*Violet's POV*

Despite my fears, Natsu made no attempt to talk to me after disembarking the train. Indeed I stayed with Lucy, weather by design or by coincidence, the two of us ended up separated from the rest of the group.

Lucy made no attempt to wait for them on the platform, nor as we excited the train station. I followed her lead. I wasn't too keen on seeing Natsu again anyway. As we started walking, I felt in her the familiar tug of need for conversation. I prepared myself for her to speak before realizing it was probably my turn to do so, after all, she had spent most of the train ride conversing with the man and his son about a variety of topics that could only have been related to each other in the eyes of a child.

"Thanks for helping me out back there," I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lucy turn to see if I was looking at her, but kept my eyes on the ground as I spoke, "I'm not that good at talking to people, especially strangers."

No surprise there.

"It was no big deal," Lucy said, and I knew that she meant it. But there was something else, she had wanted me to interact more, despite not minding that I didn't.

"I was probably just like that when I was a kid."

"Yeah?" It was the first time that I would be hearing of Lucy's childhood. Having never been a target, she had not been subjected to the same amount of research that the others had, and what little I did know about her days before Fairy Tail came from what I knew about Gajeel, and the motivation behind the attack of Phantom Lord many years prior.

"I've wanted to join Fairy Tail almost as soon as I heard about it," she said, "If a real life wizard had talked to me then I would have been excited to."

"I guess I never thought about that." I said, careful to keep my eyes trained on the pavement beneath my feet. "There's never really been a time when I didn't have magic. Not that I can remember much at least."

Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but cut herself off when we reached the entrance to the gild hall. I risked a glance over my shoulder to see the rest of the entourage a couple hundred yards farther down the road.

When I faced the font, I saw that Lucy had already opened the door, and was holding it open, waiting for me to enter. I took a deep breath and did so, feeling Fairy Tail's signature aura wash over me. I paused just inside the doorway for a moment as I realized that in the depths of Fairy Tail's general mood was the same thing that I had felt in Natsu only a few hours previously. Compassion. Now that I had the name for it I seemed to be feeling it everywhere. It made my magic even more distracting than before.

The first thing I did upon getting my bearings was search for August. My eyes instantly went to the bar where he had been singing last time I'd seen him, but he wasn't there. A quick scan of the guild hall showed me that he was sitting with Gajeel at one of the tables in the middle of the room, talking and laughing as if nothing had happened. If it didn't know any better I would have said that he was the same August that had been talking with them before the disaster in the woods, the perfect little socialite who could steer the conversion wherever he wanted to gain information.

But this time it was different. I should see it in the way his shoulders were relaxed rather than alert. He wasn't scheming or concentrating. He was letting go, being free. I had only ever seen him like that when he was talking to me. I tried to ignore the little thorn of jealousy that pierced my heart. August was allowed to have friends. He didn't belong to me.

And yet…

I had spent my whole trip to Hargeon waiting for the moment that I would return to him. For the moment that I could turn away from the enemy and spend my time with someone who was safe. Someone who wasn't confusing. Someone who understood me.

And as far as I could tell it looked he had been enjoying himself in my absence. I swallowed hard. It was unfair to blame August for being happy, especially when it was my own fault that he was suffering. It only made sense that the guild would be quicker to forgive him. He hadn't tried to kill anyone.

The rest of the group entered behind us, drawing the attention of some nearby members, August among them. He looked up at me and smiled. I tried to return the gesture as he excused himself from the conversation and came to meet me.

"How did it go?"

He was relaxed, fresh, and felt that he had started anew. It was nothing like when I had seen him last. "Uh...good." I said, trying to remember how to be causal.

Erza appeared at my side as the others spread out through the guild hall. "I can go tell the master what happened if you want to stay out here." she offered.

I looked up, I had been expecting a grueling debrief. "You sure you can do it alone?"

She nodded. She had been around this block before. She knew what the master was and wasn't okay with. But there was something else, something that she wanted to talk to him about without me present. I fingered if it was best to let it go.

"Okay then, thanks."

Erza gave August a curt nod and then turned toward the master's office, disappearing behind the bar. August and I watched her go, and then turned back to each other , almost awkwardly. Since when had I been awkward with August? "So how did it go?" he asked.

"We should probably sit down."

He nodded and he found a little table along the back wall where no one would bother us. I saw some of the fairies looking our way from time to time, but none of them made a move to listen in. They seemed to respect August and I's first true reunion. It wasn't just that they knew it would be wrong to listen in, they didn't want to.

"I tried to convince the master not to let him go." August said.

I blinked, "not to let who-oh." I looked down at the table. So August had known about Natsu. "That's okay, it wasn't that bad, once I got used to it."

"Did he stay away?" August said.

"Mostly." I nodded, "the other's made sure of it, it wasn't until after Topaz-"

"Topaz?"

I let out a sigh.

"Maybe I should start at the beginning."

And that's what I did. More or less. I had been considering for some time if I would tell him what had happened before the job. The night that I had stayed at Lucy's. But I realized that I still didn't really know what his plan moving forward was, and I didn't want to taint it with emotions that I myself was still confused about. So I only spoke in hard facts, leaving out the night at Lucy's entirely.

I told him about Topaz and Kaze, and the story they had told me, how I had been able to confide in them, and then Natsu's confession that the master had told him to talk to me. I told August that I had let him stay with me on the porch. But I couldn't bear to mention what I'd asked him. The emotion Natsu had been pressing on me, as well as the subsequent explanation, they seemed to intimate an experience to share lightly. Especially when I didn't know what the plan was.

I had to prepare myself to leave Fairy Tail now that August and I were back together. I had worked for an escape, not acceptance. My last few days had been a sad echo of what had come before, but I knew that staying with the guild was not a possibility. It simply wasn't safe for anyone.

I prepared myself for August so tell me as such, and I knew how I would agree, and then he would tell me the plan that would tear us away from another guild.

"What happened on your end of things?" I asked.

he let out a deep breath, and then I felt him surging with the same question that had plagued me only a few minutes before. What was the plan going forward? Was it fair to share emotions?

"What's wrong?" I asked.

August sighed sheepishly. "Nothing goes over your head." he said. Then...a silence he used to gather courage. I learned forward, eager to hear what he didn't want to tell me. "We need to talk about what we're going to do now that they're being less careful with us."

I swallowed. The exact conversation that I had known was coming, and yet didn't want to have.

"What was your plan?" I asked, "you said you had one the other day."

"I did." he said, and my magic sought out the unspoken words. But now I don't know what to do.

He was torn between fear of telling me the truth and disgust at the thought of telling me a lie.

"You can tell me the old plan," I offered, and we can go from there?"

He nodded slowly, he saw it was a place to start.

"I'm sure the old man told you that I was helping prepare them for war with Justice Valkyrie?"

The idea sent a shiver down my spine, but I nodded.

"I mean, it's inevitable that they find out what happened eventually, and the fairies aren't one to back down from a fight...but I knew it wouldn't be pretty. so...I thought we would let them go at each other, find some excuse to leave the battle, and then run away once they had destroyed each other. Once there was no one left to chase us."

It was a good plan. Exactly what I would have expected of August. But I knew that it was rooted in shame. It wasn't just August that was tainting it.

"We can't leave them like that." I said, speaking the words that both of us knew.

"But I don't know how else to get you out."

And he sounded so heart broken, so desperate for an answer. He wanted to be safe. He wanted us to be safe. But if we couldn't be free of Fairy Tail…

"You want to stay now." I said, "something happened while I was gone and you want to stay."

August looked down as if this were a crime. He told me about his confrontation with Gajeel, how he had tried to pick a fight only to fail spectacularly. How he had returned to the master's mind games, and realized he didn't want to leave.

"I wasn't going to tell you." he said finally. "I didn't want you...we can still find a way to get out."

"You think I want to leave…" I realized. "Oh August…"

I reached forward to where his hand was curled on the table and put mine around it. He sat there for a moment, concentrating on the sensation that he wasn't used to, reading me, knowing that he was being read. Perfectly connected.

"You want to stay too," he realized.

I had been afraid to say it out loud, I had known he wouldn't believe me. But there was no denying my emotions. If we left, I could never let the guilt go.

I retracted my hand and August let out a wide smile. "This might be the stupidest thing we've ever done." he said.

"But it's also the best."

His smile widened, a real one, followed by a laugh. And then mine followed. We were going to stay at Fairy Tail. We were going to fight Justice Valkyrie. And we were going to do it together.