Oh, hey guys!-hides-I'M SORRY!I'M SOO SORRY! Gods, I've been out for terribly long, huh? I'm soo sorry.

:You've been slacking work again? Are you, Ice?

:Gaawds, Why the hell are you here?!

:*points gun* Shut up and get back to work.

:Waaaii-Fine, fine!-oi, get out of here, it's not even a place where you should be in!

:Huh. You dare question the world's strongest hitman?

:-G-gaah! Noo! Not at all!

:Hurry up already...

:Aack-

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Anyone. Lol.

(Chocolate ice cream, anyone?)

Chapter 6: Of Guns and Scarlets

"-raaay. Oi."

"..Oh, huh?"

"You know it's rude when you're not listening to a person talking in front of you."

Damn. She reeked alcohol. Did I spaced out that much?

"Uhh, sorry- what was that again?" I asked.

"Ugh. Never mind..." she said in a slurred and groggy manner. A barrel of alcohol banged the table for the upteenth time.

Seriously? She's rambling about boys and alcohol this long?

Cana. Yup, she's my close friend. But sometimes, I wonder how did I ever got used to this lady drunkard.

"Hey, it's been a long time since we got to a mission together. What do you say, huh? Some S-class mission would probably warm us up." she grins in front of me , eyes drowned in alcohol.

So yeah, lots of things happened inside and outside of Fairy Tail.

Even since she disappeared for that mission.

"I say it's going to be a blast!" she greedily drank in one gulp her 5th barrel that day.

And I thought she would consider changing herself after she passed the S-class exams along with us, Firebrains, Juvia, and, Gajeel.

That was another story for a another time.

Well, why dont we give it a try? I'm pretty sure our partnership hadn't rusted through these years.

"Fine.. But only after you put yourself back together. I wouldn't want to sit a whole day on a train with someone reeking booze and causing me trouble for your little stunts."

And for a moment, I saw her grumpy expression. Clearly annoyed.

"~hey, I don't sm-eek, yuck. That much."

Ha .

"Go home and fix yourself. I'll meet you here tomorrow morning." I shoved her from her seat and pushed her out of the guild's doors.

Seriously, she should act more formal.

There, finally. I was alone. Again. Staring yet again at the enormous metallic entrance doors of our guild. Hoping the a silhouette of scarlet will appear right there. That I'll know she's home.

I wonder how she's been doing. Oh, what am I thinking. She's THE Titania.

But instead I saw pink.

"We're baaaack! Did we miss anything?!"

"Ayeee! We're back!"

Great.

Large masses of boulders and wood came flying in all directions above the four hooded mages. Apparently, they were the reason why chaos literally blew up in the place where a proud guild Black Lotus once stood. Yet another black guild on their target list was about to be crossed out.

"Curses! I'll get back on you, Titania!" they heard a man amp g the ruins yell out, almost threatening if not for the fur of coughs that followed.

"That's a rather interesting empty threat." Ultear dusted her long black cloak, managing a cocky reply to something supposedly not directed to her.

"I guess that's enough, Ultear. We need to get going. It's almost sunset." A red head stood up, wearing an all usual battle-fashioned appearance; a slightly-ruined armor, a few cuts and scratches, and a fiery in her eyes that matched her blazing scarlet hair. Just like a war goddess.

"Yeah. That's right." the blue-haired man, Jellal of his late twenties spoke with calmness.

The four-man team walked casually away from what's left of their enemy's guild. Just like always.

"Finally..." he thought, a long sigh escaped his lips before breathing as much as fresh air to calm his adrenaline-pumped veins.

The Guild master did put up a good fight, let's just say one's arrogance has its limits,and it was hilarious that his loud-mouth slipped important information accidentally.

Their exit could've been epic. If only there was no disturbing presence behind their backs that made Jellal shudder. Out from the corner of his eye, he saw something shimmered against the sun's fading rays. It was too much accurately-aimed for a shard of glass stuck on a random height.

He could hear the three females in front of him talking about dinner and marshmallows. But he didn't have the time to register their ongoing conversation as his mind went blank, finding himself acting on pure reflexes reaching up to a certain scarlet.

A trigger was pulled and rang a screaming gunshot.

"Erza!" She turned only to get tackled roughly to the ground. The impact had her back complained.

No words were spoken as it only took one swift movement to take the one last enemy out.

"He should've took the time to escape." Meredy put her hands down and the two figures laid on top of each other awkwardly.

"I have to admit those weapons really makes them difficult to handle. Without them, they'd just be ordinary rebels with low-ranking magic. Tch.- Hey, are you guys okay?" Ultear helped them sit up. A small amount of blood dripped from the taller man's sleeve. He flinched slightly.

"It's okay. I'm lucky he missed by that much. He smiled at Erza's worried expression.

"Damn. I should've known they had those weapons, too." Erza clenched her knuckles white. Had she been more alert, or had more strength left to stay on guard, this won't happen.

"True. But at least we know this things called guns haven't been distributed fully across the members of the Alliance." Ultear held her chin smartly, recollecting while the pink-haired girl attended to Jellal's wound.

"They won't be a trouble yet, I guess." Meredy busied herself knotting a white cloth over the injury.

"Not yet, but if we won't stop them, it will become a big disadvantage among us, the royal army, and the legal guilds if they're really putting an assault." Erza quickly said, still self-loathing for being reckless that almost killed her comrade.

She stretched her hand to the sitting man and the other grabbed on it to get himself pulled up. The warmth on her smile quickly returned seeing him relieved if pain.

"...~ soo.. I was saying.. Anyone up for roasted marshmallows ?" the redhead said in a fairly adorable manner.

"AYEE!" was the answer of the latter.

And as they trudged,

"I really think we could actually make a good family. Jellal's the father and of course, Erza's got to be the mother and we'd be sisters, Meredy." some dark-haired woman snickered from behind. A pink-haired smaller girl laughed at the comment, joining the latter teasing the other two. They exchanged weird looks and the scarlet couldn't miss the mischief that sparkled in their eyes.

She did not blush like her hair's color.

"S-stop it, you guys.." Jellal flustered in bright red and obviously stammered.

Extra:

Beside the campfire they've made, two figures circled the pieces of wood that slowly were losing their flame. One dark blue, and one red headed.

Just enjoying the silence accompanied by the light snores from their two teammates.

"You don't have to do that every time, you know. I could've handled myself back there." Erza said, trying desperately to mask the guilt under her voice.

"I'm sorry." she muttered softly, almost silently.

"Stop saying that. You know you'd do the same for me, anyway."

"I'm sorry."

'Ahh-still the same Erza I knew.'

"Okay..okay.. I already said it's alright."

Then a soft peck on the forehead caught her off-guard.

Yes. Erza was kind of OOC( kind of hardheaded on the Extra). Gray, too. Haha. And yes, it's been like 2 or 3 years since Erza left the guild for the mission. Yes, guns were slowly introduced in this era. Weird, huh? Haha. Who could guess who I talked to at the beginning? Or where did I get the idea of 'guns'? Haha. That's all for now. I think I'm gonna be busy since-yeahh, school's got a final wave of challenges before closing another school year. Haha. But I'll be back!:3 I promise.

Don't forget to review!

Thanks for sticking to this story for this long*hugs*

Ahahahaha!;3

Love lots, Ice~

P.S. Oh, please, if you find mistakes here, I'm glad to hear from you*winks* gaaawds, I hope my language isn't rusty. Ha. Sorry for the trouble.