Sanctity of Life

Chapter 3 – Rei.

The train was near silent, all that could be heard was the railing grinding against the tracks, and the faint snoring of a black-haired wizard, resting against an indifferent mage. Neither Rei, nor the man had moved for 2 hours, Rei was too busy sleeping and the man felt too comfortable. It was a strange feeling for him; normally, physical contact outside of fighting would cause him to have severe panic attacks, but for some reason, being a support for his dozing 'partner' was okay, it was more than okay, it was nice. 'Why is this okay with me? This brat has done nothing but annoy me to no end, so why is she the only person I've ever been able to maintain contact with?' he kept asking himself over and over again. Maybe if he kept asking, he'd finally have an answer, he finally gave up when the stress of it started an all too familiar migraine, one that he didn't have the energy to deal with.

The train finally came to a stop, "We have arrived at Boat Port, the train will be boarding again within 15 minutes." Came a voice from the speakers. The man sighed in relief whilst hiding his disappoint, in all honesty, he was actually enjoying the peace, but he would never admit it to himself. With haste, he brought his hand to Rei's shoulder, he slowed down when said hand began to tremble, he swallowed hard and nudged Rei a couple of times. "Wake up idiot, we've arrived."

"Mmmm… What?" she lazily enquired, still leaning against him, she rubbed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them and blinking a few times.

"I said we're here" his tone was much angrier, 'Are all Fairy Tail wizards this carefree?'

"Oh okay…" She suddenly realised the position she was in. She shot up as if her ass were on fire and started glaring at the man.

The man noticed her glare and returned the favour.

"What?" His shoulder was free, and he realised how numb it had gotten, he gave it a light massage.

"Why was I leaning on you? You better not have tried anything." She was completely furious, they had only met a couple of hours ago and he was putting the moves on her whilst she was sleeping, she didn't care who he was, Rei was going to tear his world apart.

"I can't believe you're this retarded, as if I'd ever do such a thing." He glared back at her; how dare she insinuate such a thing. It was ludicrous.

"Oh yeah?" Her glare increased, the atmosphere got more and more intense, the other passengers were starting to feel the pressure in the air as they quickly left the train whilst the rest went back to sleeping. "Then explain to me why I was sleeping on your shoulder."

The man let out a long audible sigh before responding, his arms against his hips as he looked at her full of rage, "You were sleeping whilst sitting up and your neck was leaning against your shoulder, you were going to have a neck-ache if you stayed like that, so I tried to get you to lean across the desk like you were before, and then you grabbed my arm and started sleeping on me. I tried to get you off, but you wouldn't budge." He lied about the last part, no way he going to tell her that it felt warm to be in that position.

Rei blinked at him a few times before eventually processing what he has just said, her glare stopped and she was giving him a faint smile with a small blush, 'I blamed him for something that wasn't even his fault'

"Uhm, Sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you, and thanks for helping. Really."

"Put a sock in it, now come on, we need to find a place to stay for the night." The pair got out of the train, awkwardly avoiding the gaze of remaining passengers. God knows what they were all thinking about the pair. Rei and the man must seem like a couple of crackheads to all observers. Rei still couldn't get over how he just forgave her, no one stays calm at such an accusation, even if it's a misunderstanding. She knows for a fact if it were anyone else then they would have fought back a lot harder, but this man was being… kind? It felt weird.

Boat Port was much bigger then Hargeon, there was thousands of boats everywhere, most of them were private hires though, which made this the perfect place to come to. You couldn't find a private hire boat at Hargeon to save your life. The pair wondered around for an hour looking for a place to spend the night, every hotel they had checked was full. After another tiring 20 mins they finally found a place with a room, the hotel wasn't bad at all, it was actually 5-stars, Rei assumed that's why it wasn't full, it was going to be way too expensive, even for just 1 night. The man walked through the doors and stopped once Rei entered, he looked at her and she realised what he wanted. She walked to the counter and greeted the receptionist. She asked for the price and her jaw hit the ground when he told her how much it would be.

"20 Thousand Jewel?!"

"I'm afraid so ma'am."

"Why is it so expensive, even for a 5 star?"

"You're not just paying for the room; we provide fresh refrigerated ingredients for food as well."

"You're charging us this much and we still have to cook?! Can't you just take the food out of the deal for us?"

"I'm afraid I can't, Hotel policy."0

"This is a nightmare; hey Prince let's just find a different place"

The man's eyes popped out at the name Rei had just called him, granted she didn't know his name, why would she? But still, calling him Prince? He didn't know if he felt mad or indifferent. He took a deep breath and walked over to Rei, "There are no other places, don't worry about the price, I'll pay."

"Fine." She pouted, the man just looked at her and laughed internally. He swiped his Jewel Card against the payment Lacrima, 'she's such a child'

"Here are your keys" the receptionist caught their attention; "you'll be staying at room 107."

"Thanks" they both replied as Rei took the keys and lead the way to their room.

"Oh damnit" Rei sulked

"What now?"

"I forgot to ask him if there's 1 bed or 2."

"It's fine, I don't need a bed."

"What? You can't sleep on the coach, it'll to be too small!"

"It doesn't matter, I don't sleep."

That made Rei turn around and inspect his eye bags, she gave him her signature smirk that he so clearly hated. "Could have fooled me". The man just growled in response. Rei just loved winding him up, he acted like an angry kid and it was funny. They located their room and entered, the room was bigger then they expected, there was a small kitchen, a restroom, a bathroom, and a Balcony. There was only 1 bed though, there was a coach, but it was small, made for 2 people only, and finally, there was a large T.V alongside several movie Lacrimas.

Rei was in complete awe, the room was beautiful, she felt bad for arguing with the man at the counter. But she felt happy with her partner, it was so sweet of him to pay, he acted tough, but he was such a cinnamon roll. Said partner made his way to the balcony and inspected it. "This will do, perfect place for a drink."

"You're gonna drink?"

"Mind your own business."

"I am. I don't want the room filled with smell of alcohol."

"Firstly, I don't vomit. Secondly, I'm drinking out here on the balcony."

The pair just stayed silent for a couple of minutes, giving each other death stares the entire time. The man gave up and walked towards the main door, "Like it or not, I need a drink. Do you want anything?"

"I'll pass, I don't have much money."

"Who asked about your money? I'm paying stupid."

"What?! You don't have to; you've already paid so much for the room and I-"

"Did you forget that I'm loaded? Now for the last time, do you want anything?"

Rei took a deep breath and swallowed her dwindled pride. "What are you going to have?"

"Gold spiced Rum."

"Then I'll have the same."

"Alright, you want some soda to mix with it?"

"I don't know, I've never drank rum."

"I'll get some soda, it's not a good idea to drink neat rum if you've not had any experience with it before." And with that, he left, gently closing the door.

Rei checked the fridge and was pleased when she saw it loaded with fresh ingredients, her partner had gone out of his way to rent this gorgeous room and get some drinks for them, it was her job to cook a delicious meal. She studied the available ingredients and decided to make some fresh chilli cheese fries. She started humming whilst making the meal. It was ready 20 mins later, she put it on the small dining table, and right on cue, her partner entered the room with 2 bags. He set them down on the dining table and emptied them. He had brought 2 large bottles of rum and 1 small bottle few a few cans of vanilla soda. 'That's my favourite soda!' She was screaming internally, that drink was exactly what she had been craving the entire day.

"I thought you'd you like this drink."

"I do!" She smiled at him and thanked him. "How did you know?"

"You kept mumbling it in your sleep earlier on the train."

"Oh. Well thanks again, hey, do you like what I made?"

"Chili cheese fries?"

"Yup!"

"They smell nice."

"Here, try some, tell me what you think." She picked some up with a fork and fed him directly. Rei didn't realise what she was doing, she looked up and saw that the man was trembling. 'Did I make them too spicy? Why is he shaking so much'? She could be really clueless sometimes.

"Hey, are you okay?" She put her hand on his cheek, much to her surprise, the man slapped it away and took a few steps back breathing heavily.

"I'm fine. I always get like this when someone touches me outside a fight."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry." He popped open his bottle of rum, poured it into a glass set on the table and chugged it down. "I'll fine in a minute." His breathing had slightly calmed down, although he was clenching his heart with free hand, that worried the lady.

"Seriously, I'm fine, just please refrain from touching me."

"Okay, I'll be more careful."

"Thank you, now lets eat, oh and the fries taste great by the way, they go well with the rum." The man lied, he didn't have any taste buds, the fries tasted plain to him, just like any other food and drink. He lied to her so she'd stop looking to concerned, it made the man uncomfortable when Rei looked like that.

"They are? That's great!" The compliment had cheered Rei up, she sat down, popped open her bottle of rum and gently poured some in until her partner told her to stop."

"Fill the rest of the glass with soda, don't drink it fast, this brand is much stronger then what I would usually buy."

"It'll be fine, I hold my liquor quite well actually." A hint of pride showing on her face as she gave him a shit eating grin.

"What do you normally drink?"

"Scotch Whiskey."

"You drink scotch?"

"Doesn't seem like the kind of drink I'd like does it? I just like the taste, it's perfect after dip in a hot spring."

"What do you mix it with?"

"Nothing, I drink it raw, I can drink about half a bottle before I'm wasted."

"Oh, then you'll be fine with this then. You can drink it fast or without soda if you want."

"Sounds like you drink quite often huh?"

"I'm an Alcoholic."

"I figured that; I could smell the alcohol on you when we met earlier."

"And you still decided to let me go on this job you?"

"Hey, I'm a proud Fairy Tail Wizard, I can handle myself well against you."

"You're forgetting I'm the highest ranked Saint."

"You told me Jura forced the title on you, are you actually the strongest of the saints?"

"No." The man lied, he needed to be careful, if Rei knew how strong he actually was then she'd bombard him with questions. "If you were to rank us by just strength, I would be 10, I'm the weakest of the saints."

"Well, you're pretty modest."

"That's a first, usually people say I'm full of it."

"That's probably because of how bad your social skills are."

"Yeah…"

It had only been 5 mins, yet the man had already drank half of his bottle of rum. Without saying anything, he finished the last bite of his fries, took both of his bottles, and dragged his chair to the balcony. He positioned his chair against the cold breeze of wind, sat down and continued to drink directly from the bottle. He chugged down a few large gulps and let the alcohol burn on in the inside. His body had started to react to the elixir, his movements were woozy, he was already tipsy and yet he showed no intention of stopping as he chugged the rest of the rum and opened his 2nd bottle. Rei decided to join him, she brought her smaller bottle of rum with her, she didn't bother with her soda. She took her chair and mimicked his earlier movements, there was nothing else to do, she might as well talk to him and get to know him a little better, perhaps she could persuade him to join Fairy Tail.

"So, what's your opinion on wizard guilds?" The man was very clearly in deep thought, and Rei's voice had snapped him out of it, he flinched slightly when he turned around to see her sitting so close to him. He took a minute to process her question before answering.

"Don't really have one."

"Really? Don't you want to join one?" She decided to chug some of her rum just like the man had been doing, he was clearly well acquainted with alcohol, why not take this chance to learn? She immediately regretted it afterwards, it was bitter and sweet all at once, how wasn't he bothered by the taste? She couldn't help but choke on it, noticing this, the man just stared at her, 'This retard, I told her she could drink it without soda, I didn't say to fucking chug it.' Being intoxicated made him extremely irritable, he had come out to the balcony to ensure he didn't snap at his 'partner', but of course she had to follow him.

"Stupid."

"Thank you, your concern is very touching" she responded sarcastically, he glared at her just as like she predicted he would, she just smirked back in response enjoying his reactions. "Stop trying to dodge the question."

"If I had wanted to, I would have already. More to the point, why do you care?"

"Because being in a guild is amazing, I owe my life to Master Makarov."

'Makarov, of all people, why did I have run into someone from his guild?.' He asked himself, he very clearly wasn't fond of the senile old man.

"Oh please do tell" He responded with his own sarcasm, unfortunately for him, Rei could dish it out but not take it, she thought he was genuinely interested.

"Don't mind if I do"She smiled at the sky in nostalgia, they both took a sip from their rum.

"I was a needy cry-baby when I was a kid, it was just me and my mother back then, I never knew my dad, he died from magic deficiency disease before I was born. I know my mum missed him, but she never showed it, she was always smiling. I terribly wanted a dad; I loved my mum, but a child also needs a father. We weren't very rich, mum worked as a waitress in a middle-class restaurant. The pay wasn't much, but it was enough to put food on the table. I was always giving mum a hard time, there was always some stupid thing that I wanted to buy, it was my way of throwing a tantrum for not having a dad, the stuff I would have my eyes on would be the most expensive objects on the market, mum could never afford to pay for it on her wage, still that didn't stop me from obnoxiously begging her every day. I didn't care about how poor we were, I just wanted everything. I gave mum a hard time, she was constantly dealing with her snot nosed brat and her job."

Rei took a deep breath, refusing to look away from the glistening starry night sky, she inhaled once more before continuing, "The stress of it took its toll on her, and one day she collapsed at work. I heard the doctor tell my mum's boss that she had been dealing with chronic stress. She was unconscious for 2 weeks, when she finally woke up, she told me that she wouldn't be around much longer, stress had caused a vessel to pop in her brain, it was a miracle that she was still alive for even this long. I didn't see it that way though, I was mad at her for not being angry at me, she always just smiled and talked to me gently, no matter how much of a burden I was being on her. 3 hours after she had woken up, she…"

Rei took a deap breathe as if she was preparing herself before continuing, "Died, still smiling."

The man's eyes popped wide open at her, he wasn't expecting his 'partner' to open up like that, those memories must have been so painful, he noticed tears falling down from her emerald coloured eyes. His body almost moved to hug and comfort her, luckily, he stopped himself, 'What the fuck is wrong with me?! Damnit, get a fucking grip.' Before he could say anything, Rei wiped her tears, drank more of her rum, and continued her story.

"Mum's boss is a short old man called Yajima. He was originally a member of Fairy Tail, and then he left the guild to join the old magic council. He was one of the 8 heads of the old council before Jellal destroyed it. Did you know him?"

"Yajima or Jellal?"

"Yajima. How would you know Jellal?"

"I've read about Yajima, never met him. As for Jellal, who do you think asked Queen Hisui to pardon him?"

"That was you?"

"Yeah, I ran into him and his guild, 'Crime Sorcière' 2 or 3 years ago on a dark guild hunting mission. He made quite the impact on me, I could relate to him in some sense. He's actually one of the few people that I don't find annoying."

"Yeah, Jellal does keep himself to himself. Much to Erza's dismay. Anyway, back to my story, Yajima was close friends was Makarov, he used to be in Fairy Tail and part of Makarov's team after all. He told Makarov about me and enlisted me to join Fairy Tail. I was against the idea, but Makarov had become my legal guardian, I couldn't just run away. His grandson, Laxus, uses Lightning magic, well to be honest, he's a 2nd generation Lightning Dragon Slayer, so gramps, I mean Makarov decided to teach me Lightning magic. I didn't like how simple it was to use, I wanted to challenge myself so I researched maker magic and combined it with my lightning to create lightning maker magic. As soon as I learnt how to do it, I rushed to Makarov to show him, he looked so proud, I thought he was happy that I had taught myself something new. And then he said that he was overjoyed that I had finally smiled."

A few more tears fell from Rei's eyes, they weren't from sorrow this time, they were tears of joy. "My entire world had crumbled when I lost my mum, and it was the guild that glued it back together. Erza, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia, Wendy, Romeo, Happy, Carla, Lilly, Gajeel, Levy Makarov and everyone else, before I knew it, Fairy Tail had become my 2nd family. Makarov told me something that day, he said that life brings sadness, but it also brings joy, everything ends and that's always sad, but everything also begins again and that's always happy. Don't let sorrow weigh you down, instead, smile at the world, smell the flowers, and live your life, carefree of worries." Rei was touching her heart with her left hand and pointing to the starry sky with the other, the man had never seen such a heart-warming smile in his life until he looked at Rei. She truly loved her guild, and it made him happy.

"I think you took his words a bit too literally."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what."

"Hmph, whatever. Anyway, so that's my story and how I joined Fairy Tail. How about you? What's your story?" Rei was still looking up at the stars, she didn't noticed the man tense up and tremble. 'My past…' he thought to himself.

*Flashback to 15 Years Ago*

Inside a old ruined cave, all that could be heard were the unforgiving screams of a young boy, his arms and legs tied together by steel chains, he wore no clothes, or rather, his clothes had been torn off a while ago, he couldn't remember when. His mind was too busy dealing with the pain, surrounding the boy were 5 heavily armoured guards, each carrying a sheathed broadsword. They were holding the boy back down and stealing a feel every so often as they constantly zapped him with a staff. This staff was a forbidden magical tool, it had been banned in every country around the world, it turned body stress into internal magic energy, or to put in another way, it inflicted pain onto the victim and used the pain to make the victim stronger in the future. It didn't make the victim much stronger, in fact, the increase of power wasn't even noticeable, hence why the guards had been tasked to continuously abuse the helpless boy with the staff for several hours every day, whatever they did to him after his "strengthening session" was their choice, so long as the boy didn't die.

After hours of the abuse, the guards finally stopped. "Alright number 7, play time is over, you better service us properly, you don't want us to kill another do you? The rest are expendable, you're not". All the pain that the boy had been feeling had turned into fear, pure and utter fear. The guards undressed themselves and freed the boy from his chains. He looked at their eyes, they were full of lust, again. One of the guards stepped forward, the boy had been captured for enough time to know the routine, he knew in what order to 'pleasure them'. If this had been happening a couple of months ago, the boy would be fighting back, but now he knew there was no point. They had already 'played' with him, his spirit was broken, he couldn't let another fellow prisoner be killed. It's not like he could fight back anyway, he was drained of energy, instead he just cried and hid body refused to move. That decision earned him a kick to his gut, he fell on his back and cried out in pain. "You still haven't learnt how to fucking obey; I'll teach you what happens when you disrespect us." He reached and clenched the boy's face, forcing his mouth to open, the boy felt a finger enter his mouth and his tongue. He didn't have a chance to react before he felt his tongue burn, the man was using fire magic to burn his tongue, the boy screamed in pain and struggled to be set free, all his struggling was for naught as his tongue grew hotter and hotter. The guard finally let up and pulled his finger out and got of the boy's mouth. "I've incinerated your taste buds, be thankful, now you won't have to taste the bitterness" all the guards starting laughing as they moved closer to them, the boy looked around and trembled in fear, he had run out of tears to cry. The guards, they were all, hard. The boy could only sit and helplessly watch as the monsters laughed and slowly got closer to him.

"Hey! Prince! Snap out of it!" Rei shouted at him; she was careful to not touch him after the incident earlier, instead she waved her hand in front of him and snapped her fingers until it caught his attention. The man looked like he just suffered through a panic attack, he was breathing heavily, his whole body was trembling, and there was a tear dripping from his eye. 'What's up with him?' Rei got up and ran to the kitchen, she poured water into a glass and rushed back to her partner, she handed the glass over to him and he snatched it. He chugged the water down as if he were de-hydrated.

"Jeez, aren't you quite the drama queen?" She joked to lighten the mood.

Unfortunetely, the name wasn't amused, he was enraged by her comment. He threw the glass on the floor as hard as he could, the glass shattered into hundreds of pieces. "JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He shouted as loud as he could, his sudden outburst caused Rei to flinch and take a few steps back.

The man got off his chair and stormed out of the balcony, Slamming the door behind him as hard as he could, causing the wooden door to crack on the outside. He needed to get away from her. He decided to spend the night at an inn, he had never needed a drink as much as he did now. His urge to cut had also risen to an all time high, perhaps enough for him to handicap himself.

Rei was still recovering what has just transpired, she finished her rum, closed the balcony door, locked the main door, turned off the lights and went straight to bed, deciding to shower in the morning. "What is his fucking problem? I just had to let him come with me." She breathed into her pillow and drifted off. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.