Apprentice of Ice
Chapter 1: 14 Years Later
A year. A freaking. Year. Then again, I didn't get many reviews, or even any follows or faves, soooooo….it didn't motivate me much XD Until a friend of mine suggested I continue. You know who you are ;) Anywho...here we go!
-X791-
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
""Uhhhh….5 more minutes, Mom….."
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"T-Training can wait, I need another hour…!"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Did they forget to install an off button on this thing again?! Complete waste of money if you ask me!"
It's a nice, late summer sunrise in the small town of Sockburn. And in one small apartment, a particular mage has been rudely awakened.
And he can't even find the off switch. And as such, a gaggle of pigeons are scared and sent flying away, as the smash of glass resounds, along with a frozen alarm lacrima hurtling away into the unknown, impacting with one rather unfortunate cat.
"Ugh. Great. Now I need a new alarm clock. What time is it?"
"Mm mmf mm fmmm mm mmmff fmm mm mmmm!"
"Huh?" The 19 year old mage looks around for a few moments, then realises. "Oh."
He hops off the bed and sweatdrops, looking back at the bed.
"Sorry, Lyra. I'm a really fidgety bloke." He admits, rubbing the back of his head. A cyan exceed dusts herself off as she flatly looks at her best friend.
"Yeah, I guessed. I've known you for the past 13 years, Ruisu, so I know pretty much all your annoying habits." She counts them on her claws. "Not washing your hands, yawning during formal events, fidgeting uncontrollably while sleeping….and awake. Oh, and getting immobilised when we're on the train, stagecoach, or a boat. How many missions has that nearly cost us?"
"That's a dragon slayer thing, you wouldn't understand!" He retorts.
"Do YOU understand why it happens, Ruisu?" She looks at him knowingly.
"Well...um..no." He drops to the floor defeated. "No, I don't."
"Well...at least it's not as worse as somebody else's certain habit." She states, her expression softens.
"Namely Wade hitting on every single pretty girl he comes across." Ruisu says, getting back up and chuckling.
Lyra giggles and activates Aera, hovering into the air. "I'll let you get dressed. Last thing I want is to sit and watch you change." She flies out of the room, but not before looking at him. "Oh, and remember to take Candace with you on today's mission."
"I know, I know, Lyra, geez. What are you, my mother?" The two toned hair mage asks her, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.
"That would be a weird one to explain to the public. And I'm just making sure you remember." She states, giving him a tap on the head.
"Yeah, I know. It's just…"
"What?" Lyra asks, her look one of concern.
"She's Master Kai's granddaughter."
"And?"
"I'm not sure if I trust myself to keep an eye on her all the time."
"And?"
"She could get seperated from me!"
"And?"
"I repeat, she's Master Kai's friggin' granddaughter!"
"And?"
"He's terrifying, and could possibly melt me if I lose her."
A sly smirk makes its way onto her face and she crosses her arms. "...And?"
"...You're enjoying this, aren't you?" He says more than asks, his arms slumping to the side, and him pouting.
"Well come on! It's not like you're gonna be alone in looking after her! I'm gonna be there as well, and if she goes missing, I can scout from the air and look for her! Advantages of wings, y'know?"
"Yeah, true."
"Plus, she's a wizard herself! 15 years old, and I've seen her train! She's no pushover herself, and anybody who tries to kidnap her is just asking to be burnt."
"Fire magic. Runs in the family…"
"Though the fact she's Master Kai's granddaughter might make her a moving target for any old enemies he might have."
"Got me there…" Just then, his stomach rumbles, and he sweatdrops and he runs into the bathroom. "Okay, now I'm hungry!"
"And you're going into the bathroom to change why…?"
"If you need something done, do it yourself. And since you're so keen to chat with me non-stop, I need to go somewhere else to change!"
15 seconds later, the door bursts open, and Ruisu is stood there, fully dressed. Ice blue unzipped hooded sweater with a t-shirt of a darker shade of blue underneath, white fingerless gloves, black trousers, equally white and silver striped laceless trainers and to top it off, the royal blue neck bandana that was given to him the night before his foster mother left him years ago.
"Your usual getup, Ruisu?" Lyra asks, chuckling and shaking her head.
"What can I say, Ly?" He says with a smirk. "This is my style. Don't have to be cool to be cool."
"If you say so, Mr. Freeze."
"I resent that."
"Why?" Lyra giggles. "You're a guy, and you freeze things!"
"Yeah, well…..you're a flying cat." He lamely retorts, sticking his tongue out at her and folding his arms. His stomach then chooses to grumble again, making him groan as he holds it.
"You're hopeless, Ruisu.." She giggles again before grabbing his collar. "I'm gonna fly you to the guild and you can get some breakfast there. Honestly, you need to control that appetite of your."
"I'm a growing lad, Lyra." He says with a smile and a wink.
"Both ways." Lyra remarks under her breath, rolling her eyes.
"I heard that!" Ruisu shouts back at her, making Lyra curse the hearing of a dragon slayer.
*BAM*
The doors of the guild are promptly kicked open by the ice mage, as he saunters in. "Good mooorning Dragon Fa-"
*SPLAT*
And that is followed by his face getting pie thrown in it. He just stands there as the whole guild laughs at his expense, while he himself has a deadpan sort of look on his face, as the pie slides off his face.
Of course he knows the culprit, it's happened before. And it always gets the same laughs out of the Dragon Fang guild.
"Dammit, Wade."
Wade is boy the same age as him, with an electric blue mop of hair, with a white t-shirt with a subwoofer insignia on the front.
"Got ya again, Rui. Though I really don't know why you complain! Free breakfast after all!"
"Yeah, but I was hoping to get it off a plate, and not served off of my own face!" He sighs, rubbing his temples. "Where's Bugsy? He owes me a few hundred Jewels from that special edition of Sorcerer Weekly I had to buy him the other day."
Wade hops down to his friend and hands him some sort of hand cloth to wipe the apple pie from his face.
"He went out on a job with Sierra to Onibus. Why did he want the special edition? As far as I know, he's never been a reader."
Ruisu turns to the mophead and gives a wry smirk. "Two words. 'Mirajane' and 'Strauss'. Ever since that Fairy lot came back from their holy grounds, I've seen Bugsy at the calendar every single day at least once."
"Dammit, I think he got the last copy." Wade laments quietly as the two make their way to the job board.
"And here I remember that Bugsy has a rival for the fair maiden's affections." Ruisu snarks.
"Hey, take that back!...Bugsy doesn't stand a cha-" He then freezes and his face heats up, causing Ruisu to double over laughing. "I am going to kill you, dragon boy!"
"Boys! No fighting, it's only 8." A gruff voice sounds behind them, and the whirl around in sync. A man, with a huge build, charcoal black hair and a goatee. He looks to be about...55. "If you're going to at least wait until you're out and about!" He finishes with a hearty laugh. "How are the two of you, my boys?"
"All good, Master! Is Candace ready?" Ruisu asks, putting his hands into his pocket. "I haven't had the chance to pick something yet, so I won't pick something -too- hard."
"Kissaaaass~" Wade comments in a singsong voice, causing Ruisu to elbow him in the stomach. The Master pays it no mind.
"I shouldn't worry too much about Candace, boy. After all, she is my granddaughter!" He flashes a smirk, which makes Ruisu smirk as well. "Pick your usual fare, and give her a taste of the wild side of guild life!"
"We already know what it's like, being in the same guild as Wade!" A random guildmember jeers, but the electric blue teen jumps up, thrusts an arm forward and generates a subtle soundwave, which throws the member off his chair with a yell. "Worth it!"
"Why don't you two go grab yourselves some jobs right now? Ruisu come to my office to pick up Candace after getting it approved by Emmy."
"Aye aye, sir!"
"Will do, boss!"
Wade looks to the silver haired mage besides him and pouts. "Why do you get to take Candace for a job?"
Ruisu grins and looks at him slyly. "It's cause I'm the more responsible one."
"Responsible my ass!" He points an accusing finger at him. "Remember what happened when you and that stripper of an ice mage clashed last week?! Hargeon almost ended up covered in ice!"
Ruisu blushes in embarrassment and growls. "Oh yeah?! What about when you DJ'd at Crocus nightclub, after it was rebuilt because of those friggin' games, which we never even entered, and you got carried away and ended up with a 100,000 Jewel fine?! Get more control over your bass cannon, will ya?" Right after Wade gives up and walks to the job board, Ruisu rolls his eyes and follows him. "Look, why don't you just come along with me and Candace if it means that much to you? Half of whatever the reward is can go straight to the club. Sound fair?"
Wade rolls his eyes in response. "Whatever!" He scans the board, humming all the while, and getting a weird look from Ruisu.
"What're you doing, basshead?"
"Scanning. Concentrating."
Ruisu nearly recoils. "You?! Concentrating? You've never concentrated in your life!"
"Hey, I've concentrated on stuff before!" Wade shouts, getting all up in his face.
"Name. One."
"Uhhhh…." Wade shrinks back, deep in thought. "I…..well there was that one time…...gaaahh.."
"That's concentration right there." Lyra quips, making Ruisu laughs a little.
"I'm working on it!" Wade shouts at them both, making them burst into laughter.
"Now who's the competent one, ice prick?"
The team of Wade, a red haired 15 year old girl named Candace, Lyra, and a comatose Ruisu sit on a train, heading for the small town of Westfield. With Ruisu face down on the table, and Candace rubbing his back, Wade is sat there, grinning quite smugly at him. Lyra, on the other hand, just makes a face at him.
"You do know he can't see or hear your while he's out, right?"
"Yeah? And?" Wade answers back, raising an eyebrow at the Exceed.
"You're wasting your breath insulting him while he's asleep rather than when he's awake!" Candace leans and smirks at the older boy.
"I think he's doing it so Ruisu won't freeze his balls off when he wakes up."
This immediately pisses off the blue haired boy, and he points a finger in her face. "Who taught you how to use that language, little girl?!" However, he regrets it soon after, when she grabs the finger, and twists it.
"My grandfather did! Why, you gotta problem with that?!"
Lyra blanches and looks out of the window, not wanting to get in the way of Candace's temper. "Oh sweet Zeref, she really is Master Kai's granddaughter."
Instead of trying to convince her to leave Wade alone, she instead tries to change the subject. "Wade, what job are we doing again?"
Wade sits down, holding his finger, trying not to tear up. "Buncha dark guild mooks shopliftin' in Onibus."
"Why are they sending a job request for somewhere like Onibus all the way up to Sockburn? I mean Sockburn's closer to that weird independant Kingdom living in the snowy mountains than it is to Onibus." Lyra asks curiously, curling up on the back of her dragon slayer partner.
"Probably a test of our skills." Wade confidently states. "Cause y'know, the Fairies are cool an' all, but c'mon! Dragon Fang is comin' into action!" He stand up from his seat, and hoists a leg up onto the table, thrusting his clenched fists into the air. "Kickin' ass and chewin' bubbl-" Fate, ever the cruel mistress, has the train shudder and shake, causing Wade to fall unceremoniously onto the wooden floor. A pregnant pause holds the carriage for a moment before Candace shrugs, not even bothered by Wade's pain, and puts her hand on her chin.
"Rumours are they disbanded some time right after those weird face things popped up."
"WHY DO YOU GOTTA RUIN MY BUZZ?! Ooowww..."