A/N: Chapter two, hooray! Chapter one got quite a bit of views, so I'm glad!
"Pull!" Fried and Bickslow tugged at the pole, both grunting.
"Could you two get any weaker?" Laxus sighed.
He and Evergreen were standing at the edge of the street, watching, as the two attempted to pull the pole out of the ground. They were dressed in work clothes; jeans and t-shirts for all. Apparently it had been blasted away from its original spot of who-knows-where and had landed firmly in the ground near the palace. The land keepers had requested that Fairy Tail remove it as a job.
So far it didn't look to be an easy job. The two men sighed, panted, and returned to their teammates.
"Well," said Fried. "What do we do to get it out?"
Evergreen tilted her head and tugged at her bangs. "Hmmm…" The sound gave her the rapt attention of her two adoring teammates and an interested glance from Laxus. "If we had some explosives, or something like that, then maybe…" She sighed and shrugged, defeated. "But that's not going to happen, so I don't know."
The four turned their attention back to the pole.
"We could dig a hole in the ground," Fried ventured to say.
"Yeah!" Bickslow slammed his fist into his other palm. "That would loosen it enough for it to fall over! Then we could carry it off!"
"Well." Evergreen smiled at them adoringly. How smart they were. "It's most certainly worth a shot."
The groundskeepers were kind enough to give them a few shovels to get to work with. They got to work, and after an hour and a half of digging and a few breaks, it seemed like they'd dug deep enough that the pole jiggled a little with a push. The four put their full weight against the wooden mass and pushed.
With a mighty groan, it tilted over, gaining speed as it went; as did the Raijinshuu, all toppling over with it. They all yelled with surprise as they fell back, landing on the ground in a large pile, all on top of the small Evergreen, unfortunately.
"Ow ow ow ow!" she complained. The three men scrabbled to get off of her. In his haste, Bickslow elbowed her in the eye. She shrieked and clapped a hand to her face. "Ouch!"
"E-Ever-chan!" Bickslow hovered over her as she rolled onto her knees and clutched her eye, frantically waving his arms. "I-I'm so sorry!"
"Why'd you hit Ever-chan, idiot?!" Fried growled. Bickslow turned his head and clashed foreheads with the green haired-man.
"It wasn't intentional!"
Laxus, ever watching out for their female companion, bent down next to her. "It's okay, let me see." His voice was gentle as she whimpered and he pulled her hand away from her eye. "Oh." He hissed through his teeth at the nasty sight of her bright red eye. "That looks like it hurts. And you probably have some bruises, too, from three guys each twice your weight falling on you. Come on, you two stop fighting, let's go back to the guild."
"Evergreen, are you alright?" Cana, fiddling with the brim of her wide hat, hovered around her anxiously. She seemed to have taken a liking to the fellow brunette in the past week, despite the face that she and her team had been gone most of the time in their search for an apartment to live in.
Evergreen was sitting on one of the tables in the guild, a look of pain on her face while she clutched the right side of her face. Fried and Bickslow flitted around her, alternating between checking to see if she was okay and apologizing and fighting with each other. Laxus was talking to Mirajane, asking if she had an ice pack or something.
"Yes, yes, Cana-san, I'm perfectly fine! A little bruised and in pain, but fine." Evergreen smiled at her. "Thank you for the concern."
"H-here, let me see." It was Elfman, walking beside Laxus and holding a bag of ice. "They told me you got some bruises."
Evergreen turned her smile to him. "Nothing I can't handle, Elfman-san." She lowered her hand from her eye and let him bend down to observe it. A frown crossed his face, slightly stretching the scar on the right side.
"Just Elfman is fine," he said gently as he held the ice to her eye. She winced briefly at the cold, then put her hand over his to press it closer. She could've sworn a blush crossed his face, but she couldn't see that well out of her left eye, so she might've been imagining things.
"Just Elfman? Are you sure?" she asked.
He removed her hand, took away the bag, and checked her eye again. The swelling had gone down slightly. "Y-yeah." He gave it to her. "Keep this against it for a little while. It should help a bit."
"Mmm. Thanks." He took a step back and she hopped off the table, stumbling on her feet a bit. She twirled around, observing the guild from her one good eye and smiled. "I've always wanted to be in a guild. And now it's even better than I hoped." Elfman smiled a bit at her. Evergreen lifted a hand and pointed over to their right. "However, I want to know; are those two always like that?"
She was pointing at Bisca and Alazack, a slight brush spread across her face. Elfman buried his face in his hand and sighed. They were doing their usual thing, none of which he thought was appropriate to do in the guild hall.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Well, they seem… Very fond of one another."
"To say in the least."
"In the least, correct."
She smiled at him again (Bickslow and Fried were shooting him that glare again) and he felt his heart skip a beat. He turned his head away quickly to find his big sister leaning over the bar, smiling brightly and moving her hand towards Evergreen in a, "go on, go ahead" sort of a way. Elfman shook his head at her a bit. Mira waved her hand even more aggressively. He took a deep breath and turned back to her.
"H-hey, would you like to-" he started.
"Ever-chan, we'll take you out to lunch to make up for this whole incident." Her teammates were dragging her off while she looked from one to the other, baffled.
"I-it was an honest mistake. There's nothing to make up for, guys. I-I was talking to Elfman…" She turned her head towards him, a confused expression on her face. What was he going to say? Ever gave him a small, brief smile, as if to say, "sorry." And with that, she was dragged out of the guild.
"You hesitated too much, Elfman-san."
He'd nearly forgotten that Cana was there, looking up at him with her brown eyes and an amused and sympathetic expression.
"W-with what?"
"Were you not going to take her out? She seems very fond of you."
He blushed and smiled. "You really think?"
"I'm a woman." She put a tan hand to her chest. "I know these things. Just keep on trying, Elfman-san, I'm sure you can do it!"
It became harder and harder with each passing encounter. They'd always have a nice conversation (normally with the more outgoing Evergreen leading it), he'd look over to see most of the women in the guild (Mira had let them in on his little crush) staring, urging him on, and he could practically feel their willing of him to make a move.
And each time, her nosy teammates (they were great guys who adored her, really good guys, but they just got in the way) would carry her off, be it out to eat, or go on a job, or simply say it was time to go home. Each time Cana would come up and say he had to stay firm in his attempts.
"Elfman, how are you today?" Evergreen came up from behind him, just like every other day, and started up a friendly conversation.
"G-great! And you, Ever?"
"Wonderful!" A look came over her face, like she recalled something, and she held up a finger in a "wait a moment" manner, then turned and rummaged around her bag. Elfman waited, curious, as she pulled out a piece of folded up paper and unfolded it on the surface of the bar.
"Oh?" Mirajane, polishing a glass, put her elbows on the glossy wood and leaned over to observe. "What do you have there?"
"A job," she said. "It's a two person job, and I'd hate to decide between Fried, Laxus, and Bickslow, so I wanted to ask if Elfman wanted to come with."
"M-me?" he stumbled over his words as usual.
"Of course you! You seem so dependable!" she exclaimed.
"What's it for?" Levy leaned over her shoulder and tapped her wrench on Evergreen's head.
"It's a ways away, but it'll take no time by train to get there. Apparently this town has been having some issues with disappearing people and want someone to investigate."
"… That doesn't sound dangerous in the slightest."
"Oh, it'll be fine." Evergreen waved her hand dismissively. "I know how to fight, even without magic." She turned her gaze to the much taller man. "So, how 'bout it, Elfman. Care to help me out?"
"I-" That sounded scary, but then again, it would be a chance to get some alone time with the woman without her teammates getting in the way. "I-well-um, sure."
Ever clapped her hands together in a pleased manner. "Fantastic! The train leaves for the town in three days. I'll be excited to see you then, Elfman!"
She waved as Fried and Bickslow once again came to retrieve her.