On the previous chapter of Fairy Flame:
"Laxus by the order of the magic council you are here by under arrest, come with us willingly or we will take you by force."
"Whoa wait a minute, on what charge?"
"Murder sir"
Makarov shook his head displeasingly, tears threatening to fall "Oh Laxus, what have you done?"
"Natsu." Said Lucy
No reply.
"N-Natsu" She said more loudly this time.
A small grunt was his answer
"I don't think... I mean its not a good idea for you to bring that with us"
"Bring what with us?"
"That!" She cried.
How can this not bother him?
Natsu looked back at the body of the man he was dragging across the floor behind them. A trail of blood stained the grass where they had been walking, flies were crawling in and out of the open gashes of the corpse, and Natsu had to admit he was slightly disgusted with himself for not stepping in sooner.
I could have stopped this.
"Why is it a bad idea Luigi?" Natsu asked.
"My name is Lucy, and what if people think that it was us, I don't want..." Natsu heard a sniffling sound, which soon turned into sobbing and wailing, he felt two small fists pounding on his back. "I don't want to be arrested!"
"For the last time I haven't done anything!"
Laxus only got more frustrated at the calmness of the troops, the one bearing the scroll repeated the message he'd given him only moments ago.
"Sir Dreyar we will not hesitate to bring you by force, please come with us to be judged by the magic council"
"No!" yelled Laxus.
These weaklings are pissing me off.
"I'm not gonna be judged, because I haven't done anyth-"
"Laxus!"
His protests were silenced by Makarov's stern voice. The blonde turned to his grandfather, head of the guild, he'd never seen Makarov look so-
Upset.
Tears swelled up in the old mans eyes, he was always so joyful, those eyes use to hold happiness and love for him, he remembered how creases would appear around them everytime he smiled. It hurt Laxus to see him like this, because even though he'd never admit it, Makarov was his family, and he loved him.
But those eyes, they didn't hold love anymore, or happiness, just sadness, despair, and disappointment.
"Gramps.." Laxus said softly "I haven't killed anybody I swea-"
"Out!" ordered Makarov, his voice then lowering to a harsh whisper as he pointed to the guild doors "Just.. get out Laxus. I can't... I can't have a killer in Fairy Tail."
His eyes widened in disbelief, and he shook his head, as if it were all a bad dream.
"Gramps I.. You're actually believing them?"
My own grandfather thinks I'm a murderer.
"You're believing them!" he repeated, his voice rising with anger "But... but.." Laxus looked all around, some of the guild members wore a look of pity on their faces, others glared at him with hatred, and some were just too ashamed to even look him in the eye.
He took several threatening steps forward, pointing an accusing finger at the whole guild. "Don't. Pity. Me" he warned slowly, trying ever so hard to keep his voice steady. Laxus was many things, be they good or bad, but he was not a weak quivering coward, and he wouldn't become one anytime soon.
"I'll prove you all wrong." he declared "I'm innocent and I'll prove it"
"How?" one of the guild members challenged, sipping some wine. "Face it Laxus, you always thought the guild was weak, what if that murder was just the first? In fact I wouldn't be surprised if that was just a warm up before attacking Fairy Tail!"
A few other members nodded in agreement.
"You better shut your trap or people will start dying!"
"Take him away." One of the troops ordered, yet his voice sounded lazy. Laxus was surrounded by knights wearing armour, all pointing spears at him,he punched one in the face and back kicked another behind him.
"For the last time I'm not coming wi-"
A sharp blade was forced into his leg.
"Pipe down dragon slayer we have the authority here."
God dammit!
Laxus clasped to the floor, gripping the limb tightly in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, several other knights rugby tackled him to the floor, pinning him down.
Makarov looked at the scene unfolding before his eyes.
"I can't watch this" he muttered to no in particular as he turned away and began walking.
"Sir"
He looked up to meet the serious gaze of Erza "Sir Laxus is a Fairy Tail wizard, I don't think he would-"
"Erza." Makarov silenced her "I need some time to think." she stepped out of his path reluctantly, allowing the old man to climb the stairs to the second floor.
The scarlet haired girl sighed, looking towards Lissana who was in tears, clearly the girl hadn't witnessed much violence before, other than the friendly fights that tended to happen in the guild. Upon looking at Lissana she realized.
Where was Mirajane?
"Would you shut up already!"
Natsu cringed as the wailing sound only increased.
"I don't wanna be with you anymore!" Lucy cried
He groaned in frustration "I never gave you a choice."
"You keep getting us lost!"
"We're not lost!" Natsu protested "we're just..."
The pink haired boy spun round on the spot, ignoring Lucy's screams. His nose twitched, the smell of rain and blood was stronger than the scent he was trying to follow. Natsu didn't have much to go on either, the only scents he could remember were Laxus's and Erza's. He shivered.
That monster.
Since he wasn't to keen on the idea of meeting Erza another time, he decided to follow Laxus's trail instead. However with the blonde girl yelling in his ear he found it hard to identify the scent he had associated with Fairy Tail.
Natsu sniffed the air again before turning in a different direction and walking, he stopped near a tree, his nose twitching.
I've been here before.
His suspicions were confirmed when his eyes saw the hole in the tree, out of the whole forest he'd only seen one tree with a hole in it, and when he realized that this was that tree, he realized that Lucy was right, and then he knew.
"We're lost."
The blonde mage was seated on the cold floor outside the guild doors, somewhat surprised that there was only one knight guarding him.
Maybe the magic council's losing its touch.
The armored person bent down and ripped a piece of Laxus's clothing off, proceeding to tie the wound on his leg. It was then that Laxus noticed something was off.
"You're a sneaky one aren't ya?" he said with a smirk.
The rune knight scowled, securing a pair of handcuffs around Laxus's wrists before pointing a spear at him, signalling for him to stand up and walk.
Nope, they still got it.
"You know.." the blonde mage began "Last time I checked women weren't allowed to be rune knights."
He winced as the knight prodded his shoulder a bit too hard with the weapon.
"Watch where you put that thing you saw what that bastard did to my leg."
"Are you trying to blow my cover!" the female voice hissed.
Laxus smirked "I knew you had a thing for me, Mira."
"As if!" came the harsh reply,but the voice soon returned to a whisper "Look you and I both know you're innocent, I'm not going to bail you out but I have a plan."
The blonde mage snorted.
"You're not taking me seriously are you Laxus?"
"Well.." Laxus replied "It's kinda hard to take you seriously when I'm hearing a female voice come from a mans body."
She sighed in frustration "So what? I haven't mastered my transformation magic yet, its enough to fool the magic council's rune knights right?"
"Right" he scoffed.
Mirajane sighed. Why am I even helping this guy?
The two Fairy Tail mages halted at the sight of a fairly big black van. The rear door opened and gently hit the ground, forming a ramp.
"Care to fill me in on that plan now?" Laxus said in a hushed tone. Mirajane stood on her tip toes to reach the blonde's ear, she whispered a few words and he nodded before a look of confusion crossed his face.
"You call that a plan?"
"Its the best I've got" she argued "besides at least I'm not sitting on my ass like the rest of the guild."
He smirked as he watched her retreating figure... or his retreating figure? He wasn't really sure how to put it, but Laxus was glad that there was at least one person who didn't think the worst of him.
"Get moving dragon slayer or I'll put you in there myself!"
As much as he wanted to turn around and bite the stupid knight he had to follow Mirajane's plan, he was in enough trouble already, the more he denied the magic council the worse his day seemed to get. The blonde mage clenched his jaw and stepped inside the vehicle, slumping against the wall. A knight grabbed the ramp and pushed it up, obstructing the mage's last view of the guild, before everything turned black.
Stupid guild. I'll prove those bastards wrong.
Despite his keen eyesight Laxus could barely see his surroundings, the inside of the van was dark, very dark.
I'm not alone.
Something, though Laxus couldn't quite put a finger on it, was moving in the corner of the van.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could make out what it was, a hunched figure tracing patterns on the floor with a pale hand, wherever its hand moved white curvy lines would appear.
What type of magic is that? Forget it, I'm probably just seeing things.
"It's not magic." came a clear, calm voice. Laxus squinted, staring hard, the mysterious being extended an arm to the blonde mage, in his hand was something small and white.
Chalk?
"Would you like some?"
Laxus grunted "Now why would I need such a childish thing like chalk?" he spat.
The voice replied in a disbelieving tone, "To draw circles of course."
Circles? Why circles?
"To think."
Laxus didn't reply after that, and an awkward silence filled the secluded space. He couldn't see much of the strange individual other than its hand and outline.
Chalk? Why would someone need chalk just to draw circles so they can think?
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud snap. Suddenly a small ball of light was floating in the top corner of the van, it drifted down to where the figure sat, hovering next to it and illuminating the area.
Laxus was captivated, his jaw dropped slightly as he watched the ball of light floating in place, but his attention soon shifted to the being in the corner. For a fact it was a man, with smooth pale skin and white hair, his eyes were narrowed and held a cold piercing stare, unblinking. A black headband covered his forehead and he wore a black mask that hid his face from the eyes downward.
No wonder I barely saw him, with that black cloak he blends right into the wall.
Laxus studied the mans face closer, the mask strangely resembled the cloth that his guildmate (Mystogan) wore, but it was a different colour so he pushed that thought aside.
"Who are you?" the blonde mage asked.
"Who do you think I am?"
Laxus sighed, he hated people like this, always answering questions with questions.
"Cut the crap and talk straight" he demanded "I wanna know who you are."
The man was unfazed by the mage's sudden outburst, he put down the piece of white chalk he was holding and outstretched his arm so Laxus could shake his hand.
"My apologies" he said, his voice showing no emotion. "I go buy a few names, but my most common is Eric."
Since his hands were still bound Laxus could only sit there and stare dumbly at the thin pale hand.
"Oh." though it was unseen behind the mask Laxus could tell that Eric was smiling "A little tied up are we?"
"Shut up." Laxus grunted before resting his head against the wall and closing his eyes, however he still had a few questions that needed answering and the more he neglected his curiosity the more tempted he was to ask.
He opened his eyes to see that Eric had picked up his chalk and continued with drawing circles.
Laxus cleared his throat "What is that?" he questioned, nodding his head towards the orb of light that floated about forgotten. It reminded him of flames, the light was orange and red with yellow at the centre.
Eric glanced up from his work "Oh you mean that?" he replied, fixing his gaze on the fiery light he had summoned, he turned back to his work and continued drawing "Its nothing little dragon slayer, nothing at all, just your imagination." and with that the light disappeared, leaving Laxus to wonder whether it had been there or not.
Yeah, this guy is definitely not normal.
Strawberry cake, probably the best thing invented.
Erza split the large slice with her fork, she was just about to place the delicious treat in her mouth when three heavy knocks were heard coming from the guild doors. At first she didn't move, surely they would just open the doors and come in like everybody else had. However she heard three more knocks, followed by two short quick ones.
Looks like someone's getting impatient.
"You can come in!" she called, getting frustrated at the fact she couldn't enjoy her cake in peace and quiet.
Erza listened. Silence.
Good.
The scarlet haired girl picked up her untouched snack, but was once again interrupted by shouting and the sounds of an argument.
"See Luigi, I told ya we could just come in."
"For the last time its Lucy!and I was always taught to knock before entering otherwise its rude."
"Yeah well screw that and lets go!"
"Knock one more time!"
"Fine!"
One final loud knock was all it took for Erza to snap. Slamming her cake down she walked briskly to the guild doors and flung them open.
Oh. Its him.
"Greetings,Natsu." she smiled "I was just about to enjoy some strawberry cake but was disturbed by...someone." her eyes wandered from the petrified pink haired boy to the girl he had slung over his shoulder.
"Put her down." she commanded, her voice suddenly turning harsh.
Natsu gulped and obliged, dropping Lucy immediately.
How? I was following that blonde guys scent for sure, how did I end up meeting her again?
He had almost died on their first encounter, and Natsu wanted to enjoy living just a little bit longer.
There's still so many things I want to do.
The fire mage had spent his last hour of life wandering in circles around the forest, and it was all for nothing. Or was it?
He grabbed Lucy's wrist firmly and pulled her off the ground, onto her feet. "Guess I was wrong." he lied, laughing slightly "I must've followed the wrong scent, this is the completely wrong guild."
"But Natsu isn't that the fairy tail ma-"
"No,wrong guild!" he turned around and ran for it, only to find Erza choking him from behind.
"You should stay, its cold outside."
"No thank you!" Natsu managed to rasp out
Erza was in the process of dragging the boy back through the guild doors when she saw it, the body.All anger left her as her eyes scanned the bloodied corpse only to resurface moments later.
"Did you do this!" she yelled, shaking the poor boy rather violently "Answer my question unholy demon!"
"Er- erza ...i-it wasn't"
"It wasn't Natsu." stated Lucy, the furious warrior turned her attention to the blonde haired girl, awaiting evidence.
Lucy drew in a deep breath.
Natsu seems strong, if this girl can make him this scared just by looking at him then I don't want to even know what she's capable of.
"I was there when the man died, he was killed by a monster and it was going to kill me to but Natsu saved me, well kinda-"
"What do you mean kinda? I totally beat that guy"
Erza shot Natsu a glare, "Silence." It seemed to do the trick since the boy whimpered and shut his mouth before he could worsen his situation.
"As I was saying" Lucy continued, trying to keep her voice steady and stop herself from running away like Natsu had done moments earlier. "The fight between them wasn't getting anywhere so I summoned one of my spirits to scare the monster off before Natsu ran out of magic power."
Erza loosened her grip on Natsu slightly, and the boy began sucking in air like it would all be gone tomorrow. "I see." said Erza, her eyes narrowing as she thought things through "Though that does make sense we should bring this to the master and see what he thinks about it."
Lucy nodded and let out a sigh of relief, smiling. "Good we'd be more than happy to obli-"
Bang!
The blonde girl found herself being crushed against Erza's armored chest as the older girl gave her a tight hug with one arm.
She's so strong!
"Your name is Lucy correct?"
She nodded, since she was being suffocated she could barely speak.
"Well Lucy since you were so honest you are now one of my favourite people and from today onwards you shall be my friend!"
Lucy wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be smiling and skipping or screaming and running away, but since Erza seemed like a better friend than Natsu she willingly let herself be pulled to the guild, then again there was no escaping the girl's iron grip so really she didn't have a choice.
"And as for you!" Erza declared, grabbing Natsu (who was attempting to crawl to safety) by the scarf "You shall face your punishment for manhandling such a kindhearted girl and will therefore stay at Fairy Tail until you make it up to her!" she began dragging the squirming Natsu to the doors, he could hear Lucy giggling and hated the idea of listening to a girl.
However he hadn't forgotten that Lucy still owed him a favour, if he must suffer for her then she would have to suffer for him as well, he flashed a grin at no one in particular.
"Erza she has to make it up to me to!"
"No I don't I was helping you Natsu!"
"You ruined my fight so you owe me!"
"Do not!"
"Do to!"
"Do not!"
"Yes you d-"
Thump!
Natsu rubbed his head, he could already feel a lump forming and tears built up in his eyes.
"Why'd you hit me..." he whined, beginning to cry.
Oh great.
"You will both make up for eachother!" Erza yelled, when she wasn't looking Lucy stuck her tongue out at Natsu, infuriating the crying boy "Do that again girly and I'll burn you!"
"You deserved it Natsu."
"No I didn't stupid!"
"You're stupid!"
"Well you're stupider!"
"That's not even a word!"
Erza sighed.
They argue like an old married couple.
A/N Hello well that was my longest chapter so far,I had to rewrite the scene where Laxus gets arrested so many times because I just couldn't get his character down, I wasn't quite sure how he'd react to being accused of murder so it would be greatly appreciated if anybody can tell me whether they think he's OCC or not.
I have a lot of homework to do and the only reason I was able to post these three chapters was because I had time off school so when I start school again I'll only be able to update about once a week.
.Eric is an OC from my novel I'm currently writing though I had to give him magic powers and stuff so he could fit in with the Fairy Tail world. Though the story so far might seem confusing I have it all planned out and I promise you it may get slightly more confusing but it will all fall into place eventually.