AN: Hey guys! Sorry I'm updating late, school's starting to rev back up again, and I've reached the end of my backlog of finished chapters, so I'll probably start updating about twice a week now. Anyhoo, thanks so much for reading. I hope you've enjoyed reading my story. If you liked it (or frankly, if you didn't) please leave a review explaining what you liked and didn't like. It helps me get better as a writer, and I also will check out your stuff as well. Thanks again for reading!

Notice: I don't own Fairy Tail. Its characters, settings, etc. belong to Hiro Mashima. However, this fic does contain numerous OC's. These, and these alone, are mine.

Chapter 10: No Reason

Sic paused nervously in front of the door to Lucy's apartment. It had been a couple days since he had his weird breakdown in front of her. Lucy had told him that she would think about it and she wanted to wait a while before they started. Sic desperately hoped she wouldn't change her mind. He really needed to understand compassion to make his way through life here, it seemed. He still didn't understand why liquid had all of a sudden started coming out of his eyes, why this heavy weight settled in his chest whenever he talked to Lucy, why he wanted to throttle any other males who talked to her. He was hopeless without her.

He braced himself and knocked on the door. It opened almost instantaneously, but instead of Lucy standing there to greet him, there was the pink-haired one named Nasty Draggle. The dragonslayer dragged him inside the apartment. To Sic's surprise, practically everyone in the guild seemed to be there. All except one: where was Lucy?

Answering his unspoken question was Minerva Scradlett. "Hello, Sic," she smiled at him. "Lucy told us about your… predicament and asked us all to help you."

Sic felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. She didn't want to teach me herself? She'd rather delegate me to these fools?

"After each of us has finished with our individual lessons about different emotions, Lucy will talk to you, and give you a wrap-up for everything," Minerva continued.

Sic's stomach returned to normal. At least she did want to help him a little bit.

"So," Erza continued. "My lesson will be first." She took Sic into another room, which appeared to have been enchanted to block out sound from the partying guild members in the main room. At the front were a large blackboard and several pieces of chalk, before which there was a small desk with pencils and paper.

"Now," Minerva continued, "You will pay attention during my lecture. If you don't…" she rapped her own wrist with a ruler.

Sic nodded. This was definitely his style of learning. About an hour later, Sic exited the room with a hand free of bruises, feeling quite pleased with himself. If that was the hardest part of learning about compassion, then this would be a piece of cake. During the lecture he had learned that emotions are sensations people fear that cause them to act irrationally, which explained so much about what he'd experienced since he'd arrived at the guild.

Unfortunately, the rest of his training was not quite that simple. His next teacher was none other than the idiot Nasty Draggle.

"So, Sic," the pink-haired dragonslayer said, "My job is to teach you about anger."

"Sure," Sic replied, bored. "Teach me, O wise one."

He didn't expect to feel something right away, but he did: a painful blow right to his stomach that sucked the breath right out his lungs and out his eyes, which bugged in pain. Gripping his stomach tightly, hacking and gasping for breath, Sic doubled over in pain, struggling to not fall on his face. "What… was that for?" he wheezed.

He heard Nasty's smug voice from above. "Aw, c'mon! Don't tell me you don't feel it!"

"Feel… what?"

"Your anger, of course! You should want to get me back for punching you right now, just like I did when you took away my lunch!"

Sic found Nasty's words strange. Sure, he was wondering why exactly Nasty had punched him in the gut, but he had no desire to "get back" at the guy.

Sic winced as Nasty began kicking him ferociously in the side. "C'mon, get angry!" Nasty yelled, frustrated.

Sic's vision got blurrier with each passing kick. No one in the other room could hear what was going on, or maybe they just didn't care. If it continued like this, Nasty might seriously hurt him. Oh well, Sic thought. Logically, there was no way to stop him. Sic was out of energy.

Then his back felt a little lighter. He saw Nasty holding both of his broadswords loosely in one hand. He was holding them up to a flame in his other hand. "Let's see how long they take to melt," the pyro cackled gleefully.

Sic's vision cleared. Not the swords. No. They're my heirlooms. They're all I have left of my family. He struggled to get up, but his body just didn't have the strength. No. Please. Not the swords. No. Looking up at his mementos being melted away, Sic's heart felt heavier than ever. Not the swords, he repeated to himself over and over.

Suddenly his vision turned the tiniest shade of red. This horrible boy, Nasty Draggle, was going to destroy the one thing he remembered his family by. He was going to obliterate his last vestige of humanity.

Sic didn't remember consciously doing it, but he pushed himself to his feet, and with one fluid movement, knocked the pyro clear off his feet and onto his back with a clean right hook to the chin.

Sic poured gallons of obscenities onto the boy, using every curse word he'd ever learned, enough curses to make the ears of any high-class kid shrivel. He could not express the extent to which he wanted to tear Nasty Draggle to shreds.

The pink-haired dragonslayer looked up and grinned at him. "That's the spirit! You got angry at me."

The emotion suddenly drained out of Sic. Wow. Nasty was right for once. He had learned to feel the emotion of anger. Was this what having emotions always felt like?

Sic realized the feeling was the same feeling he got when he saw another male talking to Lucy. So was he feeling anger towards them? Why was he angry with people for just talking to Lucy?

He asked this question of Nasty to clarify, but the pink-haired mage just scratched his head. "No, there's no reason why you should get angry there. That IS weird. Maybe you should see a doctor."

After taking a rest to recover his energy, Sic spent the rest of the day and the next couple days after that training with various members of the guild to learn emotions.

Some of these lessons were easier than others. Drinking with Cornna Elbowrona taught him that sadness was a cold feeling in your heart that you get when something "just doesn't sit right with you." While Sic didn't really get the non-academic description, he understood the feeling after a few barrels of this strange brew Cornna called "alcohol." It reminded him of the feeling he got when he thought about his old family.

Wendry Martel taught him about optimism, which was when you believe in the positive side of things. While Sic didn't really care for it, the concept was at least easy to grasp.

His lesson with Gulldratz Clove was much more interesting. Sic knew Gulldratz was the most powerful wizard in the guild. The elder wizard instructed Sic to attack him with everything he had. Sic was surprised by this strange request, but he did as he was told. Gulldratz easily deflected his swords' strikes, then cast a spell which destroyed the entire area surrounding them in the woods they were training. Gulldratz began to glow with a white aura, which gave off magic power unlike any Sic had ever felt before. Staring at Gulldratz's towering figure, Sic found it impossible to look away, however much he wanted to. He was in fact unable to move. He couldn't understand why. Gulldratz reined in his magic power after he saw the look in Sic's eyes. "What you just experienced is called fear," he said. "And it's an important part of anyone's humanity."

The rest of the lessons were a blur. Trust from Master Makarov. Kindness from Leeveye. Justice from Freed (even Sic couldn't mess his name up). Manliness from Elfman (most other people said it wasn't really an emotion, but Sic let Elfman teach him just in case). Humor from Gadjooks. There was a very short-lived lesson on something called "love" from a blue-haired girl who didn't tell Sic her name, she just went on for five minutes about Grade Forebullster going missing and then fainted. Perhaps "love" was just another word for insanity.

Sic's final lesson was taught by a cat. The blue cat had certainly seemed like the least sage-like figure in the entire guild. He always made ridiculous jokes that didn't make any sense and never talked about anything but fish. But people had decided that there was no one better to teach someone about happiness than someone for whom it was their namesake.

"So, 'Happy…'" Sic ventured after five minutes of silence while Happy was eating a fish. "What is happiness?"

"Happiness.." Happy said around a mouthful of fish. "Is what you feel when you're eating a fish?"

Sic felt incredibly frustrated with this stupid cat already. He was ready to try out his new "anger" tech on this cat and punch him straight through the roof.

"But," Sic said through gritted teeth, "I was told that happiness is the opposite of sadness. It's supposed to be a warm feeling inside your heart that makes you feel good. If that's true, then how do I get myself to feel it?"

Happy shrugged. "Simple. Just do things you like. I like fish."

Sic thought about what he really liked to do. He liked telling stories. He liked Lucy. He liked telling stories to Lucy.

Telling stories to Lucy…

"That's not an option right now," Sic interrupted his own thoughts out loud. "I have to experience happiness some other way."

Happy raised an eyebrow. "Okay, well, it's still pretty easy. All you have to do is choose to be happy, and you will be."

Sic's mouth dropped open. "Choose to…"

"Aye! Happiness isn't like most other emotions. You need a reason to be sad, but you don't need a reason to be happy!"

Sic stared in awe at the feline nibbling on his fish. In his own unique way, Happy might be the wisest one in the whole guild. Sic understood now. He tried being happy, letting the emotion flow warmly through his veins like honey. It was a delicious sensation. Sic thanked the cat and headed hoe, since the sun was already starting to set.

Strolling home, Sic couldn't help but feel his body overcome with joy. What bliss it was, to be able to choose your own emotions! Sic had never felt so free since before his family was taken away. He could feel the shackles of the white prison slowly fading away along with his troubles.

Sic came within sight of his seaside cottage, and stopped.

Sitting on the edge of the cliff next to his cottage, her feet dangling over the edge, her blonde hair gleaming golden in the sun, was Lucy Heartfilia.

What did you think? Let me know! Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you have a nice day!