The Blue Pheasant Flies On

Chapter 8: Saint Ur

X777

Erza ducked to the side and cut the charging ice dog in half with a stroke of her sword. She nimbly moved out of the way of another dog and stabbed a third through its head. Leaving it there as she requipped a pair of shorter swords into both hands and continued to carve her way through the ice constructs that Lyon threw at her. The silver-haired boy's cries of frustration accompanying the shattering of ice.

Off to the side, Kuzan and Ur lounged on a bench made of ice; sipping from water bottles and watching the show in front of them. "Erza's gotten better at using two swords at once," Ur commented as she watched the young mage counter Lyon's storm of ice birds in an impressive display of swordsmanship. Several cuts appeared on her arms and legs when she wasn't able catch all of Lyon's birds, but none of them were debilitating and Erza ensured that her vitals remained protected despite the armor she was wearing.

Kuzan hummed in agreement before taking a sip of his drink. "She's been quite excited to move on to more than one weapon at a time, especially with swords." That girl really had an unhealthy obsession with them. The look of devastation on her face when he started her with knives had been hilarious. "She's a little too reliant on them, though," he noted when a lucky bird slipped past her guard and left a small cut on her cheek. A shield would have been a better choice to weather Lyon's attack. The boy could only attack with his birds in a straight line and Erza should have seen how fragile they were with how easily she could break them. And would it kill her to actually use her armor for once? It wasn't cheap to repair, but it was still meant to be used dammit!

Regardless of Kuzan's opinion on the matter, Erza continued to ignore her breastplate and gauntlets in favor of trying to cut every bird Lyon sent her way. Eventually, his assault slackened and Erza used the break to duck out of the way and reorient herself. The field behind Ur's house was covered in shattered chunks of ice and wayward weapons that Erza had used in the spar. Though calling what they were doing a spar was a tad generous. This would be the fifth time that Erza and Lyon had fought each other and the other boy seemed to be quite intent on finally beating her. He had certainly improved on his casting time and the number of larger creatures he could create at once. The dog pack she had destroyed earlier showed her that much. They were still as fragile as ever Erza noted. Nothing like the ice constructs Kuzan created for her to practice on. While she enjoyed the challenge of fighting moving targets, it wasn't as challenging if all it took to shatter one was a swing of her sword.

Erza learned that Lyon hadn't slacken his attack on accident when a monkey jumped on her back from behind and gave her braid a sharp pull. She let out a short gasp that was more surprise than pain before smashing the creature with the butt of her sword. Its destruction seemed to be a signal to the rest of the monkeys that Lyon had made as they all started to descend on Erza. The redhead wasted no time throwing her swords away and spearing a few of the monkeys with them. She had a better solution to being surrounded by a group of numerous, yet fragile, opponents. A large flail found its way into her hands and with a mighty heave Erza spun in place while smashing through all the constructs in one move. She let go of it halfway through her second spin and sent it flying at Lyon, who dodged it with a yelp of fright.

"A flail? Really?" Ur asked her companion with a raised eyebrow. That was just ridiculous. Erza needed two hands just to lift the damn thing off the ground. How the hell was she supposed to use that in a real fight?

Kuzan shrugged his shoulders, "It worked, didn't it?" he pointed out. "I said that I was going to teach her how to fight with everything she could. I just didn't expect her to be so… enthusiastic about it." It was kind of terrifying in a way. She might've been a natural, but the speed that Erza learned how to fight was mind boggling. He hadn't even been teaching her for a year and she was already well on her way to master every weapon he could think of. Erza was nothing short of a prodigy when it came to fighting. Displaying a level of raw skill only found in the best of swordsmen. The kind of skill that separated the greats from the legends.

Ur shot a knowing smirk at Kuzan. "You just couldn't say no to those big brown eyes of hers, could you?"

Kuzan saw no reason to reply to Ur's baseless and entirely false accusation. He was a former Marine Admiral, one of the strongest men in his old world and most likely this one as well. He was more than capable of standing up to a pair of shining brown eyes that begged him to teach her how to use the cool looking weapon that she had seen in the weapon shop pretty please. He took another drink and reviewed the pros and cons of letting Erza get that new magic eye of hers from Porlyusica again. It was apparently too much power in her hands. Maybe he'd have her start wearing a blindfold. Tell her it was to train for fighting in the dark or something that would make her stronger.

Ur rolled her eyes with a chuckle at Kuzan's silence before looking back at the fight and sighing in disappointment as another of Lyon's constructs was shattered in a single swing from Erza's spear. "At least your student is willing to learn from you," she wistfully said.

"Lyon's still being difficult?"

"Hmm," Ur responded while resting her head on her hand as she watched said student create a tiger to lunge at Erza only for the young swordswoman to easily break it again. "He's gone beyond being difficult. He's now so concerned with proving that he doesn't need me that I'm afraid it's going to get him killed. His constructs have become even frailer as he puts more effort being put into making them faster and larger than making them durable. He's finally realized that Gray is catching up to him and it's making him irrational," Ur admitted.

Kuzan could see where this was going. "Has he accused you of playing favorites yet?"

Ur shook her head. "Not yet. But it's only a matter of time until he does." A weight seemed to press down on her shoulders. "The worst part is he wouldn't be wrong," she quietly admitted. "I have started to favor Gray over Lyon." She chuckled darkly and took a swig from her drink before rhetorically asking, "Aren't I a shitty teacher?"

"Nah. Every teacher plays favorites, we're just not supposed to admit it," Kuzan told her. "There's just some kids that are just naturally likeable and some that are little shits. As long as you don't give up on the shitty ones then you're not a shitty teacher." He could think of several horrible students he had taught over the years. He couldn't remember any of their names, that would be too much effort on his part, but he could remember that they existed. He taught them the best he could and if they went and got themselves killed after that then it was their own damn fault for not listening. He could see that in Lyon but wasn't too concern. This wasn't his world and the odds of him dying over something stupid weren't as great. There was still a chance, just a less likely one.

Kuzan's words assured Ur, if only a bit. "Still, he should know better just by watching Gray and Erza fight. Gray's weapons can take more than one hit from Erza without shattering because he's using both hands to make them."

"Have they fought recently?" Kuzan asked.

Ur's face twisted in discomfort at his question. "Honestly, I've been trying to avoid that. I think Gray's finally getting good enough to beat Lyon and I wanted to work on getting him to listen to me some more before that happens, but I haven't been making any progress and they're starting to get antsy. Gray feels that he can take Lyon and has been talking a lot of shit while Lyon's itching for a chance to prove that he's still the better mage. I'm not sure how much longer I can put it off."

Kuzan looked behind them to where Gray was practicing his aim with several targets set at various distances. Ur had wanted him to be productive while Erza and Lyon sparred and had told him to work on his aim with that cannon he had taken a liking to make. There was something strange about watching a ten-year-old sitting on top of a cannon gleefully destroying targets with giant ice balls, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe because Gray was only wearing his underwear again?

Kuzan turned his attention back to the spar in time to watch Erza finally close the distance between her and Lyon and thrust her sword at him. Lyon tried to put up an ice shield, but Erza's sword cut through it like butter and stopped just before his neck. She raised the sword until Lyon had to lift his chin up or get cut. "Yield," she commanded.

Kuzan watched defiance flash in Lyon's eyes and loudly clapped his hands to get their attention and stop Lyon from doing whatever stupid thing he was thinking of. "Okay, you two, that's enough. It's Erza's win."

Lyon glared at Kuzan before spitting to the side and backing down. Kuzan watched him pointedly avoid sitting next to Ur, going as far as to create his own seat next to the bench. Kuzan frowned. It seemed that Lyon was much worse than he thought. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be of any help here. That bridge had been burned years ago.

"Sensei?"

Kuzan turned away from Lyon and looked down to Erza. He recognized the worried set of her brow and softened his gaze. "Good job, Erza. But you're still focusing too much on offense. You have shields and armor for a reason. Don't be afraid to use them."

Erza nodded seriously. "Yes, Sensei."

Kuzan fondly shook his head at his student. She was such a serious girl. He reached down and rustled her hair, making it stand up in several places, "Relax. If you keep making that face it'll get stuck like that." He chuckled as Erza ducked out from under his hand and shot him an irritated glare that was more of a pout while she tried to fix her hair. "Don't forget to clean up this mess," he reminded her while gesturing to the various weapons scattered around the field.

"Yes, Sensei." Erza turned and began to walk over to the nearest weapon—a spear—but Kuzan stopped her.

"Erza," his tone was both exasperated and admonishing, making the young girl wince. "Use your Telekinesis."

"But—"

"No buts. You can't just ignore it because you don't like it." Kuzan's tone softened, "I told you that you don't have to learn how to fight with it, but you do have to learn how to control it."

Erza sighed. She knew that her sensei was right, but that didn't make her any more comfortable using her Telekinesis. With a heavy, overexaggerated sigh, Erza concentrated on the weapons strewn about and activated her natural and hated magic. The weapons slowly began to rise up into the air and formed a floating row of steel in front of her. One by one, she dismissed the weapons back into her requip space and she released her magic with a sigh of relief. Every time she used her Telekinesis all she could do was imagine every way that things could go wrong and how she could end up hurting people. The first time Kuzan had her try practicing her control she had blown a hole in the man's chest with a rock. If it had been anyone else she would have killed them, but Kuzan had just told Erza to turn away from the town and try again without batting an eye. She had gotten better, but she was a long way from comfortable with it.

"You know that it'd be easier if you didn't leave so many weapons lying around," Kuzan told her with a hint of a smirk.

Erza crossed her arm and pouted slightly. "Swapping is harder than just summoning. I can always just pick them up later," she argued as they headed back to the bench to join up with Ur and her students.

"That's why you have to practice. You're the one that wanted to learn how to fight with Requip Magic, don't go half-assing it now," Kuzan chided.

From the bench, Ur let out a very unladylike snort. "Never thought I'd see the day that you'd get on someone's case about half-assing something, Mister 'One o'clock is considered morning.'"

"I'd like to point out that I haven't done that in months," Kuzan replied as he sat down next to Ur. Erza grabbed a water bottle and sat down on Kuzan's other side and Gray claimed Ur's left when he arrived. Lyon choose to continue to sulk in his own chair. The five of them sat like that for a while, letting the kids cool down from their training and the adults to relax without having to keep one eye on their students.

The nice little scene they had was broken after Ur took a glance up at the sun and rose to her feet with a stretch and announced, "I gotta get going. Don't want to keep Master waiting."

Kuzan lazily opened one eye to glance at Ur. "You're just going to be gone for the night, right?"

"Should be. Thanks again for watching the kids for me. I'm sure they'll be on their best behavior," she said with a stern look shot at both boys. Gray's back straightened and he nodded vigorously. Lyon tried to act nonchalant, but Ur saw him unconsciously lose his slouch. At least his disrespect wasn't spreading beyond her. That had to count for something. "I'll let you know if I have to stay an extra day."

"Okay. Have found with your council meeting," Kuzan unenthusiastically said with an equally enthusiastic wave.

"Ugh. Maybe if I manage to smuggle in some vodka I will," Ur replied as she walked away with a lazy wave of her own. She just had to make a quick stop back home for her overnight bag and to set the spare key out under her mat in case Kuzan had lost his copy again before meeting with Makarov at the train station. Sure, he could always make one himself, but that would be rude.

Kuzan turned his one-eyed gaze onto the kids he was now semi-officially in charge of. "You kids want to go screw around in the guild with Cana?" He didn't bother giving them a chance to answer, "Yes? Great. Let's go." Kuzan got to his feet and began to walk towards the guild as the three kids lined up behind him like the good little ducklings they were. Little ducklings that he had no problem unleashing on the denizens of the Fairy Tail guild for some free babysitting while he caught up on his napping. All these early morning training sessions with Erza were really cutting into his self-prescribed daily sixteen hours of sleep.

Ur and Makarov followed one of the salamander-like council workers through the halls of the Magic Council Fiore Branch Building. It was just as pretentious as its name implied. First you had to travel up into the weird bowl-shaped top of the main building, then you had to wait to be escorted up into the building where the Magic Council actually resided. But they couldn't have a nice, simple, gaudy addition, no they had to have a literal floating building larger than the Fairy Tail guild hovering above the bowl thing that you needed to access by a floating glorified elevator. It didn't even take you directly to the Council! No, you had to fucking walk through the rest of the oversized building to reach the council room right, smack dab in the middle of the damn place!

Makarov noticed Ur's irritation and commented on it, "Not enjoying the trip, Ur?"

"I'd give my good leg to get this stupid meeting over with already and we haven't even seen the damn Council yet," she complained before taking a swig from her "water" bottle. She was already halfway through it and she was seriously debating just pulling out the real bottle, appearances be damned. She was already wearing a pair of heels and a skirt, what more could these people want from her? She was the one letting them loosely affiliate themselves with her, they should be thankful she owned a set of clothes that could pass as formal, let alone actually bother to wear them for this little ceremony. "Why do they have to make such a big deal over the position anyways? It'd be so much easier if they just mailed me the stupid medallion."

"It's the Council. They're incapable of doing anything without at least enough pomp and circumstance to make a royal wedding look tame," Makarov reminded her. He had also dressed up for the occasion with a dark vest over a white shirt under his good cloak—the white one with the furred edges—and a pair of simple black pants. His hat had been removed and his bald crown was now on display. He gave her a mocking smile before he jokingly said, "Even if it's as simple as giving out a medallion." Makarov agreed with Ur's sentiment. One of these days he'd actually fall asleep during one of these meetings. The worker stopped in front of a large pair of double doors that he recognized. "Here we are," he gravely announced before the worker could. Makarov reached under his cloak to pull out a small hip flask and unscrewed the cap. He raised it up towards Ur, "Cheers?"

Ur smirked down at him and tapped her bottle against his flask, "Cheers."

The two drank under the worker's reproachful gaze before putting their drinks away and signaling for the salamander-thing that they were ready.

The worker let out a disapproving huff before making sure that it looked presentable and opened the door. "Now approaching: Wizard Saint and Master of Fairy Tail Makarov 'The Titan' Dreyar and S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail Ur 'Ice Rose' Milkovich!"

"That was the most idiotic thing I've ever had to put up with in my entire life," Ur declared to the mostly empty hotel bar for the third time that hour. She had swapped back to her usual attire and had left the stupid skirt crumpled on her bed. The heels had gone straight into the trash, which she planned on burning later. After she had finally gotten comfortable, Ur made a beeline to the bar and that's where Makarov had found her two hours later.

Makarov himself had spent his time catching up with his old team member and current Magic Council member Yajima. Standing only slightly taller than Makarov himself and at the same age, Yajima was a bald man with large, thick gray eyebrows and a matching toothbrush moustache that was wearing a striped, brown long-sleeve shirt and a three-pronged black hat. The two had decided to retire to the bar for some drinks when they came across Ur sitting by her lonesome. Makarov had introduced the pair and they both learned something about Ur.

She was a talkative drunk.

"Hey, Yajima-san, are all the Council meetings that boring and stupid or did you guys make it extra dry just for me?" Ur asked the latest in her line of questions that ranged from "How did a former Fairy Tail member end up on the Magic Council?" to "Was Porlyusica a bossy bitch when you were working together or is that a new development?" Her questions were only broken up with her complaints about the Magic Council and having to go through one of their ceremonies that was more pointless than a snowball.

Yajima smiled good naturedly. "They're all that boring. Even when we get called in to hold trials everything is usually decided beforehand so it's all a formality. Makes all that worrying we did when we were younger seem foolish now, huh, Maky?" he chuckled with a nudge to Makarov's side, ignoring his warning look.

Unfortunately for Makarov, Ur had caught onto what Yajima was implying. "Oh? Did you guys get into a lot of trouble back when you were a team?" she asked with a glint in her eyes. This was a chance to learn all those old embarrassing stories from Makarov's youth he had to have. Stories of a misspent youth! There was no greater power over an old man!

Makarov coughed into his fist and tried to seem uninterested. "I'm sure you don't want to hear any of those old stories," he insisted. He kicked Yajima under the bar to make sure his old friend didn't want to tell any of them either. He had an image to uphold these days. The last thing he needed was stories about his destructive misadventures getting out to the guild or—gods forbid—any of the impressionable children in the guild. He'd never be able to reprimand them again!

"Oh, but I do~," Ur practically purred out as she leaned forward more than necessary, leaning on her arms to push her breasts up. "And I'm sure that Yajima-san would love to reminisce on your glory days."

"Indeed, I would," Yajima said with a glint in his usually closed eyes. Makarov recognized that glint. He was planning on getting revenge for the various shenanigans he had pulled when they were rivals! Damn him!

Yajima took a sip of his drink before beginning. "Now, back when we were a team, you have to understand that Maky was the only S-Class mage among us at first, so we usually took on the harder regular jobs or the easier S-Class jobs. That led to them leaning more to the dangerous and destructive side of things, but even then, our jobs normally went above and beyond what was called for." He chuckled, "I think the only reason we ever made any money was because the jobs paid so much. Now, I use Flattening Magic," Yajima demonstrated by holding up his hand and activating his magic. When he turned his hand sideways, all that could be seen of it was a thin line that led down to his normally proportioned arm. "So Bob and I—he uses Phasing Magic by the way—were usually sent ahead to scout out what we were getting into while Maky and Goldmine hung back until something needed smashed and Porylusica waited after them to fix anything they broke that wasn't supposed to be broken. This one time, I had gone and slipped through a crack in the door to spy on this group of shady looking guys that we suspected were slave smugglers from Bosco—they were a lot bolder back in the day. Anyways, I tell the rest of the team that they were our guys and that I had a plan on how we could take them down."

By this point, Makarov's head was face down on the bar. He remembered the job Yajima was talking about and knew where this was going. Meanwhile, Ur was listening with rapt attention, her drink forgotten by her side.

Yajima was struggling to keep his smile hidden as he continued. "I never got past the part where there weren't any slaves in the room before Maky's giant fist punches through the wall I'm stuck to. Suddenly, I'm across the room, there's a giant hole in the wall, and Maky's standing there with this big, smug smile on his face holding up a giant fist next to him while everyone, both us and the slavers, are staring at him in shock. And he says," Yajima wasn't bothering to hide his smile at this point and Makarov's face had gone red in embarrassment. "Who wants the first ride on my fist?"

Ur started howling with laughter. She put her head down on the bar and pounded it with her fist as tears rolled down her face. The thought of Makarov saying such an obvious innuendo completely seriously proved too much for her and she ended up falling off her stool and collapsed on the floor which had no effect on her laughter other than to make her roll side to side to try and contain it. Makarov's entire head had turned red and he glared at Yajima. "I wish you had hit your head when I sent you flying back then."

Yajima chuckled. "And miss this?" he asked with a gesture to where Ur was trying to pull herself up into her seat but kept losing her grip whenever she got a look at Makarov. "I would have stayed awake long enough out of spite just to hear you say that."

"In my defense, it sounded much better in my head," Makarov weakly protested.

"Keep telling yourself that," Yajima said as he took a sip of his drink. No matter how many times he told that story it still made everything taste sweeter. Revenge truly was the greatest spice.

Ur eventually managed to pull herself together and get back into her chair, although she kept bursting into fits of giggles from time to time, much to Makarov's annoyance. Makarov loudly cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Moving on! How does it feel to be one of the Wizard Saints, Ur?"

"Not really that different, you know? Like," she started to make lazy motions with her hand, "I get that it's an important position and all and that the Council's wanted me on it since back when I was part of a guild, but all that's really changed is that I got this fancy medal now." Ur pulled out her Ten Wizard Saints medallion and spun it on the bar. She set her chin down on the bar and watched it spin with an air of melancholy around her. "Do I really deserve this, though? There's plenty of stronger mages out there than me. Hell, we've got three of them in our own guild, and you're the only one who's a Wizard Saint, Master. Kinda seems arbitrary to me."

Makarov hummed in thought at her words. He understood where she was coming from. Back when he had first received the position he had had similar doubts. But he had gotten over those feelings in time. Age truly was the greatest teacher, but how could he put what he had learned into words so that she could understand? Makarov never figured it out as Yajima came to his rescue. Good old Yajima. Maybe he wouldn't poison his ramen too badly for telling Ur the infamous 'Giant Fisting' story. Just enough to leave him on the toilet for a couple of days instead of the week he had been planning. Had to remind him who was still top dog around here, after all.

"While magic power is an important factor in choosing a Wizard Saint, there is more to it than that," Yajima explained. "We also take into account a mage's reputation, their position in the world, personality, and more. If everything was based on just raw power then we'd devolve into a bunch of arguments over who was stronger than who, and what the most equal situation would be to compare them with, and how different magics came into play, and how technique and skill would come into play, and it would just end up being a big mess where no one would ever agree on anything. And while the Council does like everything to be organized and categorized, we aren't willing to put up with that mess over something as meaningless as power rankings." He said with a self-deprecating smile.

"It's true, Ur," Makarov chimed in. "There are some real monsters in the Wizard Saints, the Four Gods of Ishgar among them, but no matter what they say about us or how much they argue, it doesn't change the fact that of the Wizard Saints, only two of them hold the title of the strongest mage in one of the cardinal directions." A large grin grew under Makarov's moustache, "And God Serena isn't one of them."

"It does make him quite angry when it's brought up to him," Yajima mentioned with a smaller grin.

Ur stared at the two old men as her slightly drunk mind processed what they were saying. "Wait, you mean that…"

"Yep. Draculos Hyberion, second among the Four Gods of Ishgar and the Strongest Man in the East and Wolfheim, third among the Four Gods of Ishgar and the Strongest Man in the South. For all the power that he holds as the strongest among the Four Gods of Ishgar, God Serena has never challenged Gildarts for his title. Neither has Warrod for that matter, but he's retired and prefers to stay that way."

Ur let out an appreciative whistle. "I guess I can see why you wouldn't want a womanizing, forgetful, destructive, old bastard like Gildarts representing the Council."

Makarov nodded his head and hummed in agreement. Gildarts was already rough enough on Fairy Tail's reputation and they were known for being a bunch of over-the-top, destructive hooligans. The last thing the Council would want would be another Fairy Tail member in the Wizard Saints. They only accepted Warrrod because they couldn't ignore one of the Gods of Ishgar and Makarov had only gotten in after he had been made Guild Master and had stopped going out on jobs.

Ur downed the rest of her drink and slung her arms around the two old men's shoulders. "Well enough of this Council bullshit. Let's go hit the town! Fairy Tail style!"

The gray-haired men looked at Ur in surprise. "I don't really think—" Yajima began, only for Ur to tighten her hold around his neck and cut him off.

"Come on. Kuzan's got the kids tonight and I've seen more lively people in a graveyard than this place. Besides," Ur's grin grew more than a little feral, "you were just telling me that you two were a couple of hell-raisers when you were younger. I'm sure you've still got more than a little of that fire left in ya."

The two weren't given any chance to protest as Ur dragged them out into the night. There were bars to hit up and drinks to drink and they were burning moonlight. This was the first time off she had had from her students in a while and they weren't around to see their respectable teacher get into some wild shenanigans or the aftermath of said shenanigans, so she was going to use this chance to its fullest. Kuzan would be able to handle whatever they threw at him anyways. He was a reliable guy like that.

Kuzan rubbed the bridge of his nose as he stared at the four vaguely child-shaped blobs of mud in front of him. He was not getting paid enough for this. "I don't care what happened, I don't care how it happened, and I especially don't care who's fault it was. What I do care about is how fast you four rugrats are going to get into the bath and scrub off every inch of mud, dirt, and whatever else you're coated in until you're all so clean that you'll squeak with every step you take. Understood?"

"But—"

Kuzan glared down at the Lyon-shaped blob that had opened its mouth. "That wasn't a question."

The four blobs rapidly nodded their heads before rushing out and getting mud all over the place as they did, making Kuzan's headache return. He should have pretended to be asleep when he heard them squish their way towards him. He settled back down and started to drift back to sleep, but the sound of children arguing over who got to go first kept him awake. "For the love of…"

A few minutes later, four naked mud blobs were tossed into the large tub in Ur's house to the cry of "you're all first!" followed by four bars of soap that hit the blobs in the head. Kuzan shut the door behind him and headed back to his nap. There. Problem solved.

The next day, when Ur and Makarov got back from their Council meeting, Fairy Tail had a party to celebrate Ur's status as one of the Wizard Saints. Lyon was impressed by Ur's new status and actually considered listening to her. Gray lost his clothes and got into a mock fight with Lyon that ended with the both of them frozen together by Ur. Erza was ordered not to wear her armor during the party and to relax and enjoy herself. She did until someone bumped into her and made her drop her strawberry cake, causing her to wreak havoc through the guild until she was frozen by Kuzan. Macao and Wakaba gave Cana her first taste of alcohol that she found enjoyable and proceeded to get drunk off her ass for the first time. The two older mages found this hilarious until Ur froze them for giving alcohol to a minor. Kuzan spent the party drinking and calling Ur "Saint Ur" much to her exasperation and annoyance as she couldn't freeze him solid in retaliation.

The party ended with everyone passed out around the guild, and Ur and Kuzan sleeping next to each other back by their table.

Omake: Gildarts's Problem

Kuzan and Ur sat in the middle of Fairy Tail calmly drinking their tea as they ignored the chaos going on around them. Makarov had found a pink-haired kid who could use magic wandering through Magnolia Town on his way to the guild and had invited him to join Fairy Tail. The boy's name was Natsu, and he fit right into the guild if the way he was already getting into fights with everyone else his age was any indication.

Ah, the exuberance of youth.

"So, what do you think of our newest member?" Makarov asked the two Ice Mages.

"He's certainly an excitable one, isn't he?" Ur said.

"More of a loud one if you ask me," Kuzan said as Natsu's shouts of challenge rang out through the guild. "He's only been here for less than an hour and he's already challenged Erza to a fight six times since he's met her."

"Erza, fight me!"

"Make it seven," Kuzan deadpanned.

Makarov chuckled at that. "That he has. So," his expression grew serious as he leaned in closer to the two S-Class mages, "which one of you is taking him in?"

"W-what?!" Ur shouted in surprise as Kuzan choked on his tea. Noticing all the attention on them, Ur lowered her voice, but that didn't get rid of any of the shock in it. "What the hell are you on about, Master? What makes you think that one of us is going to take in Natsu?"

Makarov waved off her concerns, "That's the way things have been going every time a new kid shows up around here. Whenever Gildarts comes around, little Cana-chan hovers around him like a lost puppy, you've got your two students, and Kuzan jumped at the chance to take care of Erza-chan. So, it's only logical that someone is going to be taking care of Natsu. Now, which one of you is it going to be?" Makarov really wanted to know. He had a decent amount of money riding on their answer.

Kuzan and Ur looked at each other and then looked over to where Natsu was running around with flames on his hands and fire streaming from his mouth. The Ice Mage pair quickly looked away from the energetic fire boy before they were caught staring.

"I think that sounds like Gildarts's problem," Kuzan said before burying his head into the paper he had already finished reading an hour ago. Ur nodded her agreement and stole the funny pages from Kuzan, suddenly incredibly interested in whether the one kid would finally get to kick the football or not.

A/N: So this was supposed to come out on Halloween, but then it didn't. And then it got delayed some more by tests. Oops. Ur is now a Wizard Saint and that omake is how Natsu joined Fairy Tail, so next chapter the Strauss siblings will be joining the guild and Happy will be hatched and after that will be the S-Class trial where Laxus is promoted. Probably. I might combine the two, I'm not sure yet. Also, I still need a beta to help me clean up my writing hint hint. If you're interested in that then PM, the competition is nothing to be afraid of. Literally. There is none. Till then, later.