Chapter 7: The Team
Since it was night time by the time they got to Magnolia, he decided it was best for them to just meet at the guild the following morning. They all said their goodbyes and the three of them made their way to their own apartments.
Leaving Laxus and Kagome alone.
Without a word, he took a hold of her two bags and easily put them over his shoulder as he grabbed his with the other hand and started to make his way to his place.
Kagome had spent three months with him and could now read him. Something was bothering him and he wasn't saying it.
Mentally, Laxus was pissed.
He was mad that for a slight moment he really thought she returned any sort of feelings towards him. Although he had yet to even really try anything because yeah, she was eventually going to leave. But for him, that wasn't the point.
He was also mad at the fact that she was the first woman to ever make him feel jealous. He's never felt jealousy regarding a woman. Never. Not in all his twenty three, technically thirty if he counted the seven years stuck in Tenrou, years of life. He was really tempted of leaving her alone in the apartment and venture off to find someone to screw and get rid of his irritation.
Very very tempted.
They continued to walk in silence, leaving Kagome with her unsettled thoughts.
If Laxus had heard, why was he acting the way he was?
Besides, he had heard wrong.
She loved Inuyasha. She would always love him. But she was not in love with him, at least not as much as she used to be. Or actually not at all anymore. It had been fading and ultimately much more the past three months. Long gone were dreams of a silver haired boy. If anything, the dreams she kept having for the last two months were with the lightning dragon that was walking in front of her.
Laxus had shown to be more talkative when it was just them, so the whole silence thing was leaving her confused and sad. She thought they at least had a good enough friendship where he could tell her what was wrong.
She sighed softly. Even if she wanted to explain, she wasn't sure if he would let her.
When they finally reached the apartment and they walked inside and he had still to say a word, she finally had it.
He was making his way over to his room as he left all the bags in the living room, but she had quickly made her way over and placed herself between him and the door. Her dark blue eyes darkened as she seriously looked at him.
"What's wrong with you?"
He quirked up an eyebrow, "I'm tired," he said slowly, "And I want to go to bed."
Her eyes flashed, "Don't give me that bullshit," his eyes slightly widened as he had hardly heard her cuss before, "You haven't said a word to me since we got off the train. At all. Did I do something to upset you?"
He rolled his eyes, "No. Can you move?"
She didn't. If anything she lifted her head in defiance more, "I don't believe you."
He growled in warning, but instead of shoving her away, he turned around and made himself to the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and just as he was pouring water on it, she spoke again.
"You heard what I said to Evergreen," she said matter of factly, "You heard me answer her question about Inuyasha."
The way she saw his body stop his movements was more than enough proof, "Why? Why do you care if I said that?"
He chugged the water and not so gently tossed the glass inside the sink. She had moved away from the door and so he made his way back to his room.
"I honestly don't care. I don't care who you have feelings for. That's none of my business."
But it was the tone he said it that she felt torn. It was different.
"If it isn't none of your business why are you acting like if you're jealous?"
He whirled around from opening his bedroom door and his harsh gaze landed on her, "Why would I be jealous of some half demon I've never met in my life? Or who you love? There's nothing to be jealous of."
In reality, he really had no clue how his words damaged her. She felt her heart squeeze in her chest as she struggled to hold back the tears from spilling in front of him.
She made a hasty turn, directly going towards her now bedroom.
He seem to snap out of the attitude and vile way he said it as he followed her. But she was faster and quickly went inside and slammed the door shut, locking it quickly.
He clenched his jaw as he knocked, "Open the door."
He could hear her sniffing, and he had a feeling she was against the door.
"You're right. There's nothing to be jealous of. Why would anyone feel any jealousy regarding me?" Her voice broke and he felt his heart drop to his stomach,
"At the end, I'm just old plain Kagome. Just a cheap copy. Goodnight Laxus."
He growled at himself, leaning his head against the door and closing his eyes. He wanted to say something to her but couldn't find the right words to do so.
You're such an asshole.
He couldn't find the strength to argue with it on that.
She had cried for a while. She really was upset for what he had said. Granted he had no clue why those words hurt so much but still.
But as she cried regarding his words, she came to the realization that she was indeed liking the slayer. Quite a lot.
That's why his words had affected her a lot more than she thought.
She was frustrated at herself but she couldn't help it.
When she woke up as the sunlight case in through the window, she had a new fresh mentality.
She was tired for crying for men that would never want her. She kept telling herself she just liked Laxus, no way actually falling for him, but she decided a friendship with him and maintaining the peace was the best way to go about things.
I'm going to leave. I'll be leaving soon. I shouldn't be having feelings.
That was her mental chant that morning.
Laxus was slightly nervous as he heard her bedroom door open. Her outburst had caught him off guard so now he was unsure on how to proceed. He belittled himself and he wasn't able to sleep much. But he would be in for a surprise.
Kagome wasn't one to linger on things. Somehow, one way or another, she saw the bright side of things and forgave. If she didn't have that mentality, that heart, she would've stopped going to the Feudal Era to avoid being with Inuyasha again.
She came out and greeted him with a smile.
He wasn't an idiot. That smile wasn't reaching her eyes but decided not to question it. They ate their small breakfast quietly, or as quietly as it could be since Kagome was humming to herself. He was trying to figure out how to apologize, but wasn't sure how. So silence it was.
Once they were done, they set off to the guild.
They quickly met up with the rest and they excitedly set off. Or as excited as Kagome could be and Laxus could show. The awkwardness was hanging heavily above their heads and it was very obvious to the rest of the Thunder Legion. Evergreen decided to linger back with Kagome and have small talk. As much as she would've loved to ask her what was wrong, she has a feeling it had to do with her leader. And if that was really the case, there was no way she could ask thanks to his heightened hearing.
When they got to the rundown guild, Laxus took notice that it wasn't as loud as he expected. In reality, he couldn't sniff Natsu there.
The moment they walked in, Levy immediately rushed to Kagome and enveloped her in a tight hug. Gajeel shook his head at Levy's reaction but smirked at Kagome as well.
"Kagome! I've missed you!" The small woman exclaimed in pure bliss. Kagome smiled brightly, probably the first real smile of her whole morning, as she returned the hug with as much vigor, "Levy! How was your training?"
That immediately created laughter from Jet and Droy as they sat on the table. Levy pouted cutely as a blush appeared on her face.
"Well… it wasn't how I hoped it was going to be…"
Kagome gave her a curious look, "What you mean?"
Levy's face got redder as she sighed, "On the second day of our training, Lucy's spirit, Virgo, appeared and told us the Celestial World was in danger. We went, but it was a trick to have us there for a party."
Kagome was confused, "How is that bad?"
Droy was now on the floor wheezing trying to catch his breath.
Jet said between laughs, "Celestial World time is different than ours! A day there is three months in our world."
Bickslow started to laugh, "No way!"
Levy pouted more, "This freaking sucks."
Kagome was going to say something, but was interrupted with the Master walking out of his office, "I want to see Juvia, Gajeel, Mirajane, and Laxus in my office now."
Laxus rose an eyebrow at his grandfather, but listened to what he said anyways and followed along.
It gave the opportunity to talk to Levy. The small woman immediately dragged her to a table where various books were with different types of bookmarks.
"We got back a week ago from the Celestial World," she said as she opened a book, "And one of Lucy's spirits let me borrow this book. It's called 'Time God.' It's in a different language so I am trying to decipher it. Maybe it could tell us something in regards your world. All other books I have have not been any help whatsoever."
Kagome took a hold of the book, taking in its silver plated cover with intricate designs as she traced her finger over it, "Maybe. Freed took some from the guild's library and we read them. But nothing. Thanks for your help Levy. I really appreciate it!"
The bluenette smiled brightly, "Any time! Now tell me, how were your three months? I think I'm kind of seeing some muscle from your arms!"
Kagome laughed and so she told her the kinds of training she did with the Thunder Legion. However, Levy easily took notice of the faint blush in Kagome's cheeks when Kagome told her Laxus practically gave her night classes. Levy really wanted to ask more, but she was well familiar with dragon slayer hearing that she did not want Laxus or even Gajeel to eavesdrop their conversation. She decided to tell Kagome about the team that had been created two days prior, being basically the entire Team Natsu for the lineup.
She spent the rest of the time with her until the others finally came out of the Master's office. She could only wonder what was going on as she could see a predatory and a challenging look from both Laxus and Gajeel while Juvia and Mirajane had smiles on their faces.
Laxus came up to her and called up the rest of the team. They were to go to the city of Crocus the next day.
The ride had been awkward the following day still. After getting back to his place, she had hid away in the room with another book from his bookcase. She came out one, to make herself a sandwich, but when she did, Laxus was in the living room.
The others had expect for Kagome to sit next to Laxus so he could lay on her lap, but the raven haired woman had opted out with sitting on the other side and lean her head against the window and close her eyes. Bickslow couldn't even find himself to be able to make a joke. The tension was high up in the air that Freed could possibly cut through with it with his sword.
The four hour train ride came and went, and Kagome found herself walking through the streets of possibly the largest city she had ever been in. The only way she could describe it, was literally out of a medieval book, with its tall stone like buildings and walkways and its wood like stores and houses. The city was packed as various residents from all over the country, and most likely from neighboring ones, were getting ready for the upcoming five day festival. She could see the outline of the castle and she could feel herself growing excited as she had never seen anything like it.
However, she had been too caught up in her own awestruck self that she didn't notice Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow sneakily leaving them alone and taking their bags.
Once she realized it, she went into different ways to embarrass Evergreen when she saw her again.
Laxus had similar thoughts in regards Freed and Bickslow. But as his gaze landed on the small woman who kept fidgeting, he said screw it.
"There's a lot of food vendors. Want to go check them out?"
She looked up at him, taken off guard by his sudden question. That was the first time he had directly talked to her after the other night. Other times is because he had to.
Before she could politely decline, her stomach growled loudly, making her glare at her own body for betraying her and blush.
He smirked at her as he placed his large hand on her shoulder and started pushing her, "I'll take that as a yes."
She sighed, but she let him lead the way.
She really thought it would be awkward, but once he got her a burger, the awkwardness faded away and she found herself enjoying his company. Thoughts of what happened were pushed aside.
Eventually as they walked after they ate, she finally let her curiosity give in.
"So how come the Master wanted to talk to you and the rest?"
He rolled his eyes. It took her long enough to ask.
He didn't want to risk someone overhearing what he had to say, so he opted out with slinging his arm over her shoulder and pulling her close. She could feel her heart warming and beating faster.
He smells good… she couldn't help but think.
"Well," he started as he lowered his voice, "This year for the games, each guild is allowed to have two teams. I just have to make sure I'm at the inn where the rest of the team is before midnight."
Curiosity filled her eyes as she looked up at him, forgetting the fact that he still had an arm around her, "Isn't that going to be too many teams?"
He agreed, "Exactly. What makes this more fun is that Natsu's team has no clue about the second team however."
She had only been around Natsu a few times, but she could tell already it was not going to be a happy reunion if both teams were in.
She caught the glint in his eye and gave him a suspicious look, "Why do I feel there's more to this?"
"Oh there definitely is. But you'll find out with the rest."
She grinned as she shook her head, "Hopefully the stadium doesn't explode."
Her comment caught him off guard that he laughed. Kagome found herself grinning alongside him. His laugh was just too contagious. The few times he had ever heard him laugh, it always left her a little numb, in a good way.
"You still have to see everyone in action. There's no promise the stadium will survive after we are done with it."
They continued to spend the rest of the day together until it was finally night time. They found themselves joking and have mock arguments. He would tease her endlessly sometimes and she found herself yelling at him in a few occasions. It was like what happened, it was forgotten, and they were back to just being them. He had led her to explore some of the vendors of different clothes, jewelry, hats, and such.
She couldn't believe how many people were there to see the games. It reminded her of back in her time, when the World Cup would happen. But this was so much bigger.
The one thing she noticed however, was that there was no Fairy Tail signs, flags, or banners. Nothing.
She remembered how some of the guild, the ones that weren't stuck in the island, spoke of the games. How humiliating it had been for them and how they had been the laughing stock of the games. She prayed that they would win.
As her eyes took in the curious Laxus as he was staring intensely at something in a stand, she had a feeling that this year Fairy Tail was taking the win. She knew everyone that had been stuck for seven years trained hard, even if she hadn't seen them yet. However, thanks to that party, she could feel the excitement and determination.
She had been looking at some curious stones of different colors when her eyes caught the sight of a small clock and saw the time. It was 11:30.
How did time go by so quickly?
She turned around and pushed herself through the crowd to reach Laxus again. She kept pushing people as politely as possible, but it felt that the crowd was becoming bigger. It was no surprise that she found herself tripping.
She readied herself for the fall, but she never hit the stone street.
"You've gotta be the clumsiest woman I've ever met."
His rich baritone voice held so much amusement as his hands were sustaining her waist. Her body was tightly pressed against his as excited shouting happened around them. Her dark blue eyes were connected with his and she found herself not being able to look away.
He let go of her with one hand as his other reached for his pocket. He pulled out a necklace, the stone similar to her dark blue eyes as a tiny gold dragon was wrapped around it. She gasped as he motioned for her to turn around.
She did and she lifted her long raven hair to give him a better view of her neck. She shivered slightly as she felt his fingers touching her neck as he closed the claps of the necklace to secure it. She turned around again, but this time her attention was on the stone as she carefully looked at it with her hand. It was beautiful.
She looked up at him, "Why did you—"
"Happy late birthday," he said. He paused for a moment, but then spoke again, his voice getting a bit deeper as he bore his eyes into hers, "I'm sorry for the other night. I was an asshole. More than usual. But you were right."
She found herself breathing heavier as he placed a hand on her cheek.
"Jealousy is not something I find myself feeling for a girl."
Her breath hitched with the tiniest bit of a gasp as he lowered his head and gently, took her lips with his.
The moment they made contact, the pre Games fireworks went off, but the two of them didn't pay attention.
Ever since he had been left alone with her, he went over what had happened the other night. He hated the fact that for some ungodly reason he was at fault for making her cry. He was always so used to hiding what he really was feeling. Any woman that came across his way wanted him for what he was and what he had.
Kagome was the first one to speak to him like a human being. The greatest debate was with himself and his inner dragon. If anything, it pushed him to do what he was currently doing. The instinctual feel of claiming her was too overwhelming. He probably was moving too fast as he had only known her for three months, but she was what he needed.
He knew she would have to leave some day, so he was making sure he would make an impact in her life how she did with his. He probably wouldn't be able to let her go when the time came, but he knew she had a duty to fulfill and was at least going to make sure that their time together was remembered.
He started to regret it as he took notice that she wasn't kissing him back, but as he started to pull away, he felt her small hands grip his cloak and pulled him down for another kiss.
She had kissed Inuyasha once. It had been sweet and innocent. However that kiss had been out of desperation to make him snap out of Kaguya's spell.
So this, this, was in reality, her first kiss.
The attraction towards him had been growing slowly with every day that it had gone by during the time they were in the woods. He reminded her somewhat of Inuyasha, but not really. While Inuyasha held the cute boyish features, Laxus held the masculinity of a grown male. He helped her, made her feel a confidence in herself that she never thought it was possible.
He never belittled her or called her names. He always opted out on teasing her or giving her crude or sarcastic replies, but he never saw her as someone less.
Whatever feelings she thought she maybe still held for Inuyasha, they were immediately gone now. That was a constant debate if she really really was over the half demon romantically. Even the night of their fall out, she questioned it again. Her heart had never thumped as loudly or as fast for Inuyasha before. A warmth that seemed to cover her from head to toe was all she could feel as she kissed Laxus. A part of her found the idea ridiculous of starting to like another guy that she had met not that long ago, but he seemed to complete her in a way she didn't think it was real.
He could feel her shy hesitation as she had pulled him in for the second kiss that he almost wanted to laugh. This was her kiss to him. Her innocence was downright adorable and he would be damned if someone were to interrupt that right now. The fireworks in the background was possibly the most cheesiest thing that could possibly happen, but his head and the warmth he was feeling was making him ignore the cheesiness.
Part of him felt wrong for kissing possibly someone else's chick, however, if she claimed she held feelings for someone else, she wouldn't have pulled him in again.
I still have a shot.
As they finally pulled apart, he couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked as her wide eyes were staring at him, her long eyelashes slightly fluttering as a blush graced her cheeks.
He smirked at her as he placed his forehead with hers while his arm still was wrapped strongly around her, slightly lifting her from the ground.
"So, why were you looking for me?"
She laughed as she hit him on the chest, "I was going to tell you that it's almost midnight."
His eyes comically widened, "Why didn't you say something sooner?!"
He quickly took a hold of her hand and started pulling her through the crowd as the fireworks were still happening.
"Well I would've if someone hadn't attacked me!"
She let out an 'eep' sound as they rounded around the corner of an alley and he pressed her against the wall.
"I don't think I heard you complaining," he arrogantly said with a smirk as he leaned down to kiss her again, but she quickly turned her head.
"No more until you get to the inn!"
She blinked once she realized what she said and got red again. His grin turned predatory as he grabbed her and in a flash, he used his lightning to teleport them to the outside of the inn where Team B were residing in. He grabbed her hand quickly and immediately went up to the second floor.
She was still catching her breath from the sudden teleportation and the way he made her rush up the stairs, when she felt his lips again on hers and kissed her with urgency. She reciprocated, but just as how quickly it had happened, it stopped.
He winked at her as he took in her flushed face and walked right inside the door.
She found herself staring at it while unconsciously placing her fingers gently on her lips. She shook her head as a small smile appeared on her face and she walked in, just as Gajeel was yelling at Laxus.
"Where the hell have you been?! It's ten minutes to midnight! We could've gotten disqualified because you were who knows where!"
Laxus didn't respond as he rolled his eyes. His familiar scowl was in place and Kagome wanted to kick him for being able to look so normal like if he hadn't assaulted her lips just prior entering the door.
Juvia and Mirajane greeted her, Mira having a knowing look in her eyes as she noticed Kagome's rosy lips were rosier than normal. But her and Laxus were on the same team and she didn't want to risk getting electrocuted.
Juvia wasn't blind either, but her imagination was going wild at the possibilities of what the other two were doing. Somehow, that turned into her thinking of Gray.
Gajeel's red eyes went to the raven haired woman, and thanks to his nose, he caught Laxus scent all over her.
He chuckled, but just as he was going to say a sly comment, Kagome took notice of the other male person in the room.
"Hi, I'm Kagome," she said as she extended her hand, "I don't think we've met yet."
Jellal, under Mystogan's disguise, curiously stared at the pretty woman. She must be new to the guild as he had never seen her before. However, he could feel a powerful unknown power coming from her, making his curiosity rise.
"I'm Jellal—"
Mira interjected, "Uh uh!" As she moved her finger from side to side, "You gotta practice saying your other name."
Jellal sighed under the mask, "I'm Mystogan."
Juvia took in Kagome's confused look, "Jellal is a member of an independent guild. They've been detecting dark magic from prior years during the games. He'll be participating as a member of Team B, going with the name of Mystogan, who's his counterpart from another world called Edolas."
"Oh," Kagome said as she nodded, "Levy told me about that world."
He nodded, "I'm currently a fugitive, but in order for me to see more of the dark magic we tend to detect, I spoke with the Master and he was very understanding about letting me be part of the team."
"She'll let you know if there's anything unusual too," Laxus said from his spot leaning against the wall, "She has a knack of detecting dark magic. Specially demonic."
She blushed furiously as everyone gave her their attention, but before she could even explain, a loud high pitch voice boomed through the window from outside.
"GOOD MORNING! TO ALL THE GUILDS WHO HAVE GATHERED FOR OUR GRAND MAGIC GAMES LISTEN CAREFULLY!"
They all went to the balcony to see what the commotion was about. She gasped as a ginormous labyrinth was in the middle of the sky and the rules were explained as a giant pumpkin head said that the preliminary event was about to begin.
The building shifted and started to move, looking like if it was growing in size. Kagome,Juvia, and Mirajane took a hold of the balcony's railing as it moved. Both Gajeel and Laxus turned a soft shade of green, but just on how quickly it came, it faded as it finally stopped. She then could see other inns in a similar state as then, a stairwell was created, leading to a giant circle type labyrinth.
The giant projection explained the rules, and Laxus' face quickly turned serious. He looked at her, and she nodded at him, "Go!"
And with that, they were off.
She stood there until she couldn't see them anymore. Her eyes wandered downwards and she was surprised to see Levy, Lisanna and Happy running.
She wasn't sure if they could hear her, but she shouted their names.
Happy turned and flew up to her, his arms moving frantically as his eyes were wide, "What are you doing here?"
"Oh there was no room where the others were going to be rooming so the Master got me a room here. I guess a guild must've been sleeping here too," she quickly lied, "Are you okay? Why are they running?"
"Wendy never made it back to her inn! We need to find her!"
She didn't think twice, "Fly me down. I'll help you guys look!"
He did as he was told, and as she ran with the other two girls and eventually separated to cover more ground, she could only hope Wendy was okay.
Come on Wendy, she thought as her and Levy made way towards the castle, Where are you?
A/N:
And that is it for Chapter 7! and yes, that just happened! Let me know what you all think so far.
Also, I'm well aware that Gajeel didn't show any motion sickness until Chariots, but as you all could figure, this isn't going to be a typical story where everything that exactly happened will be re written. There will be some twists that some of you might not be expecting.
I love and appreciate all of your support!