Chapter Thirty-seven

Wendy had finally awoken around ten, Laxus coming down the stairs at the same time. I now understood why Freid liked the chair that faced the stairs, 'cause for a big man, Laxus made almost no noise as he walked. What little noise he did make went unnoticed by me because I was absorbed in my book until it was too late. The shriek that emerged from my throat was enough to wake Evergreen, who jumped and came close to falling off the couch at the noise.

We all had waited another half hour for Bixlow before Freid went up to drag him out of bed because he figured the others would likely be on their way to the guild by now. Within another half hour we were walking into a stare down between Natsu and Doranbolt. The moment the guild doors closed with a bang Natsu turned his attention on Laxus.

"Laxus! What the hell is someone from the Rune Knights doing here? He said you agreed to it!" Natsu yelled as he walked towards our group.

Laxus just grunted and walked past him to the small, circular table in the back corner by the stairs that he always sat at, the Raijinshuu following. Natsu turned to yell at Laxus for ignoring him before Wendy spoke up.

"Don't worry about it, Natsu, I'm sure Laxus had a good reason." Wendy smiled softly as she walked past him, cradling Charle in her arms, to speak with Doranbolt.

Natsu 'tch'ed while crossing his arms before he looked at me. "Do you know why he's here?" He sounded pouty, very unlike Natsu.

"Yes, I do. I was there when the agreement was made, and if he didn't agree to Doranbolt coming, Lahar would have just sent more Rune Knights. Lahar said that Doranbolt would be here just to observe and report, nothing else, so don't worry about it."

"Ya, you really think Lahar will keep up his side of the agreement?" Natsu asked skeptically.

"Lahar might not," I looked to Doranbolt speaking with Wendy, a gentle smile on his face, "but Doranbolt will. He always has been fond of our guild, and has gotten into a fair bit of trouble for it before. He wouldn't risk screwing that up now." I finish and walk to the Master, who is sitting on the bar, eyes closed and beer in hand.

I sit in the seat to his side and place my elbows on the wood in front of me, crossing my fingers and resting my chin on them. I wait for him to acknowledge my presence by opening his eyes before speaking.

"Have Levy and the others come by yet?"

"Jet and Droy arrived not long ago," he waved a hand to one corner. I looked over my shoulder and could see them making grand hand motions to Elfman, Macau and Wakaba. "Levy called on the lacryma in my office, she said she might have found something of importance while she was in the council library but then ran into a bit of trouble, so she was going to look through her books for a bit and said she would arrive in the next couple hours. I believe Gajeel was with her." I hummed in response.

"So what was the trouble she ran into?" He asked after a few moments of silence. I saw Mira look over at us, seemingly debating coming over, but deciding not to.

"It was probably the library being blown up." It was probably the casual way I had mentioned it but the Master's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.

He regained his composure after a few seconds then asked, "Is that why all of you look so beat up?" His eyes went towards the Raijinshuu and settled on Bixlow's arm that was just sitting by his side, unmoving. Wendy hadn't gotten around to healing it yet, I had almost completely forgotten about it this morning.

"No, we weren't anywhere near the library when that happened. We came up against some strong mages. Rune Knights were hurt in the explosion and whatever had occured right afterward, and Levy was injured badly in her fight, healing all of them completely wiped Wendy out. In fact, I'm pretty sure she's still doesn't have any magic left."

"Who were they?"

"I'm not sure, but we should probably wait for Levy and explain all of this to the entire guild." Master's eyes settled on my face and seemed to be thinking it over, before nodding in agreement. "After Levy explains everything, to all of us, there's something I want to bring up."

I stood and walked to the Raijinshuu's table. I sat between Evergreen and Bixlow. Freid sat on the other side of Evergreen, and Laxus sat beside him, leaning back with his eyes closed, and that lead back to Bixlow. Bixlow adjusted so that I would fit easier, his jaw clenching when he moved his arm.

"What were you and the Master talking about?" Evergreen asks, drawing my attention away from Bixlow's arm.

"I asked where Levy was, he said she may have found something before the library was attacked, so she'll be here later. I also mentioned a little of what happened. He noticed your guys' injuries." They all gained a sheepish look on their face, aside from Laxus, of course. "What happened to you two, anyway?" Looking between Freid and Evergreen.

"It was nothing in comparison to Levy. The mage we fought mostly used physical attacks." Freid answered. "Granted, there were alot of him."

"Ya, not much to worry about. We've mostly got bruises and scrapes." Evergreen said, overshadowing Freid's last sentence.

"Right, you guys would have been against the Multiply mage." When they nodded I turned to Bixlow, "So, it seems the worst off of us is you." Bixlow's head turned to me, so I could only assume he was looking at me.

"What are you talking about, Cosplayer?" Annoyance raised in me at both the nickname, and at him trying to hide his injury.

"Don't you 'Cosplayer' me!" I started, my voice stern. Bixlow looked shocked at my tone. "I was there, I know you were hurt so don't play dumb. Even Master noticed your arm. You can't even move it without cringing in pain. You may have only got hit once, but it was pretty bad. Did you even have anyone look at it?"

"Calm down. Jeez, you'd think someone who worked with someone as reckless as Natsu wouldn't be that worried about one injury."

"It's because I worked with Natsu that I get so worried about an injury that was meant to kill a person." From behind Bixlow I saw Laxus open his eyes and stare at us. I could almost feel the confusion emanating from Evergreen and Freid.

"Well, you don't have to worry, I had Laxus close the wound." I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked at Laxus.

"You can heal people?" I ask, confusion coating my words, all anger or annoyance I felt towards Bixlow fizzling out in a second.

"No. I used my lightning to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding."

"Oh, that's kind of cool. I didn't know you could do that."

"It's really high level and requires a lot of precision and control. It's difficult even for me. Don't even think about trying it."

"I wasn't!" I shout at him, crossing my arms and puffing out my cheeks.

The next thing I knew I was hearing the wondrous sound of Laxus laughing. Evergreen and Bixlow began laughing. At me. Bixlow pinched one of my cheeks with his good hand, and Evergreen poked at my side. I saw that even Freid was laughing lightly.

I'd never realized before this moment, but these people that I had felt nervous around for so long, had become my friends. And they had accepted me as well. With that realization I had begun laughing alongside them in this isolated corner of the guild, all of us either not noticing or not caring about the looks of confusion being sent in our direction, or the look of pride and happiness that glittered in Master's eyes.

So, a few minor things my Muses.

First, for the last chapter, I noticed in the reviews that many of you were wondering why Lucy had that flashback of Freid, and I meant to mention this last time but I forgot. The placement of the flashback in the story is merely because Lucy and Freid were quietly reading together while they waited for everyone else and I didn't really have anything else to write about at the time. My personal reasoning for the flashback is because I've had Evergreen and Lucy bonding through girl talk, teasing and the like, while Bixlow and Lucy are shown to have a few close scenes in the manga and I also had them bonding through fighting together in my story, but I had difficulty with figuring out how to have Freid and Lucy bond without them seeming too romantic, like, I can have them bond easily if I were to be making them a couple, when I thought of the sudden reappearance of Freid's hair on Tenrou. I also thought it showed really nicely why Freid was so willing to accept Lucy, and why he was willing to use his own magic to help her earlier on.

Second, I wrote most of this chapter like a really long while ago, I had the thoughts for this one while I was still writing the scenes with Beta, but right around that time my family had to put down our dog that we had had for right about sixteen years so this chapter seemed really kinda sad and dark. I rewrote a bit of it trying to brighten it up and it sort of worked but not really.

Anyways, tell me what you thought and think might happen, anything and everything. Every review helps to inpire me to write more. I'll be back soon.