Been looking forward to this chapter for awhile
XXX
"What's so special about this map?", Mickey questioned, giving the box a shake.
"Please don't do that".
"Don't do what?", Mickey asked, shaking the box for emphasis.
"That. Shake the box".
"Why?".
"Because we know there is a magic map in there and want to get paid for dropping this off with Jude?". Please listen, please listen.
"Okay". Mickey was silent for a few moments. "You want to carry it?".
I wish we could just dump it into my bag. "Sure, you tired already?".
"I know what you are trying to do", Mickey said, eyes narrowed.
"Is it working?".
"For now".
Gisela let herself laugh, enjoying how the sound seemed to fade into the open air. Ahead of her the path to Crocus stretched out and Mickey and Pi-chan were with her. It was nice.
"Hey, Gisela?". Mickey sounded worried.
"Yeah?". Gisela hoped she didn't sound to tentative.
"Never mind".
"No, what is it?". Mickey spent all her time listening to Gisela's freak outs, the least that Gisela could do was reciprocate.
"Nothing".
Is this okay? Is it okay to push? "Mickey?".
"I was just thinking that this box looks particularly shakable, do you think Pi-chan would like to carry it?".
She is totally covering for herself. Of course, just because Gisela could tell that Mickey was covering didn't mean she could do anything about it. "You're just asking me to be annoying, aren't you?".
"That's the plan, that's the plan", Pi-chan chriped.
"Why, why", Gisela asked, drawing out the last why. Quietly she marveled at the fact that they were joking. It was nice. It was nice that she could say something silly and snarky and not be immediately tense. It was nice that they could have a discussion like that.
It was nice.
"What are you thinking about?".
"Oh, just that this is nice", Gisela said absentmindedly.
"Dang it".
"What?".
"I was all ready to be snarky and everything, but then you had to make it nice".
"I'm sorry?".
"No, don't be. I'm glad I met you too. I almost was going to have to quit Fairy Tail you know, my old team broke apart and moved on and I hadn't been able to find someone else to work with. I'm glad you showed up".
Gisela turned away, there was a very interesting tree that they were walking by and she really wanted to know what type it was. "I'm glad to".
"Good".
Neither of them spoke much after that, they just kept walking, enjoying the weather. Or, they were enjoying the weather until it started to rain, that sort of put a damper on that. "Clouds", Gisela said, trying to cover up her guilt, "they make a great umbrella".
"Who'd a thought a storm would be coming".
Suddenly Gisela was drowning. "I'm sorry", she whispered.
"Why".
"I should have checked". Somehow Gisela couldn't admit that she had checked, that she had looked but she hadn't felt any signs of a storm.
That was worse. The last time-
She had thought that they would be okay.
"We would have had to leave anyways, not to mention I could have checked the weather report as well. If none of that makes you feel better than the fact that you are currently making our umbrella should".
"Thanks", Gisela tried. Mickey was trying to help, Gisela knew that. It didn't help that failure echoing inside of her, reverberating with every rain drop.
It had been her fault.
Her fault at the temple. She was forgetting that. She was letting herself forget the way Caelum had looked after the storm she had failed to predict.
She was forgetting.
They kept walking, physically. At least, not for Gisela, she couldn't help to worry about Mickey though. Gisela had a coat and a study pair of boots, Mickey had a bird on her bare shoulders.
Her gloves would help a little but Gisela still worried. It's fine, it's fine. Gisela let the mantra carry her along as they walked, each step was another word added to the rhythm.
It was fine.
Mickey would be okay. Mickey would not freeze to death from a small storm, even one that Gisela had failed to notice.
They were fine.
They could do this. This was a good mission that Jude had sent them on. It was fine. They were getting paid a fair amount.
Just keep walking, just keep walking.
The rain was getting harder. "You want to fly?", Gisela offered.
"Would you be able to keep the rain off?".
"Mostly, but I need to be able to see".
"I bet we'd just end up wetter in the end".
Gisela pictured hurtling through the air, speed allowing the rain drops to hurtle into whatever shaped cloud she made. "Probably".
"Lets just walk faster. I think there is a town a bit a head".
There was. That was the nice thing about routes to Crocus, they were well traveled enough that small Inns and towns would sprout up about a days walk away from each other.
It was warm inside the wind. Gisela still felt raw and broken inside. She was forgetting, she was forgetting.
It had been her fault.
They ended up only getting one room, a consequence of the rain were all the travelers who had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and getting soaked was a road experience that they could happily miss out on.
It's okay. It's okay.
It just didn't feel true. She listened to Mickey's steady breathing and Pi-chan's whistling chirp like snores on the other side of the bed, feeling cold and empty.
She was dry. Gisela knew that she was dry and that she didn't really get that cold any more.
She still felt cold.
It's okay. It's okay.
Maybe if she just kept thinking that it would be.
The worst part about waking up was accidently waking up snuggling people. It wasn't that Gisela wanted to do it, she didn't! It was just, sometimes when she was asleep she would gravitate to the nearest soft object and lean against it. There was a reason she liked to have a bunch of pillows in her bed.
Gisela had always been a bit of a nester, maybe that was why she got along so well with Pi-chan.
Mickey had been warm against her when she had woken up, face buried in blond hair.
It had been nice until she had realized what had happened, where the blond hair currently tickling her nose was from.
Then it was mostly panicking.
The micalainus thoughts weren't helping as she stared at Mickey from the floor, the pain in her back from the landing only a break from the pounding fear.
She hadn't stuck to her side.
She hadn't.
Breathe.
It wasn't working. Yesterday had been so good, she had felt brave. Now she couldn't get a word out and she had been that close even though they had said that they would stick to their own sides of the one bedroom that they had rented and-
There was pressure on her back and something running through her hair, a beak?
Gisela tried to breathe into the rhythm. Mickey hadn't been yelling, Mickey wasn't upset.
"-okay".
"I'm sorry", Gisela whispered, looking at her guild mark, blue on her wrist. "I'm sorry".
"It's okay, is it okay that I'm rubbing your back?".
"Yeah. I'm sorry".
"Why?".
"I", Gisela tried to explain, "we were supposed to stay to our own sides of the bed. I didn't. I'm sorry".
"It's okay. I don't mind contact. Do you?".
It was complicated, it was so complicated because Gisela liked hugs, liked the soothing warmth of Mickey's hand on her back, drawing circles. Liked not being alone.
That was nice.
The problem was that too often physical contact was more than just friendly and Gisela didn't know what signals were okay to send. Please say that was fine. It was too easy to look at two people, three people interacting and think, they look like close friends, and then find out that they were more than that.
Gisela had heard one to many stories about mixed signals.
Breathe.
The hand on her back went round and round, warm, soothing.
Breathe.
It was Mickey. They were friends, it was okay. Mutely Gisela nodded. "Let's just get going".
"Okay. You sure you're good?".
Gisela thought for a second. She was a little tired, a little sore. "I'll be fine, sorry about panicking on you".
"Gisela?".
"Yeah?".
"You're good with hugs, right?".
"I love hugs". It was everything that was supposed to come after them that freaked her out. It was all the feeling that she didn't have or want or need. "I just was a little startled there".
"Cool, you can carry the box then, right?".
Gisela grasped onto the change in subject. "You've been looking for an excuse to say that, haven't you?".
"Yup! Lets get going".
Gisela did end up carrying the box, it was only fair, Mickey had carried it the day before after all. However, getting going was not as easy as they had hoped.
"What do you mean the path is knocked out", Mickey shouted at the innkeep as Gisela forced herself not to flinch at the volume.
"Just what I said, that storm that blew through knocked down a bunch of trees, not to mention the early snowmelt. I don't think you are getting through that path for a bit". The poor guy sounded so done.
Just so done.
With everything.
Gisela wondered how many people had asked him the same question since he had gotten up this morning.
She didn't want to think about it. Gisela wanted to open her mouth, to stop Mickey from hastening the guy because he didn't deserve it. It wasn't his fault that the road was impassible and she knew that Mickey didn't think she was hastleing the guy but nothing would change and they were still talking and Mickey was being annoying and-
Gisela wanted to say something.
She couldn't. The lump wouldn't leave her throat. Instead she dug her fingers into her palms, hard.
"Fine", Mickey said with a huff, "you ready to go Gisela".
The lump was still there. Gisela nodded.
"Cool, let's find somewhere to eat. Let me know when you want to talk".
It was okay. It was okay.
They found a nice breakfast place. It had pancakes. "These please", Gisela asked, leaning over the box to look at the menu.
It was okay. They were okay.
Watching Mickey and Pi-chan eat was always a treat. Gisela ate steadily as she watched them, Mickey would take bits and crumble them up, sliding crumbs over to Pi-chan.
It was the timing that was impressive. It was Mickey Pi-chan Mickey Pi-chan one after the other after the other in a steady rhythm.
It was times like this that Gisela was reminded of the fact that the duo was soul-bound to each other by some sort of magic that Mickey had learned as a kid, possibly from her family.
Gisela wasn't sure about the last part through, it wasn't like either of them talked about their past much.
What would it be like? Gisela wondered, what would it be like to know someone that closely. Did they feel it in their bound souls? Was there a line where Mickey ended and Pi-chan started? Were they telepathic? When would the bond break?
I'll ask her later.
Or never.
"You ready?" Mickey asked as she and Pi-chan finished off the rest of their seeded, which they ate totally unironically, pancakes.
"Yeah. I was thinking we could just fly over the blockade?".
Mickey burst out laughing. Gisela fidgited awkwardly. I thought it was a good idea. She hadn't wanted to fly the whole way because that would have been exhausting and had left her with like nothing for the return bit but just until they got onto a stable path, Gisela had thought that that would work.
"Mickey", she asked anxiously.
"Sorry, sorry. I just totally forgot we could do that. What would I do without you?".
"You would be fine".
"Maybe, but being with you is better".
Gisela didn't feel warm at that. She didn't.
Okay, so maybe she did. But it was just a little. Maybe I am doing something right? It was a nice thought at least.
Maybe the morning hadn't been a total disaster. Even if it had been raining and Gisela had gotten to close and-
Maybe it really would be okay.
"Ready to go?".
"Yup".
They took to the sky. Things were even better up there, Pi-chan tried to fly for the first few moments, Gisela humored the bird, slowing down the cloud.
They weren't in a rush, they could afford the extra few moments.
It came before she realized it, burning. The world was lit up and she was burning. Screaming.
Bum bumbubmubumb bum.
Everything was too slow and too fast.
The wind was rushing down and there was noise in the background and it didn't matter because Gisela needed to hold.
Hold!
Her skin burned. Everything burned. There was screaming.
The ground was racing up to meet them.
Everything burned. The ground was getting closer. Closer. Closer.
Mickey.
Mickey was not going to hit it. They were not going to hit it.
Cloud.
The world was black.
She was cold. It was as all consuming as the pain had been, sharp and freezing, worse than it had been on the mountain worse than the thin air.
She couldn't move. It wasn't even outside. It was her own body stopping her. Her breathing was uneven and it felt like she was nothing but pins and needles and fire and she was screaming and everything was concrete and energy at the same time.
Then it hit her.
Mickey.
She needed to know. Gisela wrenched her eyes open, focusing on the way they stung as she tried to understand what had happened.
The world outside was blurry, nothing but spots and lighting.
They had been flying. They had been flying and then there had been pain and cold and now she was on the ground? Maybe?
It hurt to breathe.
Mickey.
They had been falling. The pain had caused Gisela to lose control and they had been falling. Gisela could picture the ground rushing up to reach them. It had been coming and coming and-
She still couldn't see anything. However, she could hear.
There was fighting, screaming. Shouting. "-Ear", someone was saying, voice unfamiliar. Hostile?
Probably.
Energy flickered against her. Magic not hers. Maybe it was? Everything was so jumbled.
Mickey. Breathe.
Everything was still blurry. Gisela could feel the ground shake below her.
She was on the ground. That was good to know.
Mickey. Was Mickey on the ground.
"-to us", a voice was yelling. Demanding.
They had been attacked. Someone was demanding something from them. Did they want the map?
Gisela had the map. Not Mickey.
Mickey was fighting. Mickey was fighting and Gisela was doing nothing. She thrashed, trying to force her muscles to obey her.
It didn't work. They were limp. She tried to kick but it was like everything was scrambled. Scrambled?
Like lighting?
Something had hit them in the sky.
Another mage. A lighting mage?
Gisela couldn't think. Her vision was clearing. Everything burned. She wanted to scream, to let the pain out but she knew that she couldn't.
That would draw attention. Attention would be bad. She didn't have a plan.
That would have to change.
Breathe.
Gisela tried to feel, to divide Gisela from pain. To focus on the other magic that was restraining her. It worked. Sort of.
Her eyes were clearer. It looked like her magic was doing what it could to repair the damage caused from staring into a possible lighting bolt, is that what happened?
It didn't matter what had happened. What mattered was what was happening. What was happening to Mickey and Pi-chan.
She needed to do something. She couldn't fail. Not her partners. Not again.
The world outside was getting clearer. Gisela eyes caught tell-tale bright blue, Pi-chan! He was moving, fighting alongside a blond and black blur. Mickey.
She looked alive. She was moving.
She hadn't died in the fall. Gisela had caught her. She wanted time to savor that achievement, but the more she looked and the more her head cleared the worse of a situation that Gisela realized they were in.
Mickey was definitely fighting someone. Someones. And Gisela was pinned down by some sort of cage of ice.
That explains that cold.
Two bald people were fighting Mickey and Pi-chan, blurs dashing around as Gisela lay there, not helping her friend.
Useless.
I need to move!
The ice cut against her skin as Gisela forced her arms to obey her. Forced her legs to push up against the bars holding her back.
She was Gisela of Fairy Tail and she was not going to give up.
It burned. The cold burned and her arms burned and her legs burned and everything smelled faintly of char but as Gisela watched Mickey ducked low to avoid a lightning bolt as was smacked into a tree by a harmer.
That was not okay.
Gisela kept fighting against her bonds, her magic bubbling under her skin and building up froce like Mickey had taught her to do during a hundred and one spars and brawls because Mickey could never just stay on anyone's side and to partner with Mickey was to learn and-
She saw the cannon, cold, glistening ice.
Her magic was set against the ice, her will against the ice mages.
It didn't matter.
Mickey mattered.
The ice cracked with a sound that was almost a bang as Gisela burst into motion, Mickey warm as she shoved her friend down.
Then everything was silent. "You, okay?", Gisela gasped out, words feeling like knives in her mouth.
"I'm okay. You're the one who got hit by lighting!".
It was nice to know she was right sometimes, even if Gisela could have done without that particular experience. She was just opening her mouth to deliver a devastating comeback when she heard a throat clearing.
It wasn't Mickey's throat.
"As touching as this is, I'm afraid we need that map. Dramatic rescues out of the way, will you please hand it over".
"No".
"Too bad. It would have been nice to do this politely. Doran?".
The ice mage started to move.
Everything ached.
Mickey was fighting.
Gisela couldn't move. It was like she was Jello. Useless.
Mickey and Pi-chan were trying. Durian fired off another canon of ice. Pi-chan blocked it.
Gisela still couldn't move.
A current of lightning arced across the road and Gisela felt her own muscles scream in sympathy.
She tried to scream.
Nothing came out.
By the time the light had faded from her eyes Mickey was standing up. Gisela didn't know if she had been knocked down or not.
"Face it Fairy, you're partners down for the count and you're not much better. Not you or your little birdy. Give up and we might let you live".
Something seemed to change in the air. "Fuck", Mickey started, "you".
Gisela wanted to scream something, anything.
"Very well", the lighting mage said and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. There were too many teeth.
The world turned to slow motion but it didn't matter because Gisela couldn't move. Couldn't do anything as she watched the glittering, electfied ice get closer and closer and Mickey and Gisela were braced but it wouldn't be enough and-
It burned her eyes. Gisela refused to close them.
Then the light faded.
Mickey was burning.
