Chapter Three

As per habit, Masa wakes up with the sun. Stretching contently, grateful for the fact that his magic prevented him from having sore muscles, he luxuriates in the gentle feeling of the sunrays warming his naked skin. He had apparently forgotten to close the drapes on his windows when he came home late last night.

Because that's what happens when someone makes you cross the entire Clover Canyon. You become so absolutely bloody exhausted you just barely remember to undress before falling into bed and ignore everything else.

It takes him almost five minutes to tumble out of the hammock that served him as a bed. Well, he called it a hammock. In reality, it was just a circular piece of wood hanging from the ceiling that he had filled with several dozen pillows of all shapes and sizes in lieu of a mattress. When he had first bought his little cottage, he hadn't had enough money left for a proper bed, so he had jury-rigged the contraption since he had no wish to sleep on the floor. It worked, plus he got used to it, so he never actually got around getting a real frame.

The rest of his house was small, a one-story thing consisting of a kitchen, a single bathroom, and a living room/art studio. The attic became his bedroom from a lack of space. On the outside, the brick was covered almost completely in leafy, flowering vines and the garden was a multicolored mess. It was old but in good condition. He loved it.

Climbing down the rope ladder dangling from the attic's trapdoor, Masa paddles barefooted to his bathroom and only deigns to open his eyes when he stands in front of the mirror to brush his teeth.

The sight that greets him is very much unlike the rest of the native Magnolia citizens. His skin was dark were theirs was pale, and his chest, arms, and back were covered in ancient tribal tattoos. His long white hair was twisted into dreadlocks with golden ornaments, and it had often been remarked that his hawk yellow eyes were rather intimidating. He stood taller than most too, not overly so, but enough to be among the largest in the guild. Elfman and Laxus might have been the only ones to beat him out in that department, though he was nowhere near as buff as either of them. In short, he stood out in a crowd. Master Makarov said he was likely a descendant of the famous desert-dwelling Dykuma tribe who had been thought to have gone extinct many years ago.

Breakfast – a simple omelet with a cup of sand coffee – is cooked and eaten in his tiny kitchen in his underwear. He lived alone in the forest and he had no immediate neighbors. The closest were Natsu and Happy who lived ten minutes away at a fast walk. Visitors were rare, so he was seldom disturbed that early in the morning.

It's only after his daily dose of caffeine to wake himself up properly that Masa returns to his room to get dressed. Cargo pants whose pockets he refills with new snacks – lollypops – and more medical supplies, a tight tank top, steel-toed combat boots… his style was simple and utilitarian. On his wrists, he wore leather cuff bracelets – the right one was a single large piece with a watch and metal buckles, and on the left, he had a multitude of thinner braids. They were faded and scuffed, the metal tarnished. From his neck hung the guild symbol on a dark chain, as his guild mark was camouflaged among the other tattoos on his chest and most people didn't notice it even when he took off his shirt. It was almost like fate that he had left a blank spot big enough to accommodate it when he had them done.

All in all, it was a nice, quiet morning. He had no urgent business and he felt like he deserved a break. Surely no one will mind if he spends a day off indulging in his hobbies?

Masa stops in his living room that acted more as an art studio – it didn't even have a couch – and contemplates his two unfinished canvases standing on easels, thoughtfully worrying the crossed barbells piercing the top of his ear. One depicted the aftermath of a battle in the desert at dawn with cliffs rising in the distance. The other illustrated a group of shadowed people dancing around a fire under a starry night, also in the desert. Both images had come to him in his dreams and he'd been struck with an urge to draw them. More similar paintings lined the walls of his studio or leaned in stacks against them. A few were portraits of people like him; dark-skinned, white-haired, yellow-eyed. Dykuma tribesmen. All dressed in antiquated fashion.

Suddenly reminded of his hallucinations from the mushroom, he pulls out a barely started canvas of a woman from a pile of equally incomplete paintings. He had laid down the contours of her face and part of the landscape with charcoal and stopped there. Her image had faded in his mind and he couldn't remember how she was supposed to look. But the mushroom incident had reminded him and he, fortunately, had time to finish sketching her portrait in pencil in his notebook before forgetting again.

He thinks he'll name it – A Mother's Goodbye. Because even sick and emaciated, her eyes looked up at him with such love from the paper it could have belonged only to a mother. He'll have her standing on a dune looking back at the painting's viewer with a sunset illuminating her. She'll look healthy and she'll be… wearing a simple white linen dress to enhance her beauty, yes. Not too much jewelry either, although it will be golden and reflecting the red sun.

It was going to be one of his best, he could already tell.

Masa had just laid out his brushes and had reached for the paints when Happy comes bursting through the largest of his living room's windows.

"C'mon, Masa!" The blue cat calls. "You're gonna be late!"

"Late to what?" He asks irritably, putting down his palette on the little side table beside his easel. There goes his day off doing nothing but painting.

"Natsu challenged Erza to a duel!" Happy makes an exited loop-the-loop near the ceiling.

Masa's eyes close and he heaves a heavy sigh. "I'm not healing that idiot no matter how much he whines."

Natsu and Erza's fight had drawn a large crowd in the street in front of the Fairy Tail guild hall. They were all screaming and yelling and cheering for their favorite. Masa shoulders his way through them to join the other Fairy Tail members at the sidelines.

"They are going to destroy the street." He warns dully, teeth clacking on his lollypop. Having run out of the candy three days into his last job, he'd been suffering from mild withdrawal during the entire Eisenwald and Clover Canyon adventure. It felt great to have one again and lifted his mood considerably.

"It's going to be fine." Macao waves off his concerns. "Erza will destroy Natsu before that happens."

In a glow of light, Erza dons her Flame Empress Armor. It was a good choice, made for fighting against the strongest of flames.

"Can I bet on Erza, after all?" Happy asks Cana who was manning the betting pool after several long seconds of grave contemplation.

"What a loveless cat!" Lucy gasps. "Don't you have any heart at all? I couldn't do such a thing! I don't want either of them to lose!"

Masa snickers, amused. The new girl had interesting reactions.

The fight begins and Natsu does surprisingly well. Meaning, he doesn't get pounded into the ground immediately like he used to be as a kid. He spits out a couple jets of fire, Erza takes a few swings at him with her sword, a few spectators get burned, and just about when Masa is ready to set in for a good show and the two fighters were getting done with their warmup and becoming serious, a loud clap echoes in the street, drowning out all the other noise. Everyone freezes, turning to stare at the interrupter.

"That's enough." A frogman thing says in a high-pitched voice. "Everyone stay where you are. I am an emissary from the Council."

"Bleugh," Masa states, pulling his lollypop out of his mouth and sticking out his tongue in disgust thus conveying all his feelings on the Council in that simple sound.

"Why are they here?" Droy asks.

"We haven't done nothing wrong!" Someone else calls out from the crowd. "This time." That part was quieter.

"None of you are surprised by its appearance?!" Lucy is more interested in knowing.

"With charges of damaging property and elven other crimes committed during the Eisenwald terrorism incident the other day," The frogman thing continues. "Erza Scarlet, you are hereby under arrest."

"Wh-What?!" Natsu demands incredulously for all of them.

An hour later, everyone is sitting in the guildhall morosely staring into their drinks. Erza was gone, and Natsu was transformed into a lizard and trapped underneath an overturned glass to prevent him from going after her.

"I just have to tell them something! I don't care if they are Council members or not, I know they're wrong!" He was yelling, pounding with tiny fists against his transparent prison's walls.

Masa rolls his eyes. "Then you'll also be arrested without achieving anything and join Erza in her cell. Settle down, flamebrain."

"Why now?" Elfman asks. "After everything we've done, why this incident?"

"There is definitely another side to this," Lucy grumbles into the wooden table she was faceplanting in.

"There usually is, with the Council." He agrees. Always with their own agenda and with no love lost for their guild…

They sit in silence – with occasional muffled shouts from Natsu – for another half an hour, Masa quietly mourning a day that was supposed to be restful for him.

"We can't ignore this!" Lucy suddenly screams, jumping to her feet and slamming her hands against the table. Masa jolts in surprise and almost spills his drink. "Let's go and testify for her!"

"Have patience." Master Makarov says.

"How can you say that?" The Celestial Spirit Mage demands. "She was unlawfully arrested. We need to get there before she's sentenced."

"We're already too late for that," Masa informs her. "The Council have ways of traveling faster than normal. Erza was probably awaiting her trial in a cell five minutes after being arrested."

"But…" Lucy deflates.

"There's nothing we can do." He says, pulling out a new lollypop. "We can only file for an appeal and hope for the best after the sentencing."

Natsu restarts his temper tantrum. "Let me out! Let me out!"

Rubbing his aching head, Masa wonders what the hell he was thinking sitting down so close to the dragon slayer.

"Are you really sure you want out?" Master Makarov asks, and the sudden silence is startling. Masa and several others side-eye the lizard that looked oddly worried. "What's the matter, Natsu? You've suddenly lost your spunk."

With a grin, the old man reverses the transformation and Macao falls off the bar the glass prison had been standing on.

"Ah, fuck." Masa summarizes the situation with feeling. "Natsu has been gone from the beginning, hasn't he?"

Macao sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "Sorry, I was indebted to him."

"Oh yeah," He mutters, sucking on his candy. "we're doomed." The chair scrapes the floor loudly when he stands. "I'm gonna take a job, alright?" He calls to the Master. "I'll be back when we won't be in danger of being disbanded by the Council."

"He got dressed in cobbled together out of barrels armor with a red wig and came bursting through the Council's wall while yelling that he was the one to do it?" Masa repeats, trying not to die of laughter at the mental image of the faces the geezers of the Council had made when it had happened. To be fly on that wall…

"And that's why you spent a week in prison?" Gray bangs on the table with his fist. He had tears streaming down his face, he was cackling so hard.

"That's right," Erza confirms. "The whole thing was supposed to be just a formality and I would have gotten off without punishment, but Natsu really enraged them."

"I'm sorry…" Natsu sulks.

"A formality?" Lucy complains. "I don't understand."

"The Council needed to demonstrate its ability to retain control of the order in Fiore." Gray explains, calming down. "Erza would have been found guilty of her charges, but not punished. She'd have gone home the very same day she was arrested."

"I'm sorry…"

"What about your man-to-man battle with Erza, Natsu?" Elfman calls out from a nearby table.

Natsu immediately perks up. "Oh, yeah! Erza, let's pick up where we left off!"

"Please, not in the building." He groans. Master Makarov always made them fix it themselves whenever they destroyed it instead of hiring contractors and he hated construction jobs.

Hearing his plea, Erza lays Natsu down cold with one good punch to the stomach.

"Ow." He winces despite himself at the show of sheer brutality.

While everyone was busy teasing the unconscious Fire Mage, a sudden wave of unnatural lethargy hits them. One by one, they drop to the ground in a deep sleep. The guildhall resonated with snores.

Masa's hand sparkle and a good jolt of electricity to himself had him back in tired, but working order. "Damn it, Mystogan, is this really necessary every single time?" He protests around his lollypop, rubbing at his eyes. "We're all friends here."

The cloaked and masked man silently walks past and rips off a job from the Request Board, before stepping in front of their Master who was sitting as usual on the bar's counter.

"Well, hello to you too," Masa grouses and leans his head heavily on the hand that kept continuously shocking him awake.

"I'll be back," Mystogan says.

"Hold up!" The old man orders. "Lift the sleeping spell."

"Five."

Step.

"Four."

Step.

"Three."

Step.

"Two."

Step.

"Drama queen!" Masa yells after him.

Mystogan lifts a hand in acknowledgment and disappears back the way he came.

"One."

The guildhall fills with complaints against the S-class mage.

"Who's he?" Lucy inquires sleepily.

"He's in the running for strongest man in Fairy Tail." Elfman introduces her.

"For whatever reason, he doesn't want anyone to see him," Gray adds. "He puts everyone to sleep whenever he takes a job. No one but Master knows what he looks like."

"Are you serious?!" Lucy yelps. "That's way suspicious!"

"I know what he looks like. So does Masa." Laxus boasts from the second floor.

"Laxus Dreyar, another candidate for the strongest member. Master's grandson." Gray says for Lucy's benefit, before turning towards Masa. "And how do you know?"
He shrugs. "There's a trick to the Sleep Magic."

"Tell me."

"Nope~." He singsongs.

"Mystogan's shy." Laxus grins at the guild members gathered below him. "Don't get too nosy."

Natsu wakes up. "Laxus! Fight me." He yells.

People chuckle at his simplemindedness.

"Erza just gave you a beat-down." Gray reminds him.

"That's right." Laxus taunts. "You don't stand a chance against me if you can't even beat mere Erza."

"What does that mean?" Erza growls, standing up.

Well, Laxus is not wrong per se… Erza is strong, but not at his level just yet. If she tries really, really hard she could beat him once in a blue moon…

"I mean that I'm the strongest." Laxus grandly spreads open his arms.

Now that wasn't true. There was the Master. And Gildarts. And maybe Mystogan, although so few people have ever seen him fight, no one knew what exactly that guy's power levels were other than strong enough to be S-class.

"I'm surrounded by drama queens." Masa exhales loudly.

Obviously, Natsu gets instantly offended by Laxus' words. "Come down here, you jerk!"

"You come up." Laxus retorts.

"Fine by me!" And promptly gets squashed by their Master's giant fist.

"No one allowed on the second floor until they're S-class!" The old man scolds.

"Got yourself in trouble." Laxus jeers at Natsu.

"Why can't we go up to the second floor?" Lucy wonders in an undertone to him.

"The Request Board there posts only S-class quests. They are more dangerous and can be fatal." Masa explains nonchalantly, twirling his lollypop stick between his fingers. "There are only five people in our guild who are allowed by Master to take them."

There is yelling in the background.

Lucy looks astonished. "Only five?"

"To give you an idea of the power it takes, Erza, Laxus, and Mystogan are among them, and neither Natsu nor Gray is."

A wooden mug whizzes by behind Lucy's head, smashing against Elfman.

"Wow…" The girl fingers her keys. "Do you think you'll be an S-class mage someday?"

His nose wrinkles. "My magic's weird. If you haven't noticed, it's not exactly combat-oriented and that's what S-class jobs usually require."

"That's too bad…"

Laxus is laughing madly, and Gray and Natsu go rolling past on the floor, busy strangling each other.
"Is it? I think the ability to save people is more important than being just another destruction causing moron."

Mirajane accidentally overturns beer over his head, trying to avoid Wakaba's lifeless body lying on the floor. "Oops! Sorry, Masa."

He slicks back the dripping wet strands away from his face. "S'alright. I'm fine." He turns to Lucy. "Hold your breaths. I'm knocking them out."

When he gets home that evening – clean after a quick duck into the guild's bathroom – Laxus is waiting for him by the front door. Spotting him walking up the cobblestone path, the blond steps up to him and takes his hand, lifting it to his lips in a parody of a kiss.

"Feed me." He demands and Masa obediently makes lighting dance over his knuckles. Laxus's eyes flutter close in pleasure as he inhales it. "As I thought," He breathes. "yours the best."

Scoffing, Masa yanks his hand back. "Is that all you're here for?"
The other man chuckles, lowering his hand. "You know I'm not."

He heaves a sigh, unlocking his door. "Better come in, then. I've got it ready."

Toeing off his boots in the front hall – he never understood people who wore dirty shoes indoors – Masa unnecessarily leads the way to the studio. Laxus had been at his house often enough to know it as well as his own.

"Still having nightmares?" The man asks, intently examining the newly completed and still drying painting of the battlefield with an appreciative smile.

Masa glances up from where he was rummaging through a pile of his larger canvases. "I never remember them. Anyway, tell me what you think?"

He spins the piece he was looking for around, revealing a painting of Evergreen. She was sitting elegantly on a throne of intertwined roots and flowers, dressed in a resplendent green dress fit for a queen with a sparkling crown on her head. At her shoulder stood Laxus himself and at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne Bickslow and Freed, all three dressed like knights. Kneeling in front was the backward figure of a fourth knight, this one red-headed and female.

"Ever will love this," Laxus tells him. "She'll hang it right where every single of her guests is guaranteed to see it."

"Tell Evergreen I wish her a happy birthday too." Pulling out a piece of torn fabric from a cupboard, he carefully wraps the present inside it to prevent it from being damaged.

Meanwhile, Laxus had wandered off to his kitchen and returned with a bottle of whiskey and a couple of tumblers. "Drinks?"

They relocate to the wrought iron table in the garden. The weather was nice, and fireflies were flitting among the flowers. Occasionally, an owl would hoot in the distance.

"Why do you have to antagonize everyone?" Masa asks after the second cup.

"It's fun." Laxus grins, showing off sharp canines. "They always get so riled up."

There had a period of time after his father had been kicked out of the guild where Laxus had begun acting out and really considered the rest of his guildmates weaklings unworthy of his respect. Thankfully, Masa had been able to beat into his stubborn head that Ivan had been a horrible Fairy Tail mage and a worse parent. It took a lot of hard work and a lot of pain, but he'd been feeling responsible for the kid that had used to smile so brightly and easily, and that tended to follow him everywhere like a duckling because he always had candy on hand. In addition, he'd been the one to take care of him after Ivan had implanted the Dragon Lacrima into his body and almost killed him with that act.

"Masa, we have a mission!"

He jerks awake in his seat and a bottle totters off the side of the table to shatter on the cobblestone below.

"Who?" He mutters staring after the armored woman that had busted down the door of the little cottage and disappeared inside. Damn, his head was pounding and the yelling wasn't helping.

"Check your notebook." The big man beside him murmurs, lifting his head from where he had been cushioning it on his arms. He had a giant lightning bolt scar bisecting an eye. He also looked severely hungover.

"What notebook?"

"It should be in one of your pockets. You usually keep it there." The man yawns. "I'm Laxus, by the way. That was Erza. You're Masa Dykuma, Fairy Tail mage. You use Healing Magic. We're friends."

"Fairy Tale?" Okay, now he's just even more confused. What the hell was going on?
"Let's go." Erza? comes marching back out with a bag thrown over her shoulder. She grabs him by the shoulder and drags him along. "We have idiots to rescue."

"Good luck." Laxus waves after them.

Seriously, what the hell was going on?

I don't own Fairy Tail. Anything you recognize is Mashima's.