I wanted to post this yesterday, but I ended up working on it longer than I thought, and it's about twice my normal length!
So I got another rude guest review, and I'm starting to think that the troll is totally reading this story as I post it and is just going back and commenting for whatever weird reason.
As I said before, though - I will continue to delete any rude guest reviews. If you don't want it to be deleted, you have to post it with your account, you cowards. Then I can't delete it.
As for everyone else, thank you so so so so so much for your totally awesome support. More than a few of you made me cry, and I love you all. Don't worry - this story won't stop until it's finished.
Chapter Fifty Four - The Start of X775
Another year had passed, and we were all a year older. Levy, Lucy, Juvia, Max and Brandish were all seven years old. Cana, Gray and Laki were eight. Lyon and Ultear were nine. Freed, Evergreen and Nab were all ten. Bickslow and I were eleven. Laxus was fourteen, and Erigor and Reedus were seventeen. Enno had turned twenty-one. Wakaba, Macao, Layla and Ur had turned twenty-seven, and Silver had turned twenty-eight while Jude turned twenty-nine. Gildarts turned thirty-seven, Porlyusica turned sixty-nine, and Makarov turned seventy-eight.
This wasn't exactly discovered easily, though.
"I propose we create a list!" Freed announced, early into January.
"Hmm?" I asked. Most of us were in the training room, though Cana and Juvia were out on a job and Macao and Enno were…presumably occupied.
"Despite my large mental capabilities, I am having difficulty remembering everyone's birthdays!" Freed continued.
"Did you swallow a dictionary recently or something?" Laxus muttered.
"Yes," Freed said. "Both Levy-san and I have been studying the dictionary in order to expand our vocabularies!"
"Back to the point," Levy interrupted slowly. "It's probably smart to make a list. Especially with new people joining every year…"
"I think it's a good idea," Ultear said quietly. "I'm having some trouble remembering everyone's birthday's and ages."
"Alright," I said. "Time for a new list!" I moved up to the front of the room, and to the right of the timelines measuring our strength, I started up a new list.
"Who are the January birthdays?" I asked. "Anyone other than Reedus?"
"Mine is the 26th," Ur said.
I nodded. "Alright."
Requipping out what I needed for my list, I started at the top.
January 19th – Reedus (17)
January 26th – Ur (27)
"Alright, February birthdays?" I asked. "Brandish is the 2nd and Laki is the 28th."
No one spoke up, so I put a divider underneath January and started a new month.
February 2nd – Brandish (7)
February 28th – Laki (8)
"March?" I asked.
"Mine is the 8th," Gray offered.
"I feel slightly offended," Makarov grumbled. "Mine is the 1st."
I nodded. "And Max's is the 17th."
Putting another divider under February, I started out March.
March 1st – Makarov (78)
March 8th – Gray (8)
March 17th – Max (7)
"Max and Laki are the ones we are waiting on to join, correct?" Makarov asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, and I'm visiting them and making sure that they're keeping up on their magic. Max is a sand mage and Laki is a wood-maker mage."
"I look forward to meeting them," Makarov acknowledged.
"Now, for April…" I said, my voice trailing off. I turned to Gildarts. "Since you were so upset last time, when is your birthday?"
"The 7th," he grumbled, slightly embarrassed.
I nodded. "And Juvia's is the 26th. Is anyone else's birthday in April?"
At everyone's shaking of their heads I turned back to the wall and put the divider between March and April, and started with April's birthdays.
April 7th – Gildarts (35)
April 26th – Juvia (7)
"Now, for May," I said, already putting up the divider and my birthday, as the first.
May 1st – Elle (11)
"Am I the only May birthday?" I asked.
"My birthday is the 14th!" Ultear piped up.
I smiled. At least Ultear had escaped early enough to celebrate her birthday with her mom last year.
May 14th – Ultear (9)
"June," I said, already scrawling out Lucy's:
June 1st – Lucy (7)
"Does anyone else have a June birthday?" I asked.
"Mine is the 24th," Nab said quietly.
I froze, before exploding. "WE DIDN'T CELEBRATE YOUR BIRTHDAY LAST YEAR! I'M SO SORRY NAB!"
He gave a small laugh. "It's okay. I asked Enno to keep it quiet. I didn't want to make a big spectacle of it, and Fairy Tail kinda goes overboard when it comes to some things…"
Well he wasn't exactly wrong.
I sighed, and put up his birthday.
June 24th – Nab (10)
"Alright, who has July birthdays?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure it's just me and Cana!" Levy chirped.
I nodded and waited to see if anyone else piped up, before turning to add them to the list.
July 9th – Levy (7)
July 12th – Cana (8)
"Alright, as for August…anyone other than Layla, Evergreen and Enno?"
Everyone shook their heads no, and I added on the August birthdays.
August 12th – Layla (27)
August 24th – Evergreen (10)
August 31st – Enno (21)
"As for September," Freed piped up before I could ask. "I believe that it only holds my birthday and Macao's birthday."
I nodded and turned back to the wall.
September 8th – Macao (27)
September 30st – Freed (10)
"And October?" I asked.
"Mine!" Bickslow piped up, his tongue waggling a bit, which had probably grown even longer (though still not what it was in the future). I started to wonder if having his guildmark there had messed with it. Like a radioactive spider bite.
"Anyone else?" All was quiet.
I turned back to the wall and put up Bickslow's.
October 23rd – Bickslow (11)
"As for November?" I asked.
"Me and Wakaba," Laxus said.
"Wakaba and I," Freed corrected.
We ignored him.
"Porlyusica's birthday is in November, as well," Makarov said.
"When?" I asked, frowning.
"The 16th," Makarov replied.
"Another birthday we didn't celebrate," I muttered, turning back to the wall.
November 16th – Porlyusica (69)
November 18th – Wakaba (27)
November 23rd – Laxus (14)
"And December?" I asked.
"Mine," Erigor said.
"Jude's birthday is in December, too…" Wakaba added.
I frowned. "When?"
"The 29th, I think," Wakaba said.
I sighed and added them.
December 16th – Erigor (17)
December 29th – Jude (29)
I frowned, looking up at the list, before turning and glaring at everyone.
"Lyon….Silver…." I hissed. "When are your birthdays?..."
"Dad's is December 22nd!" Gray squeaked.
"Gray!" Silver protested
"And how old is he?"
"Twenty Eight!"
"And Lyon….." I set my sights on him.
"October 16th!" Lyon breathed, terrified.
I growled and fixed the board. Now finished, it looked like this…
January 19th – Reedus (17)
January 26th – Ur (27)
February 2nd – Brandish (7)
February 28th – Laki (8)
March 1st – Makarov (78)
March 8th – Gray (8)
March 17th – Max (7)
April 7th – Gildarts (35)
April 26th – Juvia (7)
May 1st – Elle (11)
May 14th – Ultear (9)
June 1st – Lucy (7)
June 24th – Nab (10)
July 9th – Levy (7)
July 12th – Cana (8)
August 12th – Layla (27)
August 24th – Evergreen (10)
August 31st – Enno (21)
September 8th – Macao (27)
September 30st – Freed (10)
October 16th – Lyon (9)
October 23rd – Bickslow (11)
November 16th – Porlyusica (69)
November 18th – Wakaba (27)
November 23rd – Laxus (14)
December 16th – Erigor (17)
December 22nd – Silver (28)
December 29th – Jude (29)
That ought to help. And we'd update it once everyone's birthday passed, so it would look all up to date.
At the beginning of the year, everyone started pestering Zeref to teach them magic, or how to better their control of their magic, which, of course, made him start tearing up again, happy for our support.
However, I stepped in before that, and shuffled Mavis and Zeref off on a honeymoon now that they can properly communicate and see each other and touch each other and have odd astral projection ghost sex or whatever tickles their fancy.
I don't really care what they do, but they deserve time with each other.
So, with Zeref and Mavis gone (and the adults mostly busy), the year began (and continued for the most part) with stupidity.
Apparently, when I told the kids I had the year off, they took that to mean as; we can cut our practice time in half and do other shit.
Which is what they did.
For several months.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's start with the beginning of the year – January.
Near the end of January, I approached Freed and asked him to help with a project of mine that was virtually impossible.
He, of course, said yes.
"I did say it was virtually impossible," I reminded him.
"Ella-sama, this isn't just virtually impossible; it is physically, magically, and mentally impossible! There is no such thing as an endless power source!"
"Freed!" I said. "Remember – leave that part up to me. I want to know if you can do it. Hypothetically."
He glared at me, before looking back down at the notes and sighing. "Fine. Hypothetically…if there is such a thing as an endless power source, we would be able to hook it up to a series of runes in order to make the runes stronger."
"Would the shield be able to support a far, long distance attack?" I asked.
He hesitated. "If such a thing is truly endless…yes. Well…it depends on the type of attack. But as the runes would be reinforced past a normal level, and would be much stronger…it could possibly stop a Jupiter Cannon, though it's highly doubtful."
"Not an Etherion blast?" I asked.
"Absolutely not, no."
I hesitated before continuing. "What if the runes were set to not only block the blast, but also absorb it, or reflect it?"
Freed stared at me for several seconds before he went back to his notes, scribbling and muttering to himself.
Finally, he stopped.
"I don't know," he said. "It's always possible it could overload, which would just maximize the explosion. However, it increases the chance of stopping a Jupiter Cannon from extremely unlikely to likely."
I nodded, and pointed at his notes. "And the second layer?"
He nodded. "Yes, both could be hooked up to this… 'infinite source'."
"Great," I said. "Now can you do it?"
He blinked at me, staring in shock.
"Do it?" he finally squeaked.
"Yeah," I said. "The sooner, the better!"
Freed found his voice. "What part of hypothetical and impossible don't you understand?"
Then he froze and bowed, ashamed. "I apologize for raising my voice, Ella-sama."
I sighed. "Freed, it's fine. Look, let's just say that I know a way to get an infinite power source, alright? And just leave it at that?"
He stared at me, still mostly unsure of what to do.
"Please, Freed," I begged. "Trust me."
That did it. He nodded, determinedly. "I will do my best, Ella-sama! If you need me, I will be writing runes around the city!"
And then he ran off.
I breathed a sigh of relief. That was one thing out of the way.
We had already celebrated Reedus's 18th birthday, and Ur's 28th, when we reached February 2nd: Brandish's 8th birthday.
During which, Brandish (and technically Lucy) decided to spring a surprise on most of the guild.
After cake, sitting around the guild, Layla stood up. "Well, Brandish…you've told me that you would only like a certain present and that you can't tell us what it is until today. Will you tell us what it is, now?"
Brandish nodded, and everyone quieted. After all, Brandish rarely spoke up, so people tended to listen.
"Lucy and I want to start going on missions," she announced.
All was quiet before an explosion of chatter rang out. The kids were all for it, excited that Lucy and Brandish were finally joining their missions.
But Layla and Jude weren't exactly happy about it.
"Absolutely not!" Jude roared.
"Brandish!" Layla tried, shushing her husband. She turned to Brandish. "Your mother gave us responsibility for you when she went back to Alvarez. And we cannot willingly let you go into danger like this!"
Brandish pulled a letter out of her pocket and handed it to Layla. "I already got her permission."
The two adults seemed frozen before Jude ripped it open and quickly scanned it, Layla reading over his shoulder.
They exchanged looks and then stopped, turning to Brandish. "Well…" Layla said softly. "If this is what you want…you can start going on missions. But only two fighting missions a month!"
Brandish nodded, and Lucy cheered.
"Not so fast, young lady," Jude growled. "You do not have our permission."
"What?" Lucy cried.
"You can go when you're eight, just like Brandish," Layla told her softly.
"What?" Jude spluttered.
"It's only fair, dearest," Layla pointed out.
"But…but…"
"She's going to grow up eventually," Layla said softly to him.
Jude gulped, and then slowly nodded, looking as if it pained him to do so. "Alright…starting June, you can start missions, too."
"Yay!" Lucy cheered, and the kids celebrated.
Jude looked as if he swallowed a lemon.
A few days later, before the first week of February was over, there was a different type of thunder in the rain.
Lightning is electricity striking, and thunder is the sound it makes as it parts through the rain in the air.
And because of this, we found that Laxus's electricity is extremely loud in the rain. More so when he uses his Lightning Body.
I was at the door before he could knock.
Still, I waited for him to knock before opening the door. He stood on my front stoop, drenched in rain with a backpack slung over his shoulders.
"Can I stay with you?" he asked.
"You want to tell me what happened?" I asked, settling down next to Laxus. After getting him a towel and making him take a hot shower, I started up some hot chocolate for the two of us. I handed him a mug as he left the bathroom and took a seat on the couch.
He sighed. "It wasn't much, just…a fight with Jiji. I couldn't stay in the house anymore."
I nodded. After Ivan had been kicked out, Laxus had moved into Makarov's house, and Ivan's house had been put on the market.
"Does he know you're here?" I asked.
After a sec, Laxus shook his head.
"I know you don't like it, but I need to call him."
"But-" he protested.
I held up a hand. "He's still your Grandfather, and he cares about you. He should at least get to know that you're safe. You can still stay here, though."
Laxus considered it for a bit, before nodding, albeit reluctantly.
I went to my room (to at least have the illusion of privacy) and dialed up Makarov on the lacrima.
His relieved face flashed before mine, and he was grabbing at the lacrima. "Elle! Do you know where Laxus is?"
I nodded. "Yeah, he's staying here. I'm not sure what happened between you two, but you should probably let him calm down for a few days. I'll probably take him out somewhere for some training. Destroying a bunch of shit should cheer him up." I smiled.
Makarov gave a choked sound, and tried to smile. "Thank you for letting me know, Elle. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," I said, signing off the call and returning to Laxus. "You hear that?"
He nodded, not looking quite so upset anymore. "Yeah."
I nodded, nudging his cocoa closer. "You should drink a bit. It will help warm you up."
He gave a wry smile. "I'm a dragon slayer, Elle. Porlyusica says that I run at a higher temperature than normal humans."
I shrugged. "Doesn't mean you can't get cold. Drink your cocoa."
"You know I run steady at about 102 F, right?"
I glared at him. "Drink your cocoa."
His smile widened, and I took some solace in the fact that I was able to cheer him up a bit, even if it was by teasing me.
I couldn't sleep last night, and from the looks of it, neither could Laxus. Though I had (eventually) managed to get back to a good rhythm after returning from the North, having Laxus in the room right next door seemed to throw things off again.
"Are we going to be going camping?" Laxus blurted during breakfast.
I looked up from my banana. "Hmm? What do you mean?"
"I mean, when you mentioned some training and destroying things," he muttered. "I…was wondering if we'd go camping again."
I smiled at him. "If you want me to break the tent out again, that's fine."
He smiled back. "Good."
Laxus had a lot of pent up rage, apparently, and I was overexerting myself simply trying to repair the forest. We quickly lost track of the amount of trees felled, and there's a whole section of Fiore's mountains that, despite what I would like to think, would probably never be the same again.
It was four nights in that he finally told me.
"I got in a fight." He was lying next to me, outside, looking up at the stars. "With Jiji," he clarified.
I wanted so desperately to ask him what it was about, but I knew better, and so held my tongue. He wouldn't bring it up if he wasn't going to talk about it.
I also wanted to say I figured as well as many other sarcastic things, but it wasn't the time.
"I was in town the other day," Laxus continued. "And I overheard some people talking about the next generation of Fairy Tail – our generation – and they mentioned me."
He bit his lip and I reassuringly ran my fingers through his hair.
Well, it was reassuring to me. I don't know what it did for him.
"They were wondering why I wasn't S Class," he continued in a low voice. "And…they mentioned about how I would 'no doubt' be one of the strongest wizards of the generation." He let out an angry huff. "'After all, he is Makarov's grandson.'" He mimicked one of them, and I could see the pain on his face.
"Laxus," I said. "While it's true that they expect a lot from you because you're 'Makarov's grandson' they also expect a lot from you because of what they've seen so far. After our debut with the Grand Magic Games…we've caused quite a stir."
He gave a bit of a dejected nod.
"They probably do expect more from you than the rest of us, because of your lineage," I said. "Well…Lucy, Ultear and Cana have special lineages, too. But now it's gone hand in hand. It's not surprising you can do this 'because' you're Makarov's grandson."
"Where are you going with this?" he asked in a dejected tone.
I smiled at him. "We're going to practice, and train hard, to the point where we go beyond that. Someday, Laxus, we'll be more powerful than Master. Both of us, and I'm not talking about together. Someday, people will look at Makarov Dreyar and go 'Hey, that's Laxus's grandfather!'"
Slowly, Laxus gave a nod, starting to smile. "Alright. Let's do it."
"Side by side?" I asked.
"Side by side."
The next several days were rough, but good. Laxus and I spent the whole time sparring, just going as long as we could against one another, and it was honestly exhausting, in a good type of way. Like that feeling when you finally get in a good run after leaving it alone for so long.
Both magically, and physically, we were exhausted, and at the end of the day, we'd collapse on our fluff together and just relax. It was nice.
And Laxus got happier, and prouder of himself, which was what I had hoped for, really. In the original timeline, Laxus hadn't fought with Makarov over this until he was much older, during which he mentioned that 'maybe he should just run away and join his dad's guild'.
But this Laxus would never get to the point where he'd consider that, and so it was good.
We finally returned after a few weeks, and Laxus stepped forward to apologize to Makarov.
I'm not sure what exactly was said, but it ended with them both in tears and happy with each other, so it was fine.
And this was when the stupidity started, though it happened behind my back.
"You what?" Lyon asked.
"I want to start a band!" Erigor repeated. "A boy band! Like those things Elle has mentioned!"
"Why?" Gray asked.
"She's talking about missing songs from her old world, because they don't record well – we can sing them for her! And dress up, and do concerts…"
The other boys exchanged glances as Erigor continued rambling.
"Why would we do this?" Bickslow asked. "What parts would we even have?"
"I would be the lead singer…" Erigor mused. "Laxus will be electric guitar."
Laxus looked up from his SoundPod, which he had been scrolling through. "Excuse me?"
"You're a lightning mage, you'll be fine!" Erigor waved off. "It's called electric guitar."
"I don't think that's how it works…" Nab muttered. He was ignored.
"Yes, but I don't understand the point," Freed said.
"It's simple, really, it's for b-" Erigor paused and looked at them, before slyly looking at Laxus. "It will impress girls. Especially Elle."
Laxus gave him a look, but didn't say anything.
Apparently, though, that sold it for Freed. "Alright, what will I do?"
"Woah, you're actually going to go through with this?" Gray asked.
"I'm in," Lyon said.
"Lyon!" Gray yelled.
"What?"
"You're serious? You're actually going to do this?" Gray asked.
Lyon nodded.
Erigor smirked, before saying, "Well, I'm not surprised Gray is too much of a chicken to do it. But I knew I could count on you, Lyon."
"Fine!" Gray yelled. "What is it you want us to do?"
"Are they even going to ask us if we want to join?" Nab asked Bickslow.
Bickslow shrugged. "Nah, don't really care anyway."
"Great!" Erigor said. "Since we're going to be using our magic with this-"
"Wait, what?" several voices chorused, but he continued.
"-we're going to be doing some different things. As I said, I'm lead singer, and I can use the wind to amplify my voice. Laxus is electric guitar, Freed can do sound effects. Bickslow, you're on drums."
"Cool," he said, waggling his tongue, which was nearly past his chin.
"Let's see…Nab, can you do things?"
Nab looked at him blankly, before sighing. "There are some tribal instruments I could do…I think Enno's got some woodwinds somewhere…"
"Cool, you're on flutes," Erigor continued, ignoring Nab's 'I don't know if it's a flute' comment. "Who am I missing?"
"Us?" Lyon asked, gesturing between himself and Gray. Obviously, this really interested him, and he seemed happier that Gray was joining in.
"What can you do with your ice?" Erigor asked.
"Oooh!" Lyon said eagerly. "We can make cool sounds and use our ice to make them echo and stuff! And I'd like to maybe sing a bit too."
"Awesome!" Erigor shouted, pumped up. "Now we just need to learn some of those songs by Elle's birthday."
Laxus sighed. This was going to be the troublesome part.
He really didn't know how he had gotten himself into this.