Hey! Hopefully this chapter will be better than the last. Hope you enjoy, please review! Don`t own fairy tail.
Freed POV
"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY OLD MAN!" Freed jolted himself awake, his head spinning. He, the thunder legion and Laxus' friend had heard from Mira that Laxus had gone to talk to his grandfather about something. It was obvious to everyone at the guild that something had been troubling Laxus recently. Laxus had never been one to smile, it just wasn't in his nature, and he usually settled with a cocky smirk, or a grin, but even those were becoming more and more infrequent, his angry scowls and his annoyed glares replacing them. The thunder legion had grown increasingly worried, and had tried to talk to him numerous times, but Laxus wasn't one to talk even on his good days. So as soon as they heard Laxus was going to his grandfather, all of them had gotten over to the guild as fast as possible.
It was late, the guild was practically empty, other than the thunder Legion, Laxus, the Master, and the little brunette girl, who was sitting on a stool, biting her lip nervously, drinking some beer out of a large mug.
Bixlow looked at Freed, a lunatic smile on his face, as usual. "You falling asleep on duty man?"Bixlow asked.
"Asleep"
"On duty" his dolls chimed in.
Freed scowled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Of course not, the leader of Laxus' elite guards never falls asleep on duty."
Bixlow opened his mouth to say something but shut it again. "If it were earlier in the day, I would take the effort to make a good comeback. As it is, I couldn't say anything better than a drunken parrot." Bixlow turned, as his dolls chimed in; in the background. "Hey kid, you wanna slow down on the beer?" the young girl looked up, her eyes burning.
She didn't look older than 14, yet she was still downing drinks like a pro. "Laxus is in the other room, talking to his grandfather, in the middle of the night, and it sounds like the mother of all thunderstorms is surrounding the guild hall." As if on cue, another crack of thunder filled the air, the glasses behind the counter clattering together. The girl took another drink. "I think I'll stick to my beer thanks."
A deep booming thunder echoed in the room, accompanied by more angry yelling. Bixlow was silent for a moment. "Mind if I have a glass?" the girl wordlessly went behind the counter, poured him a glass. All eyes were on the master's door, Evergreen shifting in her seat uncomfortably. Suddenly, the master's doors slammed open, causing everyone to jump out of their seats. Laxus came storming into the guild hall, his hands smoking from lighting, his face glared with murderous rage. He stalked past them not even looking at any of them, as he roughly sat down in a chair.
"I need a drink." Laxus growled. The young girl snapped to attention, quickly grabbing a cup, and filling it up, before running it over to Laxus. He took the cup from her roughly without so much as an appreciative nod of the head, before downing it in one gulp. When he finished, he chucked the glass mug at the wall, the shattering glass causing everyone to shiver. The thunder legion was silent. Freed met eye contact with Evergreen and Bixlow (though he wasn't totally sure about Bixlow, with his helmet and all.) and the three of them had a mental debate on who would talk. Eventually, Freed was voted out, the painful task being set on his shoulders.
Freed took a shaky breath before stepping forward. "Laxus?" he asked steadily. "What were you and the Master talking about?"
Laxus glanced up at him, his fists still clenched, before swiftly looking away. "Family issues."
"About?" Ever questioned. The group of them walked closer to Laxus, seating themselves around him. The brunette girl sat next to Laxus, her eyes trained on his face worriedly.
Laxus sighed. "An argument about my old man. I was trying to see if the old bat would let him come back." Freed nodded. He should have known that it was about Ivan Dreyer. Freed had never actually met the man. Apparently he was gone on missions a lot, his rank rivaling Gildarts, and had been kicked out of the guild when he was away on a mission. Freed didn't really know what exactly Ivan had done, but he assumed it was pretty bad for the master to kick his own son out.
"And I can guess what the answer was." Bixlow said.
Laxus nodded. "The old man is just so stubborn. What kind of man banishes his own son anyway?" Laxus was shaking with rage, he was struggling to get the words out. Freed couldn't stand to see him like this. Laxus was his idol, not to mention his best friend. Laxus was always strong; he never let his emotions get the best of him.
Then without warning, the girl beside him, wrapped her arms around the older boy, and gave him the quick peck on the cheek. Laxus froze, everyone else starring at her in shock. After a moment of silence, Laxus looked at her. "What the heck was that?" he asked.
The girl just grinned. "You were letting your anger get the best of you, and it was bugging me. Just thought a little jolt would bring you back to reality."
Laxus just nodded silently, before turning away. He did look slightly calmer now, though Freed couldn't tell if he was actually calm, or still in shock. "Look man don't worry about it." Bixlow spoke up, his dolls moving to encircle Laxus. "Thinking about it will only put your head in knots; you gotta relax man, let out some steam."
"steam." His dolls agreed.
"And what better way to do that then with a mission." Ever chirped.
"Mission!" Bixlow's dolls bobbed up and down with excitement.
Freed smiled. "That's a good idea. While we're here, we'll pick a mission, then go in the morning. It'll help you get your mind of it."
Laxus looked at his friends, before sighing. "Suppose it couldn't hurt. Getting away from the guild for a few days does sound appealing."
Freed grinned. "Great," he turned to the young girl "you wanna go pick a mission?"
The girl was silent. Laxus looked at her. "What's up?" he asked.
The girl frowned, her eyes fixated on the ground. "Actually, I, um, I don't think that I'll be able to go on the mission with you guys."
All eyes turned to her. "Why not?" Ever asked.
She bit her lip. "I, I actually took a mission for myself to do, and I'm leaving in the morning." The group was silent.
"You're taking a solo mission?" Freed asked.
"But you always come with us!" Bixlow protested, his dolls nodding vigorously.
The girl shuffled nervously. "I know, and I really enjoy going on missions with you guys, but..."
"But what?" Laxus asked.
The girl bit her lip. "I need to learn to do missions on my own. I can't keep piggybacking along with you guys all the time."
"I told you before it`s not a problem." Laxus said.
Cana nodded. "I know, but I need to do this. How will I ever know if I'm a good mage if the only way I complete missions is because of you guys?"
"It`s not all us, you do a lot to!" Ever protested.
The girl nodded. "I know, but." She breathed in deeply. "I-I need to do this."
Laxus was silent for a moment, the girl not looking up to meet his gaze. "Fine, do what you want." Laxus stood up abruptly, turning away from the girl. "Let's go pick a mission guys." He walked over to the mission board; Ever and Bixlow fallowing close behind. Freed was about to follow, when he stopped, and looked at the girl. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably, as she tried to hold back tears. Freed awkwardly put a hand on her head. "Good luck tomorrow kid." Before following after Laxus.
"FREED HURRY THE HECK UP WITH THOSE INCANTATIONS!" Freed snapped back to attention. He had been thinking about his dream from last night, in the middle of a battle.
Freed grabbed his blade, and scarcely had time to write a wind incantation to push away his opponent. "It's not as easy as it looks!" he called back, annoyed.
"Maybe if you weren't off in daydream land all the time, it would get done faster!" Evergreen called from above. Freed scowled.
"Just get it done!" Laxus called, as he punched the face in of a larger man. After a little while, the group soon defeated their opponents. Freed cast an incantation on all of them, sending them to the jail cells back in the town.
He got up and stretched. "Man, am I beat." He proclaimed. "Who would think that fighting a few bandits would be such a drain on magic?"
Ever scowled. "At least you didn't have to wash ketchup out of your hair yesterday! Do you know how long that took?"
"No longer than it takes you to put on your makeup." Bixlow commented, earning himself a slap in the head.
Freed ignored his comrades, and turned to Laxus. "Well, let's go grab something to eat, we missed lunch, and I'm starving."
Laxus nodded. "Alright, I'll meet you guys at the room later ok?"
The group looked at him surprised. "You're not coming with us?" Ever asked.
Laxus shook his head. "Err, sorry, but, I made, other plans."
"Other plans?" Bixlow questioned. "You wouldn't happen to be meeting a girl would you?"
None of them actually expected it to be trued, knowing that Bixlow was just fishing for ways to make fun of Laxus. But when Laxus didn't respond, Freed nervously asked. "Are you?"
Laxus scowled at him. "Look, I know what you're thinking and it's not like that."
Evergreen put a hand to her mouth, as she squealed with excitement. "Laxus is going to meet a girl! And I was worrying you had turned gay!" the boys all starred at her for a moment.
Laxus, forgetting Ever's comment, protested. "I just said, it's not like that! It's just some girl I met in town that offered to show us around town."
"Us?" Bixlow asked. "You said us."
Laxus immediately paled. "No I didn't."
"I heard it to, you said, she offered to show 'us' around town." Ever said, smirking.
"I did not say that!" Laxus protested.
"And how rude would it be if we did not show up, after the lady most graciously offered to show us around." Freed said, smirking.
Laxus growled at him. "I'm your leader, and I order you not to come."
"Laxus sama." Bixlow said, putting an arm around his shoulder. "We are your bodyguards, are we not? And sometimes keeping you 'safe' involves going against your words."
"Safe!" the dolls chimed.
"You can order us around in battle all you want." Ever said, smiling. "But when it comes to matters like this, there is nothing you can say to make us back down." Laxus just scowled at them, knowing that she was right.
Freed smiled, swinging his sword back in its scabbard. "Well, let's not keep the good lady waiting. Shall we?"
The group of them walked along through the forest, making their way back to town. Bixlow and Evergreen made fun of Laxus for the first part, but after Laxus threatened to give Ever bad hair days for the rest of her life, and to electrocute Bixlow's tongue, they quickly shut up. They arrived at Mrs. Goodworth's bakery about ten after 3, Freed walking in first. Eyes shot up when they entered the bakery, but Freed simply labelled that to this being a small town. When the onlookers eyes eventually looked away, Freed noticed that one pair of eye didn't leave them.
Freed turned towards them, and had to take a step back to keep himself from falling. The girl was a brunette, she looked about 18 maybe. She was wearing baggy blue jeans, along with what looked like a blue bikini top, underneath an unzipped orange jacket. The girl was defiantly beautiful, no doubt about that, but it wasn't exactly the kind of beautiful that Freed went for. She wasn't like Mira Jane, a sweet almost innocent beauty, the kind of girl you'd expect to snuggle puppies. This girl looked more, out there, I guess you could say. She had the kind of look of a girl that would be like- 'look all you want, but you aren't getting within 100 meters of this'- Freed expected her to pet a puppy, then turn it into some kind of killer guard dog. But what struck him most was that she looked almost identical to the girl in his dream, they could have been sisters.
The leaned in and whispered in Laxus' ear. "She's just your type." Laxus shoved him off.
The girl caught Laxus' eye, and grinned, standing up, and walking towards them. "Hey Laxus! I was worried you weren't coming."
Laxus rolled his eyes. "I almost didn't."
"Now Laxus," Freed interjected. "That's not something you say to a beautiful lady." He smiled charmingly at the girl. "I'm Freed, this is Evergreen, and Bixlow." He said, waving a hand towards his companions. "I didn't catch your name."
"That's because I didn't give it." She said, though Freed could tell her attention wasn't fully on him, as she was facing Laxus, though her eyes were shifted to Freed. "Name's Cana and I'm going to be your tour guide on this fine evening."
"It would be our honour." Freed said.
Cana grinned, raising an eyebrow at Laxus. "You forgot to mention your friends were so polite. Why haven't they rubbed off on you yet?" Laxus just rolled his eyes.
"I love your sweater." Evergreen added. Freed turned to her, and had to stop his mouth from falling open. Evergreen almost never complimented someone else, unless it had something to do with herself. But looking at evergreen, he noticed the way she was studying the girl, as if she was familiar.
The girl didn't seem to notice, as she turned and smiled at her. "Thanks got it a long time ago."
Suddenly, a memory flashed in front of Freed's mind.
"Aw man Laxus, what are you going to do with it now?" Freed asked. Laxus frowned, studying the orange jacket. He had worn the thing his whole life, it had belonged to his father, but now he had outgrown it.
"Don't know, I'll probably just throw it out."
"What! You can't do that; it's a good quality sweater!" Freed protested.
Laxus frowned at him. "Then what do you think I should do with it?"
"Why don't you give it to that girl you always hang out with?" Bixlow asked.
Laxus raised an eyebrow. "It'll be too big for her, don't you think?"
"Yeah, but you could give it to Evergreen and she could sow it up to fit her better." Bixlow said. "You know she loves working with fashion."
Laxus considered it, lazily studying the sweater. "Sure why not, her birthday is coming up soon anyway."
Freed snapped himself back to reality. "Hey Laxus, didn't you used to have a sweater like that?"
Laxus frowned. "When I was younger I think. Don't remember what happened to it though."
Freed frowned at that. Cana turned to them with a smile. "Well, where do you guys want to start?"
Laxus shrugged. "Whatever works with you I guess."
Cana smirked. "I'd be careful with whose hand you put your trust in." She smiled again, addressing all of them. "Follow me, through a magialc journey of our small little town.
Damien POV
Damien walked down the street, his head held high, his arms swaying by his sides. Normally, he would be in a bad mood today. He had spilled coffee on his favourite shirt, his morning shower had been anything but peaceful, and to top it all off he couldn't find the magical potion that he had bought last week. But Damien still couldn't keep the smile off his face. Cana had come back, and after that, his whole house could have been burned down and it wouldn't have mattered.
Damien had missed Cana so much after she had- he refused to use the word 'left'- gone missing from the town. Even when he was writing notes, it wasn't the same. Even just in her words, he could tell she was changing, and he didn't like it. That, 'place' was trying to take her away from him, and Damien knew he had to save her.
Then a little voice in his head started telling him that she had gone on her own accord. Damien quickly snuffed out the thought like a fire. Cana had not gone on her own accord. She hadn't been thinking straight. If she had, she would have never left.
"Cana?" Damien asked. He had heard Esther and Cana fighting in the other room, and had gotten out of bed to see what was going on. To his surprise, he found Cana, dressed snuggly in a jacket, boots and pants, holding a suitcase with her belongings behind her. He starred at her. "What's going on?"
Cana was silent for a moment. So was Esther, starring between the two. Then, Cana seemed to steel her own nerves, as she turned towards Damien, and straightened. "I'm leavening."
Damien just stood there frozen. "Why?" he asked.
Cana's fist clenched. "I have to Damien. If I don't the one who killed my mother will come. I can't stay here."
"You don't have to be afraid of him; I told you I'd protect you." Damien insisted.
"You aren't strong enough!" Cana snapped. "He`s a mage, and you`re not. You can`t even use magic, what hope would you have against him?"Cana just stared at him, before shifting her jacket on her shoulder. "I`m leaving. I'm going to the guild my dad is at. I'm going to become a mage."
"You`re going to a guild?" Damien asked, shocked. "But why, this is your home?"
"This Is Not MY Home!" Cana practically screamed. It was a good thing Esther's parents were heavy sleepers. "My home is with my mom, my family, and that's gone. My mother said it was her will that I go to where my father is, and I'm trusting her judgment."
"But we are your family!" Damien insisted. "Me, and Esther, Mr. Trench, Mrs. Goodworth, all of us!"
Cana bit her lip, she was trying hard not to cry. "I care about everyone; they are all special to me. But the only thing this place holds for me is the past. Fairy Tail is my future." With that, Cana grabbed her small suitcase, and walked past Damien, not even looking at him, not even gracing him with a goodbye. Damien didn`t turn to watch her go.
Damien shook his head at the memory. Cana had been scarred then, not thinking straight, not thinking about what was important. And in her weakness, that `guild` had infected her, like a disease, turning her against her real family. But no more, Cana was with him now, she was safe. He had put so much thought into every little detail of the spell, working extra hard for the smallest bits of her memory. It hadn`t been too hard, he had been imagining her with him every day of his life.
He hadn`t even bothered doing a spell on the townsfolk. They would all be overjoyed to have Cana back in their lives and away from that place. And for those who weren`t, well, it's not like there were going to do anything against him anyway. And for Fairy tail? He had barely even thought about it, not putting anything more than one lair of the spell on them. If they remembered Cana and missed her, he didn`t care if they spent the rest of their lives searching for her. It wasn`t like they were ever going to find her. It serves them right for taking his Cana away from him.
And now everything would be ok. It wouldn`t take him long to heal Cana from her sickness of Fairy tail, and for her to return to the way she was. Everything would be back to normal, just like things used to be.
He walked over to Mrs. Goodworth`s bakery. He hadn`t seen Cana today, but had heard from someone that Cana had made plans to go there around 3 o'clock. He walked in and took a seat at the counter. Merely 5 minutes after he sat down, Cana walked in. She looked absolutely gorgeous, as usual. She hadn`t seen him, as she went to sit down at a table near the back. He watched her, as she lay back in the chair, resting her eyes. He loved the way her hair slightly covered her face, brushing gently against it as she rested.
Then the door to the store opened, and Damien turned towards the sound. Upon seeing who was there, his whole body tensed with rage. There, following in after a man with long, oddly green hair, was him. Laxus, the worst of them all. Damien clenched his fist. That man had been the most prominent image in Cana`s message, the one who twisted her more than anyone else. He had infected her so much, that she actually believed that she liked him! Him! As if Cana would ever like someone like that! Then, Cana got up, and walked towards them. Damien struggled to keep a cool head, as she talked to the group, consisting of `that man` the one with the green hair, another man with a strange helmet, and a girl, waving a fan in front of her face.
He had utter confidence that his spell wouldn`t break. There was no way that they could have possibly remembered each other. By the way they acted, it was clear that they didn`t realize there connection yet, but he did see something strange, in the way all of them looked at her. Damien watched, as they turned to leave, Cana following close- to close- behind Laxus. As soon as the group left, the glass cup in Damien`s hand shattered.
Hey! I know this chapter is really long, so I`m really sorry for that. We`re starting to see in this chapter, how Laxus and Cana, `broke up` in a sense, and got to the point that they were during Laxus` attack on Fairy Tail, and are going to go further into that later. Also, we`re going to go a bit deeper into Damien`s story, and start to discover why everyone is so afraid of him. Well so far, what do you think? Did you like it? Please review! And when I was editing this I had a bad headache, so there might be some grammar errors.