Chapter 19

What is Fairy Tail to You?

I rested in my bed, or rather I attempted to rest. The previous night had stirred my anxiety enough that I got the bare minimum of sleep. At least that is what I assumed. I didn't have a clock in my room. It could have been anywhere between morning or noon.

"I should probably get up..." I let out a defeated sigh lifting the top half of my body as if I was rising from a coffin. I then placed both of my hands on my chest, casting Sunshield. "Okay, first thing's first, I should proba-"

My thoughts were cut off by a knock at my door. I froze, typically there was nothing wrong with getting a knock at one's door, but after the night I had before, I was on edge.

A part of me wanted to ignore it. Depending on the time, there wasn't anything unusual about ignoring someone's attempts to get your attention this early in the morning. Of course, if I did that, there was a chance that either Fran or Ann would answer it.

I planted my feet on the ground and inched made my way out of my room and into the main hall. I carefully stuck close to the walls, careful not to give away my positons from one of the main windows.

It was a manor after all if someone wanted to peek in and see me they easily could have... and they did. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a silver-haired woman peeking into my home. It didn't take me long to put two and two together.

"What is Mirajane doing here?" I whispered, of course, since it was just Mirajane, my plan of pretending not to be home could go off without a hitch. All I had to do was keep quiet, and she'd get bored, I'm sure whatever the reason she is here it had to do with the guild.

"Armel, I know you're just pretending not to be home..." I heard Mirajane call from the other side of the door. Was it that obvious? I decided to wait for a minute to test her, but her next reply made that problematic.

"Ah~ maybe you really aren't home. Then that means you're missing, the only reasonable thing to do is break into your house and look for clues."

"Oy, that's not reasonable at all!" I groaned while I lifted myself from my hiding spot. It became clear that Mirajane wasn't leaving unless she talked to me. I opened the front door revealing the Fairy Tail mage smiling face.

"You were in your house talk about a surprise!"

My shoulders slumped. "You knew all along, but ignoring that...what's up?" Mirajane wouldn't have come out here for no reason.

Mirajane's cheeks then puffed before she placed her hands on her hips. "It's obvious isn't? You ran into a Phantom Lord mage last night."

I winced, news had already spread that quickly. Of course, it would have three Fairy Tail mages saw me there. I'm honestly shocked they didn't send someone sooner.

"That guy, right?" My fingers ran through my hair while I attempted to pretend the events from the previous night had no meaning. "Nothing much happened, so you don't have to worry about it."

With those words, I noticed Mirajane's eyes scan my body. "You don't seem to have any scars, but I should escort you back to the guild house to be safe."

"Isn't that a bit much?" I asked. "I was safe for the entire night. What is an extra hour or two going to do?" At least that is how I saw the situation. If Phantom Lord hadn't sent anyone after me yet, I doubt they had any real intentions on doing so.

Mirajane scratched her cheek. "Well... it's not about your safety. It's more because if I leave you here, you'd probably won't show up. You have been hanging out with Chico after all, and she does that sort of thing often."

I...couldn't fault her for that. I had every intention of just not showing up, but it seemed that was impossible now.

"Okay, wait here for a bit while I get ready."

"Hmm? You aren't going to invite me in?" Mirajane asked innocently. In any other situation, I'd probably have, but since I knew both Ann and Fran were around, it'd be suicide. Those two had to stay hidden no matter what.

"Sorry." I scratched the back of my head. "My house is a bit of a mess. It'd be rude to let a girl in with how it looks right now." A weak excuse, but one that I decided to use.

"Okay, then I'll wait right out here for you!" Mirajane waved, allowing me to slink back into the manor. The moment the door closed, my gaze shifted to the ceiling only to be greeted with two red eyes staring down at me.

I pushed down my instinctive reaction to flinch as I scanned the figure. It was Fran, her fingers and toes glued to the wood of rafters. She stared at me, not saying a word, most likely due to still being in ear-shot of Mirajane.

Even though the vampire didn't say anything, her eyes told me enough. With that short exchange done, Fran crawled across the ceiling once again and entered her room.

"I guess I should hurry up myself." It didn't take long for me to slip something on and meet Mirajane outside. Luckily Ann didn't accidentally leave her room. Even if I didn't know the context of the situation, I could only imagine her and Mirajane meeting being awkward.

"We're going to the guildhall...right?" I stepped out of the manor. For some reason, the moment I stepped outside, Mirajane's eyes were glued to me, as if there was something on my face. "Huh, is there something wrong?"

Mirajane's eyes widened before she shook her head. "Ah, no, it's just...it's sunny today, isn't it?"

That was a random comment to make, but she was telling the truth. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. If I didn't have my sun shield active, I would have been a pillar of flames.

"Sure, I guess it's the type of day where walking doesn't sound too bad." Despite my words, I technically walked everywhere. Maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea to invest in a magical vehicle or at least a bike.

The two of us made our way off of the creepy hill that housed the manor and back into town. The more I walked through Magnolia town, the more comfortable I became to the city. I still wasn't ready to call it home, but I liked it well enough.

"By the way, I've meant to ask you. What is your and Chico's relationship?" Mirajane asked that without a hint of hesitation. Even though she seemed to be one of the calmer members of the guild, she still lacked a bit of tact.

"Hey, can't you phrase that in a less cliche way?" It sounded like someone would say in a cheap romance novel. "And to answer your question, she's a friend of mine."

Was Chico my friend? Probably, at least that is how I saw it. At the very least, she was the only one from Fairy Tail I could confide in if weird stuff started to happen.

"Hmm..." Mirajane pressed her finger to her lips. "You do seem like the type that would feel more comfortable around older women."

"This has nothing to do with age!" My eye quickly replied. "Things just happened to go that way...that's all." My feet slowed down the closer we got to the guildhall. Perhaps it dawned on me that I'd have to explain what happened last night.

I wasn't sure if Mirajane was convinced by my statement or not. Though considering we were at the guildhall, it didn't matter.

"We do need to start thinking about repairs..." Mirajane let out a sigh while she slipped through the large iron bars that littered the building.

She wasn't wrong; it still looked like a mess both inside and out. A part of me suspected that they wouldn't start fixing up the place until the issue with Phantom Lord was solved. There wasn't much of a reason to start working on it if it was just going to be attacked again.

We traveled to the basement of the building. I hoped most of my guildmates would be gone, but the moment I descended the final step, I noticed the cramped space was packed. Most of the members were there.

"Hey, you're here!" A familiar pink-haired mage waved at me, causing me to wince. I didn't know what to expect, but I had hoped I'd be able to have a quiet conversation with Master. "You fight one fo those bastards from Phantom Lord, right?

"Wow, word did spread." Mirajane eyes widened. "I suppose Levy was worried about what happened to you." The white-haired mage then led me to the table where our Master was sitting.

It was sort of strange. Despite the short man's stature, he had a relaxed posture that made me wonder if he was even the one that called me here.

"Oh, you finally made it..." The man raised his hand as if greeting an old friend he hadn't seen in a while. "I figured you'd be hiding somewhere."

I Couldn't help but give a slight frown. Was my reputation that bad that I got known as the guy that spends all day in his manor alone?

"Well you know, family st-"

"Hey, I heard you fought one of those Phantom Lord guys, what happened?" Natsu pushed his way past a few of his guildmates. I mean, of course, he would, if I knew one thing about Natsu is that he had a tremendous amount of pride in Fairy Tail.

"Don't cut him off, Natsu." Erza chimed in, as she stood next to the pink-haired mage. "I'm sure he was getting to that part..."

I opened my mouth. But I had no idea how it would be possible to spin last night's encounter as something not to worry about. "Well, after Levy and her friends left, that Phantom Lord mage...tripped and broke his nose."

Upon reflection, that was the most idiotic excuse I could have come up with. Of course, I couldn't say I fought him off, nor did I have the creativity to come up with a good lie. So my brain defaulted to a lousy lie instead.

There was a moment of silence in the room. That was until someone started to laugh.

"This guy is a real comedian!" I heard someone yell as more mages joined in with the cheers and laughter. I suppose it would sound funny if no one knew the context of the situation.

Master Makarov closed his eyes then let out a cheerful laugh. "That makes sense Phantom Lord mages always have been pretty clumsy now that I think about it!"

My body froze, did he believe that? A part of me wanted to point out how stupid my lie was but kept my mouth shut — no need to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Though I have to ask, did you manage to get the name of the mage that attacked you?" Master asked.

I quickly searched my memory. "Ah, I think his name was Gajeel."

The once roaring laughter fo the guildhall vanished. Replaced with silence and a strange, awkward feeling similar to one where someone leaves a bad joke to hang for a little too long.

"W-what's with all those looks?" I asked.

"Are you sure you're not mistaken?" Master crossed his arms, making me think about my next statement. I didn't want to get dragged into this mess more than I had to. As far as I was concerned, the issue between the two guilds was just that, an issue between two guilds.

"Maybe..." I shifted uncomfortably. I was positive his name was Gajeel, but I could easily refract that statement if it meant that I'd have to go into further detail. "Is that name important or something?"

"He's the one that did this to the guild." Gray chimed in leaning in his seat. "That guy is one of the strongest mages in Phantom Lord. If I'm blunt, someone like you shouldn't be standing here if you encountered him."

A frown crept across my face. Of course, I'd have such bad luck to encounter someone like that. "Then I must have gotten confused with someone else."

I was willing to leave it at that. At that point, it didn't matter if I was telling the truth or not. No one else will know what happened the previous night.

"Yeah..." Chico waved from one of her seats. It seemed she was listening in on the conversation. "Armel is so weak he'd probably trip and break all the bones in his body. He couldn't fight someone that strong."

My eye twitched while I forced back a glare. I knew what Chico was doing. She was trying to make me look pathetic so that no one would ask too many questions. Still, she could have picked some better words.

"Regardless if that is true or not, Levy and the others were still attacked last night." Erza inserted herself back into the conversation. "Perhaps filling out an official complaint to the Magic Council would be our next step."

The moment the council was brought up, Master let out an irritated groan. "Things haven't gotten that bad yet! Besides, most of those old coots would just chalk it up to both guilds acting up."

I had no idea if that would happen, but everyone in the room most likely had a better grasp of the checks and balances of the magical world than me.

"I suppose I should be heading home." I stretched a bit, but my simple action caused Mirajane to pout and place her hand on her hips.

"Can't you at least wait for Levy? I'm sure she wants to thank you personally."

I placed my hands in my pocket and shook my head. "It's all right. It's not like I helped them just to get a thank you, if they are safe that's all that matters." Like I said before, people are inherently selfish. Expecting someone to repay a debt no matter how big or small, seemed silly.

Of course, Mirajane was having none of it. "Does that matter? Levy is the one that wants to thank you. It's not going to hurt by letting her at least do that much."

I opened my mouth to counter, but I honestly couldn't. I didn't know much about Levy, but if her not being able to thank me would bother her, then I could at least talk to her.

"Okay, okay, I get, but can you at least tell me where she is? I don't want to wait around here all day for her." That didn't seem like a productive use of my time, though it really was because staying around all the members of Fairy Tail kind of put me on edge.

Mirajane pressed her finger to her lips. "Levy said she was picking up some flowers Jet since his face got a bit swollen from the fight last night. She should be back soon, but if you want to meet her there, she should be in the shopping district."

"Thanks!" I nodded, preparing to leave the basement of the guildhouse. Of course, the moment I did, I noticed Chico nearly tracing my steps.

"Sorry, I realized I needed to pick up something for my dad. You can help me with that..." Chico said in her usual slow tone.

For some reason, it felt like she was just using that as an excuse to talk to me away from the others. Of course, someone with my intelligence picked up on that instantly.

"Sure, we are both heading to the same place." With that, the two of us left the basement as well as the ruins of the guildhall. I did wonder how long it would take for repairs to official start.

Chico and I walked down the street while I eyed the ghost that floated carelessly around her. I was waiting for her to reveal why exactly she wanted to come along.

"So, Chico, why did you want to come along anyway?"

"No reason, I did need to pick up food for my dad, and it'd be boring to go alone."

My nostrils flared the moment she said that. "Damn, here I thought I was picking up on some invisible signal."

Chico laughed...or she attempted to laugh, but it just came out was an awkward chuckle. "You should take things at face value more, but with that said. I did want to talk to you about something specifically."

Both me and Chico's gaze met. It seemed my gesture prompted her to start talking. "What does Fairy Tail mean to you?"

The question wasn't just random, but strangely heavy. "What brought this on?" I didn't mind answering, but it just seemed odd for Chico to want to know such a thing.

"Hmm, I want to see if your answer is similar to mine."

Was Chico trying to justify her feelings to herself? Regardless, I had a pretty simple answer for her.

"It's a place where...I can see a bit more of the world if that makes sense." Upon putting my thoughts into words, it made me realize just how pretentious it sounded.

Chico's eyes narrowed while she brushed her hair to the side. "You sound like a bad poet."

My fangs went into my bottom lip. "What I mean by that is there are so many different personalities and outlooks at Fairy Tail, I feel like I get a better understanding of the world from being there."

Even when I attempted to dress it up, it still sounded sort of stupid.

"Ah, I guess that was a bad question to ask in the first place." Chico closed her eyes while her body swayed along with the two spirits floating around her. "A better one would be if you are planning on staying with Fairy Tail forever?"

"Of course not. I like the guild, but there are things that I want to do...you know?" Once again, I could have picked my words better. "But seriously, what brought this on?"

Chico sucked in a deep breath like she was trying to swallow a tough pill. "I wanted to know because I'm thinking about leaving the guild in a year or two."

I was less shocked and more confused. From what I have seen of Natsu and the others, it seemed that the guild had a tight bond. Yet here, Chico was talking about leaving rather casually.

"Do you not like being a mage or something?"

"It's nothing like that." Chico shook her head. "I merely have my own goals I want to work towards. So I decided if the man that I like doesn't accept my feelings, I'm going to leave the guild and focus on those."

It was logical. Even though it was funny to think about, Chico was older than me. In her mind, she probably went over this multiple times.

"You're not moving out of the city or anything?" It was weird. Despite only knowing each other for maybe a few weeks, I did enjoy talking to Chico. Seeing her go would pretty much mean my one and only friend from Fairy Tail would be gone as well.

"What? Of course not. My dad lives here after all, plus I'd have to save money before I moved..."

It seemed she had planned out for a while. "If that's really what you want, I say go for it." The cheesiness of my words made me cringe, something I expected Chico to point out.

But instead, she stopped walking. At first, I thought it was because we made it to the shopping district, but then the ghost-mage turned and smiled at me.

"That's why... I like talking to you the most, Armel. I can say stuff like that and not feel pressured into doing anything."

There were still plenty of things I wanted to say to her about the subject, but the way she smiled made me realize going any further would be in poor taste. Besides, we were at the shopping center. Our priority would be to find Levy.

"Do you see Levy anywhere?" I asked, which prompted one of Chico's ghosts to float into the air. It then attempted to point in the general direction of our target.

"She's probably over there..." The smile Chico once had on her face completely vanished from sight. Replaced with her usual uninterested and bored expression.

We followed the spirit, which led us straight to Levy. In her had was a strangely shaped plotted plant. It didn't take long for her to notice both me and Chico.

"O-oh, Armel, you're here!" She seemed shocked to see me.

"Yo," I raised my hand. "Mirajane said that you'd be here. So I came since I didn't feel like waiting at the guild for you."

Levy tilted her head, her headband swaying with her. "Um, did you need something from me?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Not really, more that Mirajane insisted that I let you thank me for the previous night."

Levy's shoulder slumped, and her eyes narrowed. "Thanking you becomes a lot more awkward when you just show up like this."

Levy was utterly correct. It was like finding out your aunt or uncle had bought you something and visiting them only to get said present. Of course, in this context, the present was just two words.

"Yeah...it was sort of lame for you to come down here for that." Chico chimed in, which earned her a quick glare.

"J-just say thank you so I can leave..."

The blue-haired mage seemed even more confused. "Okay..." Levy then cleared her throat. "Thank you~." She let out a cheerful voice while she winked.

I, on the other hand, gave her a sideward glance while Chico frowned. Our gazes dug into Levy while her body shivered.

"W-what's wrong?"

I flipped some of my brown hair out of my face. "Ah, it's nothing...it just didn't sound heartfelt at all."

Chico nodded. "Yeah, you tried to sound all cute. You completely botched the delivery too."

I just realized we were giving a review of a thank you at this point though it was closer to Chico and me teasing the poor mage.

"S-sorry, let me try it again!" Levy raised both of her hands, nearly dropping the potted plant in her arms. "Thank you for last night, I mean it..."

Now that she said it like that, it made me feel a bit guilty for showing up and forcing her to say it.

"Don't worry about it. Just be more careful for now on." I waved to Levy, who did the same. With that interaction done, Chico and I left Levy to the rest of her shopping.

"I think I'll be splitting off from you here..." Chico said. "There is no need for you to go grocery shopping with me, after all."

While I didn't mind the activity, she had a point. "Yeah, I'll see you when I see you, and try not to stay out too late."

Chico mocking placed her hand on her chest. And in the same monotone tone, she always used spoke. "Ah, a vampire being worried about me...it's like a horror romance novel."

"Don't say that, out loud!" I cried out. "Just hurry up and get done shopping so that I won't worry about you for the rest of the day."

Chico nodded as both she and her ghost waved at me. With that, she vanished into the small crowd of people in the shopping area, leaving me completely alone.

Despite how awkward some of it was, it had been going rather smoothly. Of course, I knew better than to relax yet, after all. I had my worst luck once the sun fell...

Author Note

Sorry for the long gap. Was deciding on what to make this chapter before settling on a more slice of life chapter. Mostly because the next few chapters are going to be rather hectic.