Chapter Six:

Gray and I ran as fast as we could until we reached the clearing where Natsu and Lucy were. They were faced off against two mages, a man and a woman. Or should I say, a fox and a snake.

"Ah, more bratsss." The snake-woman hissed.

"More cocky bastardssss." Gray mimicked her. Her eyes slitted at him, her serpentine features filled with hatred. She had slicked back black hair, jade green eyes, and a voluptuous bust. Her waist was slim, but instead of having legs, her bottom half was fused together into some sort of scaly tail. It was green with gold adornments on it, reminding me of an evil-looking mermaid. She smirked at us, her thin lips stretching.

"Ssstone attack." she shot a boulder at Lucy, and she quickly dodged.

"Open! Gate of the Ram! Aries!" she summoned Aries, who used her wool attacks to block the stones from hitting her. I curiously eyed the fox man. He grinned cunningly. He had red-orange hair, small ears sticking out of the mop of mussed up waves. He even had a tail. He looked at Natsu again, and his grin widened before he attacked him.

"You guys go ahead, we have it covered here!" Lucy yelled. Their battle seemed to be going well, their opponents landed very few hits and were getting weaker by the second. I nodded at them before Gray and I ran from their battle. We cleared the rest of the trees, and I felt myself gasp and stumble. There was a gigantic wooden structure looming over us, and I slowed to a jog, Gray doing the same.

"What the-" he was cut off by a lone figure standing at the base of the structure.

"I see you found our base." he said, his deep voice rumbling through our bodies. "Too bad that we have to waste such power." he stepped from the shadows, revealing a man with three eyes and a large mouth. He was completely bald, his tongue sticking out at us. "I hope you have good hearing." he yelled before a terrible screech filled my ears. I felt my eyes roll back into my head as I staggered, holding my ears, trying to block the noise. Another wave of the scream started, and I felt blood trickling through my fingers. I squeezed my fingers as hard as I could, trying to block the noise, but I felt Gray pull my hands away.

It was so, so loud, but then it was silent. My head felt cold, but hot. I looked curiously at Gray, and he pulled his hands away from my head. I tenderly felt my ear, and was shocked when I realized he had froze over my ears, so no sound could come through. I could just faintly hear the dark mage's angry roar before I nodded at Gray in thanks, the ice covering his ears as well. I saw him mouth 'Unision Raid' at me, and I eagerly nodded, hoping to get this over with. I could feel myself talking, but I couldn't hear it.

I nervously grabbed for Gray's fingers, pointing our attack at the mage who continued to scream. I felt the power build up in my hand before it left me in a burst, and the attacks swirled around before crashing into the dark mage. The icy swirl of water knocked him out and destroyed the bottom of the tower. It swayed, but held its ground. I felt my ears heat up before the ice melted, and I turned to see Natsu and Lucy grinning at us. The words they were speaking were still faint, and I had the realization that my hearing was badly damaged.

"What?" I could see Lucy''s mouth moving, but I couldn't make out the words. She frowned at me before turning to Natsu. They had a conversation that I could only make out some words of.

"She….Wendy…..fix…...hurt." Gray shook my shoulder and pointed at the tower. I nodded before turning back to Natsu and Lucy.

"We should finish the mission. My hearing will come back soon." I faintly heard my own voice in my ears. I blinked at the soft sound of it. The two nodded at me and I turned to face the tower again. Natsu led us towards it and I tailed them. The prospect of what laid inside was frightening.

…..

By the time we got back to the guild, my hearing had recovered a little bit. I could now hear like a normal human, but my dragon hearing had not come back yet. The giant wooden building loomed in front of us before we came inside. A few cheers sounded, and a couple of people came up to greet the team. I slunk away to a corner before I could get caught up in it. I sat down and looked outside with a sigh. Of the three days we were gone on the mission, the rain had stopped. Now it was sunny and bright outside. I had to squint for a while before my eyes got used to it.

"Mari-chan, Lucy sent me over. Can I help?" I saw the small blue-haired girl called Wendy say.

"Oh, if you would please." I replied, standing up to let her lead me to a back room.

"You'll have to share the infirmary, Laxus came back pretty beat up so he's resting in there."

"Laxus?" I echoed, remembering he was one of the dragon slayers Lucy had told me about.

"Yeah, he's the lightning dragon slayer. I'm not sure how he got so beat up, though. I think he's the most powerful mage in all of Fiore."

"That's insane. There can't be one person stronger than the Wizard Saints." I scoffed a bit.

"Well, he has beat Jura." she made a sound between a laugh and a sigh, and I stiffened. One person…. This powerful? In this guild, no less. This made me nervous. She seemed to notice my silence. "Ah, but don't worry! He wouldn't harm anyone in the guild, unless it was Natsu or something…" her statement ended weakly. I scoffed.

"I can hold my own." I replied smoothly, masking my slight fear.

"O-of course!" She stuttered, and opened the door to the infirmary. "You can sit right on this bed." She rushed around and patted the side of a bed. On the other side of the room was another bed, with a blonde man laid down in it. His eyes were closed, with headphones covering his ears. My eyes widened at the sight of him. He didn't look frightening, but there was no denying his presence. The long scar over his face made my heart ache for him. What had happened? I realized he was awake when I saw one of his fingers tapping to the beat of a song on his large bicep. I scanned the area around him. He looked formidable, even though he wasn't even looking at me. For some reason, I wanted him to look at me. I blinked at my thoughts, giving my head a sharp shake. I sat down where the tiny dragon slayer was waiting, and she placed both of her hands over my ears. Her warm, soft palms muffled her words a bit, but she warned me that her action might be painful. She closed her big brown eyes and tightened her grip on my head, and a green light filled my vision. I felt myself cry out, the pain was much worse than I anticipated, but I quickly muffled myself, pressing my hands to my lips. There was a roaring in my ears, louder than I was comfortable with, and the dull ache in my eardrums spread through my whole body. There were sharp pricking feelings inside my ears, and I wanted nothing more than to claw those feelings out. I barely noticed when she took her hands away, since my eyes were shut tight against the feeling.

"Is she okay?" I heard a low voice ask, the sound coming from directly behind me. I felt myself gasp and sit up straight, embarrassed at my moment of weakness in front of the mysterious man.

"I-I'm perfectly fine. Thank you for your concern, I have to go to the, uh, cobbler. To get my hair done. I mean. The hairdresser to get my shoes done. I-goodbye." I stood abruptly, needing to leave the room. I don't know why, but I could feel my heart beating in my throat. Did this man scare me?

"Wait, don't stand up so suddenly!" Wendy said, reaching to grab me, just in time I guessed, since I was shaking on my feet. My ears were still aching. "Your body has to get used to the sounds again, it's been days! Please, sit down again." She tugged my arm back until I stumbled, the backs of my knees collapsing. I felt my hands shaking, my vision was dilating.

"What happened?' The dragonslayer behind me asked. Wendy gave him a small smile.

"Her hearing was severely damaged on her mission, and I had to heal her eardrums. If she had normal hearing, it would be easy for her to get used to, but since she's a dragonslayer…" Wendy trailed off.

"Dragonslayer?" He echoed.

"The water dragonslayer." I explained.

"Lacrima or first generation?"

"First generation." I still had not turned to face the man.

"Laxus is a lacrima dragonslayer." Wendy said to me.

"I see." My voice was breathy. I still couldn't see straight. "Wendy, do you think I could go home? I don't… feel well." A pathetic whimper fell from my lips. I was barely clinging to consciousness.

"I could take her, where does she live?" I felt Laxus's warm hand place itself on my shoulder. I flinched at his touch, and he reeled his hand away quickly.

"She lives in Fairy Hills, but I think it would be better if she stayed here. I'd rather keep an eye on her closer to town, especially if she needs a doctor." Wendy's voice soothed my nerves. My fingers were still shaking. "I'm going to go find something for her to eat, maybe it will help settle her to focus on her other senses." Wendy left before I could protest being left alone with Laxus. Something about him was killing me, I could not understand what it was, I wouldn't be able to settle until he left. I struggled to pull my legs onto the bed. Sweat beaded on my skin, and my entire body was buzzing.

"Here, I'll help. Do you want to lay down?" He didn't wait for an answer before I felt his hands on my waist, turning me. I could finally see him. His gray eyes sucked in my focus. My pupils were dilating even larger than before, I could tell. He wasn't looking at my face, focusing on holding my shaking knees still. My eyes shamelessly raked over his face, and lingered on the scar. I moved towards the scowl on his face. I felt myself flushing, but my skin felt clammy.

"I-I think I should r-really g-go home." I weakly attempted to push myself up, but he moved his hands to my shoulders and laid me back down.

"Wendy wants you here, so I'm gonna keep you here." He fixed me with a stare that must have scared me, because my bones turned to jelly and I laid completely still.

"Okay." I whispered. The ringing that was in my ears died down, and I could hear my heartbeat again. I heard footsteps outside, so I focused on them. They passed, and I let a sigh escape me. I was hoping it would be Wendy. I glanced up at Laxus again. He was sitting in a chair, his eyes on me, arms crossed. I glanced down at the bandages on his forearms. "Wh-what happened?" I asked. "Does it hurt?"

"Some jackass kicked me off a cliff. It's just a bunch of scratches, nothing too big." I winced at the thought. He survived getting thrown off a cliff? What the hell was this man made of? I didn't reply, and he didn't say anything more. I awkwardly stared at my feet, my toes quivering inside my boots. I wanted Wendy to come back as soon as possible.

"Wendy has been gone a long time. I will go look for her." I swung my legs off the bed quickly, standing and taking a step towards the door. My knees buckled, and the blonde haired man that was on the other side of the room a minute ago caught me and picked me up.

"Why can't you just lay down?" he demanded, almost throwing me back on the bed. "Don't you have any concern for your health?"

"I'm not sick!" I retorted, crossing my arms. He was being stubborn, not letting me try to leave. Not that I probably could anyways, but it was making me mad!

"That doesn't mean that you can just do whatever you want! You have to lay down, when your ears are messed up everything is messed up. Do you want everyone downstairs to have to worry about you?" he was nearly yelling.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.

"Your nakama or whatever. I can smell firebreath on you, aren't you a part of that group?"

"I only know Lucy, Natsu, and Gray. Why would they worry about me?"

"Why wouldn't they?" he questioned me again.

"I barely know them. Why are you so concerned about me?" I tightened my grip on my elbows, looking defiantly into his eyes. He scrunched up his nose and turned away.

"I don't know! Maybe because you're a dragonslay-" he cut himself off. "Fuck..." he muttered to himself, dropping his head into his hands. His elbows rested on his muscular thighs, drawing my attention to his forearms. How much did this man work out? I didn't think this amount of muscle was necessary, and I was a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't mind it.

"What about me being a dragonslayer?"

"I was wrong, I don't care. I'll go tell Wendy to hurry her scrawny ass up." he quickly stood, and turned completely away from me. I watched his tense form slam open the door, then he left faster than I could protest. Why would I want to protest. He was bothering me. Right?