welcome to chapter two of calliope avoiding the novel she agreed to write for her senior honors thesis (aka the worst decision she's ever made in regards to her education) by writing fanfiction. i seriously regret everything
chapter two: the s-class conundrum
When Erza, with a high-spirited Natsu in tow, returned from her subsequent scapegoating, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. She'd really thought they'd been in some serious trouble, and that it was only a matter of time before she and Gray got dragged off as well. Lucy really could not afford to be taken before the magic council. They'd probably ask all manner of sticky questions, starting with her last name.
"The sweet smell of freedom! Just smell it, yes!" Natsu crowed. The sakura-haired mage was running amuck in the guild hall like a toddler on a sugar high, spitting fire from his mouth. "Who knew freedom was so great! Freedom! Freedom!"
The initial happiness at seeing him return safe and sound and not in prison for punching a council member had worn off quite quickly for everyone in the guild. Lucy sat with her cheek pressed into the table, lazily tracking Natsu's erratic freedom run with her eyes. She could tell Gray standing somewhere behind her from the ambient temperature of his magic. Erza was quietly eating cake a few seats down from her. As she made a mental tally of the rest of her guild mates, she spotted Miyako.
The slightly younger blonde was scribbling away in a journal in the back corner of the guild. If she wasn't writing, she was reading. Lucy wasn't sure she'd ever seen the girl do anything else. Miyako looked content enough, but Lucy couldn't help but notice the occasional melancholy glances she would send the greater hall.
"So, what about your man to man battle with Erza, Natsu?" Elfman's booming voice called out.
Natsu paused and then his lips split into a manic grin. The light glinted off his pointed canines. "I forgot!" he cried out, head on a swivel until his eyes locked onto Erza. "Erza! Let's continue where we left off!"
"No, I'm tired," Erza declined firmly.
Fire wrapped around Natsu's fist and he paid no mind to the tremendous irritation bowing Erza's brow as he charged at her full speed. "Here I come!"
"What am I to do with you?" Erza sighed.
Calmly, she stood up from the table. Without even sparing Natsu a look, her armored fist drew back and slammed into the fire mage's solar plexus. Combined with Natsu's own momentum, the boy could barely manage a squeak before he collapsed into a twitching pile of limbs on the beer-soaked floor.
"Shall we begin?" Erza asked dispassionately.
For a moment, all Lucy could do was stare in shock at the swift defeat. But then Gray and Elfman started cackling like hyenas, and Lucy couldn't help but join in with slightly nervous laughter.
"Lame, Natsu!" Gray heckled.
"Erza's strong, that's for sure!" Elfman said.
But then, the laughter began dissolving in her ears, and her vision grew tinged with darkness. Lucy had a moment of panic before her head hit the table and she sunk into murky oblivion like there were weights tied to her ankles and dragging her down.
When Lucy managed to pry her eyes back open her head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. There was a crust over her eyes like she'd been asleep for hours and with a bleary stare, Lucy was relieved to see her guildmates were in similar states of un-wakefulness.
"This feels like… was Mystogan here?" she heard Jet mumble.
"That bastard!" Droy groused.
"Mystogan?" Lucy asked through her dry mouth, unsure for a moment if she'd even managed to say the word out loud.
It was Elfman that answered. "One of the strongest men in Fairy Tail," he explained.
"He does this because he doesn't like other people to see his face," Gray managed. The ice-make mage's voice was still groggy and husky from sleep, and he rubbed at his eyes and down his face. "When he comes by to take a job, he always puts everyone to sleep like this."
"What's with that! That's way too suspicious!" Lucy sputtered, finally shaking the last vestiges of the sleep magic from her system.
Gray shrugged, looking more alert. "No one other than the master knows what he looks like. Well, except Miyako-chan. She's gone on a few missions with him before."
"No," a new voice called out smugly. "I know what he looks like."
There was a man standing above them, leaning on the second-floor railing casually. He had a fur-trimmed coat thrown over his shoulders and a pair of sound pods dangling around his neck. His hair was yellow and his eyes were grey. A scar cut a path through his left eye like a bolt of lightning.
"Laxus-nii," Miyako said, sounding upset. "You didn't tell me you'd be back today."
"Another one of Fairy Tail's strongest," Gray murmured helpfully to Lucy.
The man, Laxus, Miyako's older brother, said chidingly, "Mystogan's shy… keep your noses out of it!"
"Laxus!" Natsu shouted. The sleep magic had hit dragon slayer harder than the others and he'd been passed out on the floor until just now. "Fight me!"
"You were just beat by Erza a second ago," Gray said dryly.
Laxus had the same eyes as Miyako, Lucy observed, but even though the younger girl's seemed somewhat closed off, there was a warmth to them missing in her brother's steely gaze. He pinned Natsu with a derisive look, like he was staring at an ant and considering if it was worth the trouble stepping on. "That's right," he said. "If you can't even beat Erza, there's no way you could beat me."
"What are you implying?" Erza asked coldly. The tension in the air was so thick it was stifling and Lucy found she was having trouble swallowing.
The blonde man laughed. "That I am the strongest!" he declared.
"Then get down here and prove it!" Natsu snarled.
"How about you come up here?"
Natsu jumped up off the floor. "Fine by me!" he shouted. He took a running start and leapt over the bar, but he didn't even make it to the first step of the stairs before the master's elongated hand swung out of nowhere and pinned Natsu to the floor.
"You cannot go upstairs," master said firmly. "Not yet."
Lucy watched the proceedings in shock. The master's words reminded her of something Gray had said to her on her first day when she'd seen Miyako on the second floor. No one here currently is allowed up there, he'd told her. She peered up at the apparently forbidden floor. Later, after the excitement of Mystogan and Laxus being there had died down, and Miyako had left with her brother, Lucy turned to Mirajane and asked, "About what the Master said before… how he can't go up to the second floor. Why is that?"
Mirajane smiled kindly as she wiped down the bar. "It's a bit early to talk to you about it, Lucy. But, the second-floor request board has jobs posted to it so difficult they don't even compare to the ones on the first. S-Class quests."
"S-Class?" Lucy repeated.
"These are jobs where the slightest mistake would mean death," Mirajane explained patiently. "Of course, the rewards are correspondingly high. Only wizards the master approves of can take on S-Class quests. If you include Erza, Laxus, Mystogan, and Miyako, there are only six people in the whole guild who can do them. S-Class is really not something you should seek out. They're all jobs where you need a great number of lives."
Lucy laughed nervously. "Seems like it," she agreed.
Mirajane was called away soon after that, and Lucy nursed her strawberry milkshake as she considered this new information. Erza and Miyako were so young and they were already that strong? She took another sip of her drink. Maybe one day she'd be strong enough to go on an S-Class job. She brushed her fingers against her keys. Well, a girl could dream anyway!
-O-
Miyako followed her older brother to his house on the edge of Magnolia in silence.
His loping strides were kind of hard to keep up with, but she didn't ask him to slow down, and he didn't of his accord, so Miyako kind of awkwardly trotted to keep pace. It was about mid-afternoon and the July heat was finally starting to blow off, but the sun was bright and if she closed her eyes and breathed in Laxus's sharp, ozone scent, she could almost pretend it was yester-year, and they were heading out on a job together, just the Dreyar kids against the world; Laxus-nii and Mi-chan, the dynamic blonde duo of Fairy Tail.
"Watch it, kid," Laxus's gruff voice sounded when she walked into his back.
He'd come to an abrupt stop in front of his door and she cracked her eyes open just in time to see him roll his eyes at her. Miyako felt heat rise in her cheeks and scowled at a particularly round pebble loitering on his porch. She hated how small Laxus could make her feel with just a single gesture sometimes.
It hadn't always been like this.
The door swung open and they walked inside. Laxus's home was musty smelling, and the air was stale and mites of dust glittered in the dying light seeping in through his closed curtains. He hadn't been home in too long.
Laxus tossed his keys in the plate by the door and swung his jacket onto a hook, toeing his shoes off at the boot tray, neatly lining them up like little soldiers. Miyako followed suit, knowing her brother hated a mess. He had a full liquor bar in his living room just off the kitchen, which was his first stop.
"Want a drink?" Laxus asked as he poured himself a finger of whiskey.
"You know I'm only fifteen," Miyako said.
Laxus grunted and squinted at her funny as if he had actually forgotten her age for a moment. Then he shrugged, and said, "So?"
"So, I don't like hard liquor," she retorted. "And you don't keep anything fun in the house cause you think it's girly."
"S'true," he grumbled, sipping at his whiskey.
An awkward silence fell between them. Sometimes, Miyako didn't know why they kept up this pretense. What felt like a long time ago, but was actually closer to a couple years, when Laxus would return from a long mission, she'd relish the invitation back to his house for a sleepover. They'd have dinner and she'd pester him with questions about his adventures, and he'd moan and groan and playfully roll his eyes as he indulged her and regaled her with stories. Sometimes he'd even bring her back a souvenir.
Now it felt like he invited her over purely out of obligation.
"How's the raijinshū?" she asked softly, awkwardly lowering herself onto the couch. They hadn't been at the guild in about a month, and if Laxus was here, maybe she'd get to see Freed and Bickslow and Evergreen too. They, at least, seemed happy to talk with her most times.
"They're fine," he said curtly.
Miyako sighed, staring down at her hands folded in her lap. She heard Laxus shuffle and glanced up. He opened his mouth and she waited, leaning forward eagerly, but then he closed it again and shook his head slightly. Miyako deflated.
"Right, that's- that's good," she said with false enthusiasm.
Another painful silence. Laxus took a long sip of his drink. "How's… books?" he finally managed, cringing slightly at his own delivery.
"Books fine," Miyako said like a caveman.
For a fleeting moment, the corner of Laxus's lips turned up. His grey eyes sparkled, and Miyako's heart soared at her success. But it was gone just as soon as it appeared, and Laxus turned his head to the side. "That's good."
Miyako tapped her foot on the ground and tried to gather her courage again. Maybe she should have taken Laxus up on his offer of alcohol after all. "Laxus-nii," she finally said softly, breeching the silence.
He glanced over, slightly caught off guard by her tone. There, in that single second of vulnerability, she saw her brother. Her brother who'd never been good with words, but filled his clumsy silences with kind gestures and soft eyes and gentle utterances of her nickname that was just for him to use.
"I-"
Laxus's lacrima flashed on the table, and the man took his escape, snatching it up and answering with a brusque, "Hello?"
"Yo, Bossman," Bickslow's voice replied. "Ever's finally done repacking her bags. We're ready to head out when you are."
"Got it. I'll meet you guys at the train station in twenty," Laxus said.
Miyako felt like the air had been kicked out of her lungs. "You're leaving again?" she asked. "But you just got back. I- I haven't seen you in two months."
"Duty calls, kid," Laxus said with a shrug of his shoulder. He stood up, knocking back the rest of his whiskey like it was nothing.
"I'm not a kid," she protested weakly.
Laxus hesitated. She thought for a moment he might stay, or maybe invite her along at the very least, but he didn't. "Dark guilds aren't going to disband themselves," he said, and he walked off in the direction of his bedroom, presumably to pack. Over his shoulder, he called, "You can stay the night, if you want. Just lock up when you leave. I won't be back for at least another month."
He disappeared up the stairs and Miyako sat there on the couch in shock for a long minute. It felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. When did Laxus get so far away?
The blonde girl stood abruptly and fled the house, needing to get away from it all. What she needed was to take a job. It had been too long.
-O-
Dark guilds and chimerical monsters were Laxus's favored jobs, but Miyako's bread and butter was of a different breed; recovering artifacts, research missions, mysteries. They didn't show up often of the S-Class variety, but Miyako was okay with that. She didn't need to go looking for the most amount of trouble to be happy. She wasn't Natsu. Still, she got excited when she did see them, and the extra reward played no part in it. Miyako liked the challenge, and today of all days, she really needed the extra distraction.
That's why when she sat down at the guild's bar and asked after the newest jobs and Mirajane gave her a secret smile, Miyako knew today she'd be lucky.
"This just came in and I thought of you, Miya-chan! Don't tell the master, but I put it aside hoping you'd be in the mood for a job," Mirajane said brightly, giving her a wink. She reached behind the bar and produced a flyer with the S-Class stamp in the corner.
"Help us, cursed island," Miyako read. She scanned the few details provided and the reward, which caught her eye. Not the money, but the golden, Zodiac key they seemed to be offering. Already, her mind was digesting the mystery and churning out possibilities. "Fascinating," she murmured under her breath.
Mirajane laughed musically. "I take it you're interested?"
"Is that an S-Class quest?!"
A solid wall of excitable heat was suddenly leaning over her shoulder and a weight landed on her head. A tale curled over her shoulders and she glanced up to see blue and pink.
"It is," Miyako said carefully.
"Can I come, Miya-chan? Please, please, please…"
The litany of 'pleases' spoken loudly and directly into her ear continued, and Miyako bit back the impulse to flat out reject Natsu and his feline companion, who were now making a scene and prostrating at her feet. Instead, she weighed the pros and the cons.
Pro: despite wanting to take a job, she also didn't particularly feel like being alone right now. Con: Natsu was impulsive and destructive and might not recognize her authority as the S-Class mage on the job. Pro: she did feel some sense of debt to Natsu (and Erza and Gray and Lucy) who had rushed to the guild master's, and subsequently her own, rescue during the Eisenwald fiasco.
"Please, please, please-!"
"Fine!" Miyako said loudly over Natsu's begging.
The dragon-slayer froze mid-bow. "Fine?" he repeated in disbelief. He even glanced at Happy to make certain he'd heard correctly, but when the blue cat nodded, Natsu leapt off the floor, practically spitting fire. "YOSH!"
"Oh my," Mirajane said, lightly cupping her cheek.
"Wait, you're taking flame-brain on an S-Class mission, Miyako-chan?" Gray demanded, slamming a hand down onto the bar next to her, chest heaving like he'd sprinted a marathon. The ice-make mage opened his mouth, looking fully prepared to make a long-winded, unnecessary case for himself, which Miyako neither needed nor wanted to hear.
"You can come too," she said before he could start, rolling her eyes.
Gray's protests died on his lips and he blinked twice before the befuddled look turned into a cool smirk. "Sounds fun."
"Are you sure you want to take Natsu and Gray?" Mirajane asked, a small furrow in her brow. Her hand was hovering over the guild's job log and the column for the names of the mages going on the job.
"I'm so fired up, I don't even care the ice-princess is tagging along!" Natsu was shouting.
Miyako twisted around in the bar stool and began scanning her fellow mages until she spotted Lucy, sitting in the middle of the guild with Levy. "Lucy-san!" she called, and the blonde jumped, pointing to herself uncertainly.
The celestial mage walked over, looking a bit nervous. "What's up, Miyako?"
Miyako handed her the job flyer. "I was going to give it to you after studying it, but, you might as well earn your keep if I'm taking those two anyway," she said, tapping the reward section of the job.
Lucy's eyes lit up. "A gold key!" she shouted. Any sign of nerves disappeared and was replaced with fiery determination. "I'm in!"
"Alright!" Natsu said excitedly, throwing one arm around Lucy, and the other around Miyako, who looked like a startled stoat at the sudden gesture. "Team Natsu plus one stripper and Miya-chan! Let's go!"
Mirajane was smiling fondly, but copied their names into the job log. "You've certainly got your hands full this job, Miya-chan," she said.
"I'm just waiting for Natsu to realize he has to ride on a boat," Miyako said.
"A boat?!" said mage yelped, eyes widening to the point of absurdity.
Gray shook his head. "Can you believe this idiot?" he asked Miyako.
She hummed in reply.
thanks to the people who subscribed to this story, btw. this is totally self-indulgent writing, and really just a way for me to avoid working on my actual novel. still, i figured i'd post it anyway because if i've learned one thing from thesis, it's that getting feedback from people is actually really helpful? who knew. anyway, drop a review if you feel like it.
~ calliope