A/N - "I don't want to upload everything all at once," I said. "I want to maintain my buffer," I said. Pfeh.

Anyway, here's where the story starts for realsies. One of my biggest points about writing an OC-insert story is that I want the character to be inegrated into the story without overshadowing or being overshadowed by the canon characters, so you won't have to worry about her taking the spotlight from, say, Lucy or Natsu! Not to say she won't get her own time in it, but it won't be at the expense of the canon characters.

I also cobbled together a cover for this story, just like I said I would! It's in a slightly different style than Tempus Fugit's, but that's for a good reason.

Since there's not a whole lot to talk about before the chapter, I'm just going to cut straight to the chase and say a very merry thank you to Baka-Beka for being the very first reviewer of Skin Deep! Sorry that there's not a whole lot to talk about yet; The first few chapters are mostly just me throwing down the foundation of the story. Gotta have a good foundation, or else the whole house will fall apart, you know! I hope you enjoy where this story goes!

Notes will be at the end of this chapter.

DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.

Chapter One - The Port Town of Hargeon

July 2nd, X784

Brandleif,

Watch the fingers of the hand that conjures violet. Board the boat, but do not drink the wine.

And for the love of all that is sacred in this world, keep yourself out of harm's way this time. I don't need another letter sent home about how you almost got yourself set on fire. Do you hear me, young lady?

Mother

Oh, this is just like her, Brandy thought, crumpling the letter back up and shoving it into the pocket of her dark brown overcloak. Cryptic warnings followed by a stern scolding. We can't all be perfect like you, Mother dearest. With a bitter scowl, she swept her choppy, chin-length dark hair away from her face. Some of us are human and make errors and aren't super-awesome incredibly powerful wizards who can afford to lord their abilities over everyone else.

Behind her, she could hear a weak groan, and turned around to see her salmon-haired traveling companion doubled over on the floor of the train car they were currently standing in, while the blue bipedal cat that made up the third point of their triangle of adventure was trying to rouse him. And that is just like him, too. I swear, the day we find a mode of transportation he can stand is the day I'm throwing the biggest party Fiore's ever seen. "Oh, save it 'til we get off, you big baby," she said.

"Never…" noted fire wizard Natsu Dragneel moaned, his voice muffled from the fact that he was currently face-down on in ground. "I'm never riding a stupid train again…"

Brandy sighed. "Well, the day that trains stop being the main mode of transportation in Fiore, I'll be sure to let you know," she quipped. "Look, heading here was your idea, so don't complain when we have to travel, okay?" The only answer she received was a whimper and another groan. "Oh, you are just impossible some days, you know that?" She approached the open door, peering out at the city their train had stopped at. "So, this is Hargeon, huh?" she said.

"Aye!" the cat, a noisy little blue beast by the very appropriate name of Happy, said as he approached the door, stopping right at the gap between train and platform. "If our information is correct, then we should find that Salamander somewhere in this town."

"That's assuming that this information is correct," Brandy said. "We still don't know if this guy even is who you two are looking for." She was pretty sure her mom would have let her know if that was the case, considering just who and what the person they were looking for was, but Mother always did have an infuriating habit of hiding information to fuel her own ego.

"It has to be!" Happy exclaimed. "Who else could Salamander be? Natsu, let's go!"

"Just… give me a second, would ya?" Natsu had managed to get himself off the floor, which was a start. Now, though, he was partially hanging out of the train window, looking more than a little green around the gills.

"Fine by me." Brandy said, and stepped off the train and officially into Hargeon, with Happy close on her heels. She'd heard quite a few pleasant things about this town. However, most of the things she'd heard were from Happy, and this was a city where the main trade was fish, so perhaps taking it all at face value wasn't a good idea. Happy would start worshipping the sun if it grew gills and a tail.

Well, on the bright side, it didn't smell like fish, at least in this part of the city. Silver lining.

As she looked around, taking in her surroundings, the train whistled behind her, and the distinct sound of the wheels beginning to hiss and move filled the air. Brandy exchanged a quick glance with Happy before the two of them looked over their shoulder to see the train taking off for its next destination… with Natsu still on it, screaming in terror as he passed by the two of them. "Noooooooo!" he cried. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!"

"Uh-oh," Happy muttered.

Natsu's shouts faded into the distance along with the train, and if Brandy weren't so frustrated she would have admired his vocal capacity. Dude had some lungs on him, she'd give him that. "It's your turn to fetch him this time, Happy," she said, turning back towards the city. "I'm trying to conserve my magic. My mother's missive suggested that something's going to happen here, and I don't want to waste my energy saving Natsu from his own motion sickness. Besides, he can handle your method of transportation a lot better than he can handle mine."

"Aye!" Happy dropped the green rucksack that had been slung over his shoulder and summoned his Aera wings. "If someone doesn't rescue him, he might throw up and pass out."

"And not necessarily in that order. I'm going to go on ahead, see if I can find this 'Salamander' guy," Brandy said, and Happy nodded his understanding before flying off to go retrieve his friend. Brandy watched him leave before focusing on the task ahead of her, making her way down the long, curved streets of Hargeon. "Now, this shouldn't be so hard," she said. "After all, you're looking for a giant fire-breathing dragon. Finding him should be a piece of cake, right?"

Realizing that perhaps scouring the streets for a gargantuan flying reptilian was probably not the most solid of plans, Brandy turned her gaze skywards. Eyes the color of a firefly's light flickering in the night sky scoured the clouds, searching for any sign that a dragon had been there. Not that she knew what to look for in the first place, really. This really wasn't a task suited for her, but she had offered to go anyway, if only to keep an eye on Natsu and at least make a token attempt to ensure that he didn't end up destroying a port or something. Though, she'd wished that she'd changed her mind after she'd gotten the letter from her mother, just to imagine the look on the latter's face.

Now, that's not fair, Brandy, she scolded herself, tugging at the sleeves of her coat with long, light brown fingers. Don't go leaving your guildmates hanging just because of your family troubles. That's not fair to them now, is it? Still, the thought to do just that the next time her mom decided to go all "cryptic seer" on her was quite tempting…

As she continued her walk, still looking around for any signs of both Natsu's dad and whatever it is that her mother had been talking about, she heard the distinct sound of a crowd in the distance, one comprised of mostly ladies if the soprano screams of jubilation were anything to go by. Even if that's not what we're looking for, it's gotta be worth checking out, she thought. She moved forward into the intersection between the road she was one and another to go investigate…

...And bumped into Natsu, who'd been walking across the intersecting road. So much for doing some solo investigating. Brandy took a moment to both compose herself and to catch the Dragon Slayer, who'd stumbled from an unfortunate combination of lingering motion sickness and the impossibly heavy backpack he was lugging around. How Happy always managed to carry around the big lug like he was a feather, Brandy would never know. "Hey, there you are," she said as she helped him regain his equilibrium. "Have a pleasant train ride?" An olive-brown glare of incredulity was the only response she received, and probably the only response she deserved. "I'll take that as a no."

"I wound up riding the train twice," Natsu whined.

"You've really gotta get over that motion sickness," Happy remarked.

A gurgling whimper was the pink-haired boy's immediate reaction, indicating that such a change would not be occurring any time within the foreseeable future. "And now I'm so hungry I could eat my hand," he said as he started walking again.

"Please don't," Brandy teased, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "You kind of need those."

"I'm not gonna eat my actual hand, Brandy." A pause, punctuated by the low growling of Natsu's belly. "Well, maybe I will. Uuuugh, my stomach's so loud I bet the guys back in Magnolia can hear it."

"It's too bad we don't have money for food," Happy said. "We had to give it all to the train people in exchange for making them stop the train so you could get off."

Oh. Well, that was just fantastic. Couldn't have warned me about extraneous travel fees, could you, Mother? No, it had to be purple hands and wine. What good is telling me not to drink wine? I don't drink wine anyway! I suppose you could call me sort of a brandy sort of person, ha hah… that's also a lie, I don't drink brandy either. "Then we'd better not stay here for too long," Brandy said. "The quicker we finish up here and get back to Marigold, the sooner we can get you two fed. And me fed, come to think of it." She hadn't noticed in on the train ride to Hargeon, but she was starting to get a bit peckish, herself. The perils of eating for seven, she supposed, even though that wasn't actually how it worked.

"Yeah," Natsu said before turning his attention to the blue cat trotting in between them. "Hey, Happy? This Salamander we're looking for has gotta be Igneel, right?"

"Aye," Happy chirped. "It has to be, 'cause the only fire dragon I've ever heard of is Igneel."

"That's true." Natsu glanced at Brandy. "What about you? Was your mom's letter any help?"

"Are they ever?" Brandy snorted. "She just spouted some nonsense and then preemptively scolded me, same as she always does. Honestly, these days it's like she's not even using her magic to figure things out. She just assumes I'll get in trouble whenever I go on a mission with you two."

"That's probably because you usually do," Happy said.

"Hey, no, no, no, you jerks are always the ones getting in trouble. I'm just the poor sap you keep dragging along for the ride," Brandy retorted sharply, clenching her hands into fists from underneath her robes. "Besides, that's not the point. The point is that she never says anything in a straightforward manner, it's always 'oooh look at me with my magic, look how awesome I am.' Just once I'd like for her to get straight to the point. 'Go here, do this, find Natsu's dad over there.' Something simple, y'know?"

Natsu piped up. "You think she'd be able to direct us to a place that gives out free food?" he asked, his query punctuated by a sharp growl from his midsection. "Seriously, Brands, I'm starving over here."

Brandy shrugged. "Maybe, but you'd have to solve three riddles to find it or she'll eat you. Ooooh." She waggled her fingers menacingly.

"Knowing your mom, she probably would!" Happy said. "Mrs. Rorche is super-scary."

Brandy opened her mouth to respond about how her mother was more of a pain in the butt than actually frightening and that Happy was just a big ol' scaredy-cat, but before she could she was cut off by yet more shrill screams. "What is all that racket?" she muttered raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she peered into the distance. A gaggle of people were crowded in the streets ahead, completely blocking traffic. Amidst the shrieking, a few words could be picked out. "Salamander!" "You're so dreamy!" "And so hot!"

"Salamander?!" Natsu and Happy spoke simultaneously, face lighting up as they turned to face one another before immediately running off. "Well, speak of the devil!" Natsu exclaimed. "We're in luck today, Happy!"

"Aye!"

"W-wait, boys, get back here!" Brandy chased after the two, cursing her heavy cloak for slowing her down. Something wasn't adding up. Why would a bunch of girls be extolling the attractiveness of Natsu's dad, all of creatures? Admittedly, she wasn't really one to judge on people's tastes, but she didn't think that giant scaly lizard-monsters were the sort of thing that inked people's pens, if you caught her drift.

She caught up to Natsu and Happy just as the former was shoving his way through the crowd of young women. "Igneel!" he shouted, hope and excitement lacing his voice. "Igneel! Igneel, it's meeeeeee…"

The person in the center of the crowd, the subject of admiration for what seemed to be every woman in Hargeon, was not Natsu's father. This Salamander fellow was in fact a tall, well-kept man with dark blue hair and a purple cloak lined with golden thread. On his forehead, right above his right brow, was a symbol that Brandy didn't recognize. Some sort of Guild Mark, maybe?

All right, so definitely not Igneel, but she had to admit, this wasn't a complete loss. He was very easy on the eyes, and there was a certain… charm around him that she couldn't deny. She could definitely see why all these women were infatuated with him.

Natsu, on the other hand, was clearly less than impressed. "Who the heck are you?"

The handsome man looked downright offended at the insinuation that he wasn't important enough to know. "Who am I?!" He exclaimed, aghast. He raised his right hand upward, flashing his rings to the crowd with a dazzling grin. "I'm Salamander. Surely you've heard of me befo- h-hey, wait a minute!"

Natsu and Happy were already halfway down the street by the time the man finished speaking. They didn't get much farther than that before one of the women charged forward and kicked Natsu square in the back of the head. She was then followed by several more fangirls, all dogpiling on the pink-haired wizard. "You're so rude!" one of them shouted.

"Salamander's a great wizard!" another agreed. "You better apologize to him or we're gonna rip you to shreds!"

"What is it with you girls?" Natsu croaked from underneath the pile of angry Salamander admirers.

A small voice in the back of Brandy's mind told her she should probably help her friend, but she ignored it, instead gazing at Salamander with rapt attention. She had to admit, he was pretty dreamy… something about the way he stood, completely and utterly confident in his own status, drew her in, made it impossible for her to turn away…

"Now, now," Salamander said, running his hand through his indigo locks, "that's enough, my lovelies, let him go. I'm sure the poor boy didn't mean anything malicious by it." As the women dragged Natsu back into the crowd, crying Salamander's name as they did, the man pulled out a white board and a marker and scrawled something down. "Here's my autograph, kid. Now you can brag to all your friends!"

"No thanks," Natsu replied, and immediately got dogpiled again.

"Now, now, Natsu, don't be rude." Brandy scolded, voice a little hazy. "Maybe we could stick around for a bit, I know he's not who we were looking for but that doesn't mean we should just brush him off."

Salamander turned his dark gaze on Brandy, and she blushed under the intensity of his stare. "Your gorgeous friend is right, kid," he said. "Sadly, I'm afraid I must be going, ladies. I have business to attend to."

"You're leaving already?" the crowd shouted in despair. Even Brandy felt a bit downhearted at this. She'd just gotten to meet the guy (...sort of) and already he was running off?

"I know, I hate to leave you, but it's very urgent." Salamander snapped his fingers, calling forth a magic circle. "Time for the red carpet." Around his feet, violet flames appeared, twining themselves into a snakelike form that picked him up and carried him into the air.

Something clicked in Brandy's infatuation-addled mind, something from her mother's letter. Watch the fingers of the hand that conjures violet… Was this what she meant? Why would her mom be warning her about this guy? She managed to wrench her gaze away from the man's face and stared intently at his hand. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary about them; long fingers, skin that had been roughened and calloused by what was surely years of practice with fire magic, two rings, nothing specia-

Wait.

Was that a…?

And just like that, the fog that had been lingering over Brandy's thoughts was broken by the light of the truth shining through, and she saw Salamander for what he truly was; an arrogant sleazeball who wasn't nearly as attractive or well-dressed as he liked to portray himself as. "Gyack!" she exclaimed, stumbling back a few feet. That no-good creep's using a charm spell! So that was what her mother was warning her about. Could've been a bit more straightforward about that.

"You saw it too, huh?" An unfamiliar voice caught Brandy's attention, and she turned to see a pale, curvy girl to her right, glaring up at Salamander with disgust written all over her face. She was a fairly pretty young woman; her thick blonde hair had been partially pulled to one side of her head in a half-ponytail with a blue ribbon, and her eyes were a rich, dark brown, the color of freshly-roasted coffee. She was clad in a white-and-blue sleeveless top, a cerulean mini-skirt, and a pair of black leather boots that reached up to her knees. At her hip was, of all things, a whip; was that meant to be a weapon or was this girl just into some weird things?

Brandy gaped for another second or two before she remembered that she has been technically asked a question. "Yeah," she said. "He's either really creepy or really insecure if he needs a charm spell to attract women. Or both."

"Yeah." The blonde girl shuddered. "Good thing your friend barged in when he did, or I would never have noticed the ring."

Salamander hadn't quite finished playing his audience, however. "Never fret, though, my dears!" he shouted from his position atop the trail of violet flames. "I'm having a soirée on my yacht tonight, and you're all invited!" With another snap of his fingers, he was off, soaring away in the direction of the docks, leaving only the falsely-enamored crowd behind.

"Blegh, as if," the blonde girl muttered. "We should probably make sure your friend's all right, huh?"

"Eh, he's probably fine," Brandy responded. "He's dealt with worse than a mob of enchanted fangirls." Hell, he'd been worse. "Here, see, he's getting up already."

She and the blonde girl made their way through the crowd to where Natsu was pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Who the heck was that guy?" he said, staring at the quickly-dissipating trail of violet against the brilliant aqua sky.

"I dunno, by he was a real creep," the blonde said, catching Natsu's attention. "Thank you for the help!"

Natsu blinked. "What help?"

"Oh, I can explain that later. First, why don't I buy you guys some food to return the favor? You three sound pretty hungry." She pointed a finger in the general area of Brandy's midsection, and it was only then that the umber-haired woman realized that her stomach had been growling this whole time.

Natsu looked like a kid who'd just been told he was getting double the cake on his birthday at the mention of food, and Brandy had to bite back a wince. I really hope you have a wallet that can match this boy's appetite, blondie, she thinks, or you may just regret your generosity…

A/N - And here we've gotten the first taste our protagonist in the modern day! A far cry from the shy little girl in the prologue, huh? ;) Right down to the name. Yeah, for this chapter I kept having to correct myself every time I wrote out Brandleif instead of Brandy. I was used to thinking about her as the first one.

I was bouncing back and forth a bit on what Brandy's reaction to faux!Salamander would be; would she recognize the magic right away? Would she get ensnared but snap out of it on her own? Would she have to be told by Lucy? I eventually settled on the second one, figuring that it would make more sense with her mom's letter. (And yeah, I know it's a little silly to try and be coy about the fact that her mom's Cassandra, sense Makarov said it in the prologue. It's mostly for in-universe development, not for some big reader plot twist. Not that there won't be big reader plot twists in this story, mind, it's just that Cassandra isn't one of them.)

Hm, not much else to say about this chapter. Like I said, the prologue and the first two chapters is just mostly me laying down some groundwork for Brandy's character and relationships with the main characters.

Chapter two will be up soon! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!

- Diana "Nocte"