Chapter 2 – Doing The Job

Laxus kept a hold of Adryn all the way back to their inn. He even dragged her up the stairs and to his room before throwing the door open and practically tossing the girl onto his bed out of anger. Bickslow, Evergreen and Freed all trailed behind them, concerned over what was about to happen.

"What the hell was that?" Laxus asked Adryn as she got up from his bed. She seemed a bit rattled from being so manhandled.

"I... I lost control of my anger, I'm sorry." Adryn hesitantly responded as she looked down at the ground.

"You need to tell us your history with Ivan, right now, before we continue on with this job." Evergreen snapped as she approached the other girl. Adryn just looked up at Evergreen and frowned.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes!" Both Evergreen and Laxus snapped back at the girl causing her to wince out of both pain and fear from their loud voices.

"Alright, damn, fine, I'll tell you guys. Sit down, this is going to be a long story." Adryn made herself more comfortable on Laxus' bed. Laxus sat down on the other side of the bed, Evergreen took the chair in the room while Freed and Bickslow decided to just stand. Adryn didn't begin speaking right away, she just thought overall she was going to say before she said it to them.

"Well, we're waiting," Evergreen spoke up when Adryn didn't speak for a few moments, she clearly had no patience.

"I guess I should start by saying that I, too, am a lightning dragon slayer due to a lacrima embedded within my body. Before you ask, I was turned into this by Ivan due to him realizing that Laxus wasn't going to follow him after he left the guild. Ivan was already taking care of me then due to my parents' mysterious disappearance."

"Mysterious disappearance?" Freed questioned when Adryn didn't immediately give an explanation for that.

"They were out on a job and never returned home. They were presumed dead, but their bodies were never found. I'm pretty certain that Ivan had them killed or killed them himself to get a hold of me." Adryn paused in her speaking to think about something else before finally saying it. It was like she didn't want to say it at all though. "My former best friend, Eclipse and her family were also murdered when Ivan realized that they were going to try to save me from him. Her little sister, Nova, my first lover, was kept alive as a hostage to ensure I did everything that Ivan wanted me to do."

"You dated a girl?" Bickslow questioned with his babies repeating that same question.

"I did. She was my first love. However, it turned out that she'd been dead the entire time. I did horrible things to keep her alive, and when I found out that she was already dead, I lost it. I went through years of mental, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Ivan and the other Raven Tail members just to keep someone alive, that was already dead. I won't get into details on the exact abuse, but just know that it wasn't pleasant."

"What did you do when you realized she was already dead?" Evergreen now took her turn to question things.

"I flipped out on Ivan and nearly killed him, but decided that I shouldn't at the last second. So, I just left Raven Tail and returned to Fairy Tail. He let me go for some reason. I'm sure he always has planned to get me back, but I don't ever plan on going back to him."

"I cannot believe that someone so horrible exists. I'm sorry that you had to go through that." Freed stated after Adryn was done talking.

"It's disgusting that he did all those horrible things to you. I can't believe you lasted through all that." Evergreen spoke up next.

"We should go right back to him and kick his ass!" Bickslow angrily said with his babies repeating, "Kick his ass!" a few times also angrily. Laxus shaking his head caught their attention next.

"I... I am disappointed that my own father could do such things to someone he was taking care of, but I guess I should have seen it coming since he was never a good guy." Laxus stated before looking at Adryn. It was clear from his eyes that he felt terrible for Adryn, but he wasn't about to admit that out loud.

"Thank you all for being so supportive." Adryn finally spoke up holding back tears. Evergreen instantly got up and hugged the poor girl. It was a little shocking for her to do such a thing, but no one decided to call her out on it at that moment.

"Well, now that we have some answers, we should head to bed. It is getting pretty late after all." Freed spoke up once Evergreen as done hugging Adryn.

"Alright, so everyone get out of my room," Laxus stated once no one started moving even though they all agreed with Freed's statement. Adryn couldn't help but chuckle as she hopped off Laxus' bed. She headed to the door with Evergreen but turned around to face Laxus.

"Before I forget, please don't manhandle me like that again, alright?" Adryn nearly demanded of Laxus, who just looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

"If you go off the deep end again, I'll have to do that, so keep calm and I won't." Laxus simply responded to the girl, who just nodded her head and began the trek to her and Evergreen's room. Bickslow and Freed also headed back to their room, leaving Laxus all alone with his thoughts. He kept thinking about how it wasn't fair that a girl like that needed to go through hell. However, once he thought that, he felt weird inside. He wasn't sure why, but he felt bad for the girl and he doesn't usually feel bad for people unless he actually cared about them. So, Laxus went to sleep confused and a little pissed off with his father.

~

The next day, Laxus woke up first and woke up the others by banging on their doors and ordering them to get their asses up. Apparently, they'd slept in a bit too much and were now a bit late getting started with their day. Once they all ate breakfast at a nearby diner, they headed out to do their job, which in total, was to take down the members of Raven Tail, should they be trying to be an active guild once again. They'd already gotten confirmation from Ivan that he was in contact with his previous guild members, which was strictly forbidden. They could guess that the members were gathering to become a dark guild once more.

"Let's split up and hunt down these members," Freed suggested once they left the diner. They each had a list of names and descriptions of the members of Raven Tail that were said to be in the town.

"Alright. Adryn, let's go." Laxus stated to the redheaded girl. She nodded her head and followed Laxus as he walked away from the Thunder Legion.

"Do you know where we are going?" Adryn asked as she looked up at the tall man. He looked down at her and then back up to the path ahead of them. "Laxus, are you ignoring me or something?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Laxus had a slight smile on his face, which made Adryn pout.

"Aren't you too old to be pouting?"

"Bitch I might be!" Adryn snapped at the man who just laughed in return. He found the girl hilarious, however, she was getting worked up.

"Don't tease me. I don't like it." Laxus nodded his head and looked down at her.

"I suppose not many people do like being teased." Laxus then patted the girl's head and began to speak once again. "I'm sorry."

"Oh? You're sorry? For what?" Adryn looked back up at the man, to see he was still looking down at her, but this time he had an odd look in his eyes. "Stop it. I hate when people look at me with those eyes." His eyes were showing that he felt sorry for her, not because of the teasing, but because of all she'd said last night.

"I can understand that." Laxus had a few people in his lifetime feel sorry for him over his father's actions. He didn't like it one bit, so he could understand why the girl didn't like it either.

"You know, you aren't such a bad guy after all," Adryn muttered, but Laxus heard it loud and clear.

"You thought I was a bad guy?" Laxus paused in his walking to face the girl. He almost seemed a bit offended by that.

"Well, not exactly. I heard all about what you did all those years ago, so I had a bad impression of you. However, after meeting you and getting to know you a little bit, other than the manhandling, you're a good guy." Adryn smiled up at Laxus and it caused a little flutter in his chest, which he promptly killed and ignored. It caused Laxus to frown, which made Adryn then frown. "What's wrong?"

"Let's just do our job." Laxus then began to walk away from the redheaded girl. Adryn was extremely confused but followed after him anyway. She didn't like the pain she felt in her chest when he frowned at her.

The two groups then began their quest to take down the members of Raven Tail. Some members were difficult to find, and some were easy. Some fought them and then some just gave themselves up. Either way, all the men and women were caught before the day was up and were loaded onto transportation to head to jail. The last one they had to take down was Ivan and they all met back up to do so.

"Everything went well so far," Freed commented as they hurried to where Ivan's home was. However, when they got there, the door was open.

"I'll go in first." Laxus declared as they approached the open door. He pushed the door open and peered inside. "It's empty."

"What?!" Adryn pushed past Laxus and entered the home to see it was, indeed, empty. "Dammit!"

"Come on, nothing we can do now." Laxus pulled the girl out of the house and slammed the door. It showed that he, as well, was upset over losing track of Ivan.

As they walked back to their inn, Adryn trudged behind them. She didn't know what to do now. Her objective was always to take down Ivan, and she had the chance to yesterday but was stopped. She felt a little lost now.

"Let's go drinking tonight." Laxus suddenly said as they walked past a bar. He stopped and looked towards the others.

"I think we could all use a drink after today." Freed agreed

with his leader. They then looked towards the girl who was still just looking at the ground. Adryn then realized she was being looked at and looked up at them.

"I guess I could drink," Adryn stated as she looked at the group.

"Good. Let's go." Laxus then entered the bar with the others following him. Instantly, the men of the bar looked between Evergreen and the cloak wearing Adryn. "Adryn, get us a table." The girl nodded her head and went to get a table for them. It was one in the corner away from the other people. She didn't want to be around other people because of the way they were all staring at her. Once she was at the table, she unhooked her cloak to reveal shorts and a tank top. The shorts were black and the tank top was dark blue. Her cloak itself was black with blue lightning pattern around the edges.

Immediately, the men of the bar were looking at her. She could feel their eyes and instantly became uncomfortable. She felt like putting her cloak back on but was stopped by the others returning. Laxus then sat a mug of beer down on the table in front of her before sitting to her left while Evergreen sat to her right. Freed sat next to Laxus and Bickslow sat next to Evergreen.

"I never noticed you wore such revealing clothing before, Adryn." Evergreen commented as she sipped at her beer. Adryn looked over at her and shrugged. She didn't really see anything wrong with it, as people wore worse things than she did.

"You look hot!" Bickslow stated with a smile on his face as his babies echo, "Hot! Hot! Hot!" Adryn just ignored the man and took a sip of her own beer.

"Apparently, other men also are thinking the same thing, as there are a lot of eyes on us currently." Freed pointed out as he set down his beer from having just taken a drink of it. Adryn peaked around Freed and Bickslow to see men just staring at Evergreen and Adryn. Adryn then watched as a man got up from his chair and made his way to them, stumbling all the way. He was clearly drunk and it gave Adryn a bad feeling. She was so thankful that Evergreen and herself were cut off from the man by Freed and Bickslow. He couldn't get to the girls without getting through the two men.

"Hello there, gorgeous." The man was drunk but his words weren't slurred. He was looking right at Adryn as he spoke, which made her want to crawl under the table and hide.

"What do you want?" Laxus demanded, surprising them all at the table. His tone was harsh and caused the drunk stranger to jolt. He then glared at Laxus.

"I was talking to the beautiful redhead. Not you."

"And I was asking you what the hell you wanted." Laxus set his drink down and looked up at the man with a death glare.

"I, uh, just wanted to tell her she was beautiful. That... that's all." The man then scampered away.

"Wow Laxus, you sure scared him off. What was that all about?" Evergreen questioned as she watched the scared man return to his group of friends.

"I'm trying to relax." Laxus simply explained though none of them thought he was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry. I should put my cloak back on..." Adryn was about to grab her cloak when Laxus grabbed her hand to stop her, which caused her to look up at him with confusion.

"You don't need to do anything. It wasn't your fault. It was his."

"Oh, okay." Adryn nodded her head and looked at her and Laxus' hands. Laxus followed her eyes and then instantly let go of her hand. He then resumed drinking as nothing had happened. So, that's exactly what Adryn decided to do.

The five of them drank and chatted about various things for another hour or so before the night began to creep upon them. So, they all headed home, with Evergreen and Adryn leaning against each other. They both drank a bit much and were now drunk and wobbly.

"Are you two alright?" Freed questioned as he turned around to make sure both of the girls were still behind them. Laxus and Bickslow also stopped and turned around to check on the girls. To Freed's question, both girls muttered incoherent responses.

"I don't think they are alright, Freed," Bickslow stated as he watched the girls sway in place before Adryn fully lost her balance and nearly tumbled to the ground. She would have hit the ground had Laxus not moved like lightning to catch her.

"Remind me to never take her out drinking again," Laxus muttered as he picked the redhead up fully and began to carry her back to the inn. He didn't see the shocked faces of his Thunder Legion as he walked away. Even Evergreen sobered up enough to realize that it wasn't usual Laxus behavior. Before Laxus could get out of sight, they all hurried up and made their way to their leader. Bickslow had to help Evergreen walk though, as she was still quite drunk.

Once at the inn, Laxus carried Adryn to her room with Bickslow following behind with Evergreen leaning on him. Laxus took the key from Evergreen and unlocked the door.

"Which bed is yours?" Laxus questioned Adryn as he looked at the beds. She pointed to the one closest to the door, so Laxus took her to it and dropped her on the bed. "Rest up. We're heading back to Fairy Tail in the morning." With that, Laxus left the room, leaving Evergreen to Bickslow.

"Is it just me, or was Laxus acting weird?" Bickslow questioned Evergreen as he led her to her own bed. He helped her get in and covered up.

"He seemed to care for Adryn. Maybe he was just being kind?" Evergreen questioned even though she didn't believe that was the real reason. So, being drunk, she decided to blurt out her true thoughts. "Maybe he likes her and wanted to take care of her?"

"You think so?" Bickslow responded with a laugh as his babies repeating that word over and over again. With that conversation being over, Bickslow wished the girls a good rest and left the room to meet back up with Freed at their room. With that, everyone was in their rooms and sleeping. They just hoped that no one would have bad hangovers the next day.

~

Adryn woke up before anyone woke her up this time. She instantly felt horrible and wanted to just go back to sleep. However, she knew that she shouldn't as she could tell that it was already time to be waking up. Sure enough, moments after she sat up in bed, there was a knock at her door.

"Girls, it's time to wake up. We're leaving in one hour." It was Freed at the door speaking gently to the probably hungover girls. Adryn quickly got out of bed and opened the door. She was still wearing the same clothes as last night and even still had her cloak on.

"Thanks for waking us up, Freed. I'm glad it was you and not Laxus. I don't think I could handle the loud pounding on the door this time." Freed just smiled at the girl's comment and nodded his head.

"Laxus was actually the one to asked me to come to wake you girls up."

"I knew it..." It was Evergreen speaking from her bed. Her voice was low but clear and full of pain. "Laxus most likely does like you, Adryn."

"Wh-What? No, he definitely doesn't." Adryn responded instantly in a flustered tone. Both Freed and Evergreen both shook their heads at the girl in disbelief. She was clearly in denial, just as Laxus most likely was as well. "Let's just get ready and head out, alright? No more of this talking about who likes who."

"Very well. Meet us at the entrance when you are ready." Freed said to the girls before closing the door as he walked away. So, both the girls freshened up and got changed slowly due to their massive headaches. It took them some time, but eventually, they got done and headed to the entrance of the inn to turn in their key.

"You two took forever." Bickslow stated with his babies echoing "forever".

"Stop them from doing that this instant. I can't handle your 'babies' on a good day, so I don't want to deal with them on a bad day." Adryn instantly snapped at the man who just laughed in return but did indeed keep his babies from laughing as well.

"Give me your key and I will turn it in," Freed spoke to Evergreen who did as he asked. Freed then went to the front desk to turn in all three keys they'd been given.

"You feel better?" Adryn turned to Laxus, who'd just spoken to her. "You were a mess last night."

"Gee, thanks for telling me that," Adryn responded with a frown on her face. Laxus chuckled and patted the girl's head.

"You should thank me, I carried your ass back here because you couldn't walk."

"You did what?!" Adryn's face immediately went bright red and she took a step backward.

"I carried you like the little princess you are."

"Oh my god. I am never drinking again." Adryn shook her head as if to shake that thought from her mind. Laxus just chuckled at the girl again, which irritated her. She began to pout as she glared up at him. He just gave her a cocky smile in return.

"Everything has been settled, we can depart now," Freed spoke up, breaking Laxus and Adryn from their world they'd gone in to. They didn't see Bickslow or Evergreen watching them with shocked faces. Laxus wasn't in the habit of messing with people who he didn't care about, showing that on some level he cared about Adryn.

"Alright, let's head to the train," Laxus stated as he turned away from his group. He began the short walk over to the train station where the train had just arrived. They got their tickets and headed into the train. This time, Evergreen made Adryn sit across from Laxus while she sat alone in a seat. When Adryn looked at her with confusion, Evergreen spoke to her.

"I want to get some rest and lay down in this seat. So you sit with the boys." Evergreen simply stated to the redhead. Adryn nodded her head in return.

"I sure hope I don't get sick..." Adryn muttered to herself, just loud enough for the boys around her to hear.

"You better not." All three of the men responded with Bickslow's babies repeating the sentence a few times as well. Adryn just warily smiled at them.

"I'll do my best." Then the train took off and Adryn's face went completely pale and then green. "I'm just going to go to sleep." Adryn then leaned her head back and closed her eyes as she fought off the sickness that was rising in her. Laxus followed suit and did the same, as he too was feeling sick but only from the motion sickness and not also due to hangover. They all hoped they could get through the train ride without someone throwing up on someone else.