The Land of Broships

by thefourteenthdarkone

A series of oneshots exploring the adventures of the various guilds in Fiore! This will be mostly focusing on the friendships between characters, but there will definitely be mentions of various pairings. Spoilers for all abound, so be wary! Ch35- Gray consulted Lucy on the matter of a gift for Juvia. He should have expected being dragged around the mall for seven hours.

32. Yukino and Frosch

LORD ALMIGHTY I FINALLY FINISHED THIS FRICKIN' CHAPTER I SAID I WAS GOING TO FINISH IT AND IT TOOK FOUR HOURS BUT I DID IT

TAKE THAT, FLEEING CREATIVITY

"Fro wants a frog! Fro wants a frog!"

Today was the day the annual giant bazaar came to Sabertooth's town, and the members of said guild were thoroughly enjoying it. Yukino had been wandering around with Sting and Rogue before, but Sting had seen Natsu chasing Lucy around with a fake sword and had absolutely had to go talk to him, and obviously Rogue had to come. Lector had followed, but Frosch had been involved examining beetles, so Yukino had been left to watch him. Especially because everyone knew what happened when Rogue couldn't find Frosch.

Yukino found it both exasperating and adorable. The rest of the Dragonslayers loved their Exceeds with all their heart and soul, but Rogue took it to the next level. It was like Frosch was his son or something. Finding Nemo, anyone?

They had been separated about half an hour ago, and Yukino was seeing mages from various guilds all over the place. Then again, with how giant the bazaar was and how the guilds had much better relationships with each other since the Grand Magic Games, that was expected. Fairy Tail, of course, was all over the place, but Yukino was sure she'd also seen Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus(*shudder*), Mermaid Heel, and Quatro Cerberus. In short, all of Fiore's main guilds.

Now, however, she was absorbed in watching Frosch. He had found a game stand for a pet company that had a pet frog in a frog habitat as the main prize. Apparently, you got the frog in a small cage, and then the company delivered the habitat to wherever you lived. Yukino didn't really want to win it for Frosch without asking Rogue first, but then again, as we mentioned earlier, Rogue would do anything to make Frosch happy. So Yukino took out her small bag of jewels and walked up to the stand, Frosch happily jumping up and down behind her.

She was not expecting the young woman running it to widen her eyes and squeal.

"OH MY GOD! Are you seriously Yukino Aguria!?"

Yukino wasn't able to answer for a second. Contrary to what she had thought from Jiemma's actions, the crowd had been quite impressed by how long she lasted against Kagura Mikazuchi and the fact that she was courageous enough to bet her very life. And her constantly hanging out with Sting and Rogue didn't help, as she was often in the news for both whatever she did with them and Sorcerer Weekly's obsessive belief that they were in a heated love triangle. They had literally even run a poll to determine who their readers thought she should end up with. Much to Yukino's relief and Sting and Rogue's amusement, it was literally 50/50.

"Um..yes, I-I am."

"WOW! Can I get your autograph!? Please!"

"I..I suppose so…" Yukino stammered, neatly signing the woman's arm. She squealed. "Oh wow! Thanks! Oh right, you wanted to play for the frog habitat?"

Yukino nodded, slightly scared, but nevertheless gave the girl some jewels and tilted her head, staring at the balloons. Apparently she had three to hit three balloons if she wanted the grand prize.

"Go, Yukino!" Frosch cheered, running over from the stand to jump around at her feet. The other girl cooed at the little cat's antics, bending down to get a closer look. Yukino, meanwhile, took aim and threw a dart. She was quite confident in her abilities in throwing, due to Sting's insistence she learn how to throw daggers. This turned out to be a mistake on his part, as she had promptly used the skills he taught her to knock him into the pool repeatedly.

In her defense, he did spend half his time doing the same thing to her. Honestly, she wondered how he ever got paperwork done. Probably Rogue.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Finishing her reverie, Yukino flung the darts at the balloons, easily popping a red, yellow, and pink one. The girl looked very impressed. "Wow! You're as awesome as I thought you were! You're the first person to get it all day!" She ran behind the counter, probably to grab Yukino's frog habitat. Frosch was jumping up and down again with his usual adorable smile. "Yukino got Frosch a frog!"

Yukino decided not to point out to the obviously clueless girl that the balloons were placed so it would be incredibly hard to get three, and the darts weren't properly sharpened. The girl returned from her counter with a small frog habitat containing a bright blue, ribbiting frog. "Now, you've gotta be careful, this one likes escaping. See you!"

Leading Frosch, Yukino cheerfully waved bye to the energetic girl. "Now, Frosch, what do you say we track down- oh, Lucy-sama!"

The blonde-haired Celestial Spirit mage was arguing with a shopkeeper, apparently about the price of a dress.

"I used to be a heiress, I tell you, and that is in no way real silk, so you better reduce this price or I'm gonna- Yukino! I was hoping to see you here! Oh, and is that Frosch? Hi, little guy!"

The shopkeeper took Lucy's distraction as an opportunity to scurry back into his shop, but the blonde caught him red-handed. "I'm not done with you yet," she hissed venomously, before turning right around to embrace Yukino. Yukino hugged her back, but shuddered a bit. Lucy could be scary at times, especially when she caught Natsu being an idiot. Speaking of which…..

As she pulled away from the hug, she asked, "Where's Natsu-sama?"

"Why does everyone assume I'd be with him?" Lucy grumbled under her breath, but answered, "He'd looking for fire with Happy, and I was happy to take the opportunity to shop uninterrupted. Honestly, he's always whining about how my clothes-shopping takes up our time together! It annoys me to no extent!"

Yukino hid a smile. "That sounds like a very couple-ish thing to say…"

Lucy flushed red. "It-it's not like that! Hey, look, Frosch, what's wrong?" she asked, quickly changing the subject. She had a valid concern, though, as Frosch was holding his tail and looking scared.

"Yukino, Frosch's frog escaped!"

"Oh, no!" Yukino nearly shrieked, noticing the container was opened. "Sorry, Lucy-sama, but we'll have to talk later!" Especially since she had just seen the frog running around that corner.

She ran off, Frosch running desperately behind her, leaving behind a very confused Lucy.

"Uh….bye? NO! GET BACK HERE, SHOPKEEPER!"

Yukino almost felt sorry for the trembling shopkeeper. Almost.

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"Why do frogs have to be so small?" Yukino asked the world in general, as she peered around the the corners of market stalls and under the various good-holding tables. A very worried Frosch was helping her, as he had put it, holding back tears for the frog's sake.

Apparently she had been heard, as two boys' voices answered, "Not nearly as small as you, and not nearly as pretty…."

"Frosch, shoot me." Yukino muttered in an unusually direct tone, which wasn't surprising, as she had suddenly been surrounded by sparkles and hearts, along with none other then the Blue Pegasus Trimens. Well, two of them, Ren was missing, presumably with Sherry.

"Would you like a drink? Perhaps a margarita over lunch?"

"Do you need a little brother?"

"We'll be happy to provide either!"

"No, I need a frog." the Celestial Spirit Mage told them with a hint of irritation, she didn't have time for this! Especially because Frosch was beginning to really look panicked, and if he started crying only the higher powers knew what Rogue would do…..

Luckily for her, the Trimens' favorite pastime involved assisting beautiful women.

"You need to find a frog? What for? What does it look like?" Eve questioned her, as Hibiki pulled up his Archive. "Um, that's not really necessary….and it's Frosch's new pet, and it was blue….."

"Of course it's necessary for us to help a lovely lady in distress! Now, let me see…." the Archive Mage quickly typed several commands. "Ah! Your frog is hopping around by that fountain in the middle of the park near Sabertooth! Now, about that margarita…."

But unfortunately for the three professional flirts, Yukino had already run off, Frosch in tow. "Thank you, Hibiki-sama, Eve-sama!"

The two looked at each other. "We need a new flirting ground…...want to go find Ren?"

"No, Sherry will chase us off with one of her creepy dolls again for interrupting their 'couple time'...personally, I think she's just jealous."

"Well, she's the one who decided she liked the guy whose job it is to flirt with people."

"You're being unusually blunt today, Hibiki? Lucy reject you?"

"No, the wonderful redhead by the name of Erza! She chased me off with words and swords, both sharp to the ears!"

Eve winced. "I told you she wasn't a good target…"

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"Frosch, do you see anything?"

"Frosch doesn't see the frog anywhere! Frosch is worried!"

"Don't worry, we'll find him!"

The fountain had proved to be a fruitless search, but passersby had said they saw a frog fitting the description bouncing around by it earlier and that it might still be near, so the two were looking through the various bushes for any sign of Frosch's new pet. While they were looking, three familiar faces came walking over to them curiously, probably wondering what they were doing under a park bench.

Yukino was also curious. What the heck were Mirajane Strauss, Orga Nanagear, and Gajeel Redfox doing together?

"Yukino! What are you and Frosch doing over there?" Mirajane asked cheerfully, dashing over to lean under the park bench and give Yukino a big hug.

"We're looking for Frosch's frog….what are you three doing together?"

"Lookin' for a karaoke bar." Gajeel explained gruffly.

"They threw us out of all the ones in Magnolia." Mirajane explained sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "I'm assuming by us you mean the other two?" Yukino asked quietly. "Oh, no!" the other girl replied.

"Apparently her ability to transform into Ichiya was 'too disturbing'." Orga told his guildmate with some irritation. "And what'd you mean by that? Gajeel and I are brilliant singers."

Gajeel obviously agreed with the godslayer, as he nodded smirkingly. "Gihi."

Yukino and Mirajane both sweatdropped. Ah, well, it'll be a while before they're stripped of that notion…

"So you said you were looking for Frosch's frog, Yukino?" Mirajane asked kindly, though Orga interrupted her. "How'd you let the crazy Dragonslayer let you take the cat?! He treats that thing like it's his child!"

"He got dragged away by Sting…." she explained amusedly. "And yeah, Mirajane-sama. I won Frosch a frog at a carnival game….but it got out of its cage!"

"Really! That's awful!" Mirajane told her sincerely, looking sympathetically at the furiously nodding Frosch. "Fro thinks so too!"

Gajeel and Orga rolled their eyes at each other, but volunteered, "Well, we did smell an unusual typ'a frog over by the weapons stalls. You might wanna check there."

Yukino grinned, getting up. "We'll try there, then! Thank you, and good luck with the karaoke!"

"We don't need it!" Gajeel and Orga yelled in unison. Mirajane simply giggled embarrassedly. I think she's right…..

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The two people Yukino and Frosch were not expecting to find at the weapons stall would definitely be Wendy and Chelia, Charle tagging along behind them. "I didn't know you two were interested in weapons like these….." the white-haired teenager said, looking over the sharp and very spiky maces, swords, and clubs.

"Natsu-san was here a second ago...but he went to find Lucy-san….something about a shopkeeper." Wendy told them, while weighing a huge baseball bat shaped club in her hands. They certainly looked right at home, with Chelia questioning the manager about dagger prices and Charle examining a little katana.

Yukino winced. "She must have gotten really out of control."

"Ehehe, sounds like Lucy-san…." Wendy laughed nervously, obviously afraid of the blonde's infamous temper and resulting kicks/punches. She had done it to Sting on more then one occasion for interrupting her and Yukino's shopping, and Sting spent the next two days with an icepack on his head.

Frosch jumped over to Wendy, looking concerned. "Frosch is looking for his frog, and Yukino is helping."

"Your frog?" Chelia asked, looking over from her conversation curiously. "I could have sworn I saw him a minute ago...was he blue?"

"Yes!" Frosch cheered eagerly. "Did you see him?" Yukino asked, also eager. She really wanted to find this frog and go catch Sting and Rogue, wherever they were.

"I saw it." Charle told her seriously. "It was a few minutes ago, it hopped by here, in the direction of Sabertooth's guild hall. If you want to track it down, you should hurry."

"Yay! Frosch is going to find his frog!" Frosch exclaimed, tugging on Yukino's shoe. "Come on, Yukino!"

"I'm coming!" she laughed, reaching down to pick up the little Exceed. "Thank you for your help!" she added, as she ran off once again chasing the darned blue frog.

"You're welcome!" Wendy yelled back at her, as Charle shook her head. "Honestly, first it was the frog cat, and now it's a frog….why can Sabertooth not keep track of their amphibians!?"

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Yukino, Frosch in arms, practically flew down the alley ways to the home of Sabertooth, the guild hall. She staved off several more attempts to engage her in conversation, only stopping to tell Lisanna where Mirajane had gone("And really, don't go, you'll injure your ears) and to inform Kagura of Millianna's whereabouts(and nearly being forced to join Mermaid Heel in the process, the swordswoman could be rather…..overenthusiastic).

"Frosch! Do you see it?!" she shouted, for the frog-cat had suddenly jumped out of her arms and ran over to hide behind a bush. She joined him, seconds later, and could clearly see a blue frog staring at another bush. "Aren't you going to go get him, Frosch? Frosch?"

He was deep in thought, if his expression was any indication. After nodding to himself several times, he turned to Yukino. "Yukino and Sting and Rogue let Frosch find his own way back to the guild hall when he got lost, so he could learn! Frosch thinks we need to let the frog learn how to get back on his own, too!"

Yukino nearly broke.

She honestly hadn't even thought the cat was capable of such thoughts, as he generally acted as though his intelligence was, well….below average. But this was obviously proving her wrong, the green Exceed seemed as good at ideas as she herself could be. Smiling gently at Frosch, she said softly. "That's a great idea, Frosch."

Following the frog on its path towards the guild hall, Yukino was incredibly surprised to find, that through pure luck or coincidence, the frog was hopping directly towards the guild hall. She found it a little suspicious, actually, but she was glad. She wasn't sure how much longer she could have run around looking for that frog.

Finally approaching the guild hall, Frosch finally decided to leave the shadows and retrieve his frog, carefully bringing it back to Yukino, who placed it in its cage and closed the door tight. "There we go!" She went back into the guild hall, only for….

"Hey, Yukino, what's that?"

"STING EUCLIFFE DON'T OPEN THE- STTTIINNNGGG!"

In the subsequent death, destruction, and eventual frog-finding that followed, no one noticed a white-haired woman slip out of of the guild hall in the chaos. She grinned.

"Glad I found that frog earlier! Being able to copy it and get the both of us back to the guild hall certainly made Yukino's day a bit easier…..I better go find Gajeel and Orga before they start singing 'Fergalicious' again!"

And with that, Mirajane Strauss walked off to go kill two different slayers.

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