Hi! First things first, I seriously doubt I'm ever going to finish this, or that it will even pass 10000 words (it's at ~6000 right now), and I would estimate it needing a good /=20000 to properly flesh this out at the rate it's going. However, it's still fun, and I like it, so maybe some of you will too. Just wanted to warn you I wouldn't finish. I still have a few chapters to post, though, the start of their slow-burn/freeform relationship. (Mavis does not appear in here.)
{-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-}
Mizune was waiting. Waiting in a cave on the path of route B, tapping her foot and wishing she had a watch. Glancing up, seeing nothing but the slowly swaying vines, she made an inarticulate grumbling noise, slouching slightly before, with a shout of surprise, throwing herself back, looking up with fire in her eyes.
"Geehee," Gajeel grinned menacingly, retracting his Iron Dragon Pole. "I was hoping to get an S-class!"
"Gajeel, that isn't anything to be happy about!" Levy cried, staring at her in horror. "And it had to be Mizumi!"
Mizune laughed maniacally, tilting her head with an insane grin.
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
Makarov's face fell comically as he shouted, "Those four met them!"
"What-"
"The women who know not the meaning of holding back! Erza and Mizumi!"
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
After denying team Levy permission to pass, Mizune went back to the examiner's tent, toting Gajeel's limp form.
"Did you have to beat Gajeel so badly that he's still knocked out…" Levy asked tiredly, watching the mound on the ground that was Gajeel.
"He wouldn't go down, though," she pouted, then laughed. "He's fiiiine. I didn't hit him that hard!"
"It's been a few hours, Mizune-san," Juvia pointed out.
"And he still has mounds on his head," Levy groaned. "So do I, for that matter."
"Well, you aren't a hands-on fighter, so I didn't have to beat you sensel- I mean, uhm, physically as much as I did Gajeel, see?" Mizune grinned from her stool beside Erza. Juvia, Lisanna, and Levy looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"She's right you know," Erza said, pointing her ladle at the three dropouts; the three did not nod.
"Fine, fine, how about, to make up, I heal him up a bit?" Mizune offered peaceably, hopping from her stool and bending down beside Gajeel. Before she could do more then put her hands over his chest, however, she was hit extremely hard in the face, flying into the air to land with a thud a few feet away.
"Dragon flapping EDOLAS!" Gajeel roared, jumping up. "I refuse to lose to-"
"Gajeel, you've already lost," Erza said calmly, turning back to stir the soup.
"I- WHAT?!"
"You had to hit me with no magic, seriously?" Mizune groaned, not bothering to lift her head from the ground, staring at the sky.
"You never beat me like this in any of our other matches, I even almost got you twice, so how the hell-!?"
Gajeel cut off as she backflipped up, brushing herself off. "I hold back when fighting weaker opponents most of the time, Shoo-be-doo-bocchan," she explained amiably, grinning at his fury. "Then they get to practice fighting, and I get to practice holding back. You only got me those two times because you thought of a good plan, so my plan to make you stronger worked, didn't it?"
"The flap-"
In a flash, Mizune had grabbed his wrist and hurled him against the tree like she were a pitcher throwing a baseball. Letting her foot back down—she had gone full impression—she chastised lightly, "No swearing, Shoo-be-doo-bocchan."
Gajeel didn't respond, birds flying in circles over his head.
"I think Juvia will go look for Mest and Wendy," Juvia said, standing up.
"I will too, then," Erza said, taking off her apron. "Mirajane, Lisanna, and Mizu should stay-"
"I actually have something I need to do, so I'll see y'all," Mizune objected, pulling her arms up and linking her fingers behind her head. "If anything happens, don't worry; I am fine." She looked back at them significantly. "Believe me."
"Mizune-chan, what are you up to?" Mira asked lightly, vaguely amused.
Mizune hummed, then tilted her head, using a little spell to make dramatic lighting around her face. After a moment for the effect to be taken in, she looked out at the forest, saying in a more serious voice, "I have to make sure someone's sadness isn't ignored."
"What does that mean?" Lissana's brows furrowed.
"What I said, of course!" she chuckled.
"Don't bother, Lisanna," Mira sighed, getting up and picking up the ladle that Erza had dropped next to the pot. "She doesn't answer much of anything when she doesn't want to."
"Is there anything wrong with that?" Mizune pouted before flashing a grin and vanishing.
|^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^|
It didn't take her long to find Zeref. She just followed the large burst of black energy that had saturated the air about the moment Juvia had said that she wanted to look for Gra-Mest and Wendy. (But actually Gray.)
She found him sitting under a tree, staring at the sky. Carefully, ever so cautiously, like she was walking up to a wounded animal, she crept towards him, ears pricked to see if any of the fast-approaching dark guild had arrived early.
Snap
Zeref shouted in agony, clutching at his head as a wave of blackness formed around his body, then shot outward.
Silently cursing the stick she had stepped on, Mizune braced, more nervous than she wanted to admit about the wave of actual predatory death sweeping towards her. She bit her lip as it flowed over her, her head splintering as though it had been thrown against a rock by a raging sea.
It was excruciating, and the longer it lasted, only a few moments, the worse it grew, but fortunately it was gone as suddenly as it had come, and she was left panting, hidden behind a bush.
"Don't come near me…" she heard him whisper. She glanced up to see him holding a shaking hand in her direction. When she didn't immediately respond, his eyes filled with tears. "Have I already killed you? I'm sorry…"
"You haven't," she said hurriedly, stepping out from behind her bush.
"Then don't come near me!" he cried out, his hands up again. "I understand this is your guild's island; I'll leave; just don't come near me!"
His eyes were wide, his pupils small. He was trembling all over, his arms shaking where he held them up as to calm a raging bull. Mizune felt tears in her own eyes. Bending down deliberately, she sat up on her knees ten feet away from him. "I'm not going to come close yet, Zeref," she said carefully; he twitched. "-but only because I figure you'd like an explanation of why I won't die when I do. Then I am going to come closer."
He blinked, shocked, then slowly lowered his hands. "H-how do you know me…?"
It was Mizune's turn to be shocked. After four hundred years of living with his curse, she hadn't expected him to be able to reason with her, well, at all.
"I'm Mizumi," she answered automatically, then barely stopped herself from facepalming. It seemed that having anticipated this moment ever since she had been given knowledge of Zeref's existence, having gone through the interaction a million times, had actually been a curse, rather than a blessing. At least, it now qualified for both, though she wouldn't trade knowing his story for anything. "But that's not what you asked, is it? Sorry…" she chuckled, scratching the back of her head. He was silent, so she decided to properly answer his question. "I don't know how to explain how I know you just yet, so let's just say I woke up one morning and did."
"I-" he started, but was broken off by another yell of pain. "Get away from me!"
Mizune was still as a statue. As his scream of pain came to a peak, the black particles appearing once more, she closed her eyes firmly, sucking in a breath.
Then it was sweeping over her, drowning her, consuming her senses and leaving behind only pain.
And, again, it was gone in a couple instants, leaving her panting, a hand on the ground beside her to keep her balance and another pressed to her forehead. She stared at the ground, her own eyes widening as she realized the implications of this pain, of how much worse it must be for him.
Holding back tears, she took her hand from her head and grinned goofily up at him. "See? I'm fine."
He looked nothing less than dumbstruck. Seeing that look on the somehow familiar face of Zeref was too much for her, and she couldn't help laughing.
"You look like you've seen a ghost! But I guess you have seen ghosts," she reclaimed her gentle voice, "more so than living people. That must be painful."
"How… are you alive?" he breathed, his hands still half raised to his head.
"Well," she said, intentionally chirpy, "I had a theory that my magic, Absorption, would be able to, well, absorb" —she mentally face palmed— "obviously… uh, what-? Oh, right. I thought it would be able to absorb the wave of black magic, and I was right." She stretched her arms out playfully. "All's well that ends well." She hoped to show him how relaxed she was, letting him relax as well, but he seemed to only ramp up his anxiety to cover the both of them.
Welp, that backfired.
After two dead silent minutes, his head jerked slightly, and his innate curiosity raised its head in the presence of someone who wouldn't immediately die.
Never mind, that worked like a charm. Just took a second.
"You know about my curse?" he muttered, watching her with more of a scientific intrigue than actually awareness. "It's been decades since someone has…"
"I'm sorry to say I don't know the exact name of the curse, but I do know it's effects, and why-" She bit her tongue.
Best not to say everything at once and overwhelm him.
"And why you don't want people to come near you," she tacked. "But, as I said, I won't die. Even if I were to touch you."
"You… how? I've never heard of that kind of magic." He stared at her, clearly not seeing a thing as he tilted his head, muttering all the while. "There are types of absorption magic that learn spells specifically, but not that can absorb the energy itself… and they have cap limits to the amount of energy absorbed… maybe… but, no…" He continued in this vain for another couple minutes, holding his chin with his thumb and forefinger. She forced herself to remain still and quiet, despite her inability to wait, her lack of any kind of patience, her anxiety to get him as far from this island as possible, and her buzzing muscles, which were over-eager to get some good action in. It paid off when he started and looked back up. "Who are you?"
This made her grin.
"A Fairy Tail mage."
{-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-}
Yayyyyy, another rescuing Zeref fix-it fic! But seriously, can you blame me? Hiro Mashima did Zeref (and us) dirty in that last arc with how he handled just about everything. ┗|`O′|┛
{Your Names In Japanese} for this fic are~
{Madeline: マデリーン}
{Lily: リリ}
{Ella: エラ}
{Jack: ジャツク}
