it is, I can see why he would. I have no idea where he is right now, and if he's hurt, that will be your fault."

"Don't act all innocent. I know you have my grandson, and I want him back along with the charges against my husband dropped."

"No." Claire said simply, and flashed a fake smile at her. A cop car pulled up to her house, and the grandmother smiled, waving them over. "You're officially accusing Bickslow and I of kidnapping your grandson?" She asked, and the blue-haired woman simply smiled as she waited for the two police officers to make their way over. "Hello Officer Carmichael. How's the kids?"

"They're good, thanks." He nodded. "Mrs. Yoshino has requested that we look around your house for her grandson, Nathan."

"You two are more than welcome to look around, but she is not. If she steps into my home I will use necessary force to protect myself and my legally adopted son." She spoke, glaring at the mutually angered woman.

"Downy, you stay with Mrs. Yoshino and make sure she stays put, while I look around the house."