Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize.

Warning: Violence. Expletives.

Beta: Urau.

Chapter Three

Laxus

We skidded to a stop.

Laxus' form was trembling with exhaustion as he placed me on my feet. He fell when he tried to walk. He was wheezing, out of breath. "L-let's rest for awhile."

I crouched before him. "You could've let me run."

"Yeah, but you—wait, I don't think I've caught your name yet."

I blinked, glancing down. "Uh... I don't..."

Laxus looked concerned. "You hit your head quite hard back in the mountains, you're bleeding all over and your white hair's all red from blood so I s'pose it's forgivable. Mind if I give you a name? I've always liked naming things and animals!"

"Sure," I agreed tiredly, tugging on my short strands. I couldn't see, but seriously, I must've looked like a grandma with white hair. I'm so dying it the first chance I've got. "What name do you have in mind?" Anything that wasn't embarrassing was fine by me.

My real name consisted of four syllables—an old, old name from many centuries ago—given to me by my grandmother. She always loved old-fashioned names and I was rather shy of it. I'd be happy to have another new nickname, but thing was, the inability to chose a good name was hereditary so I let Laxus pick my new name.

This time, I was sure I could reject the names I don't like.

"I've been reading about names from Sin—they're odd and separated, rather unique and I like it!" I frowned, wondering if I'd like it. Probably not; there was very little things in this world that could truly satisfy me. "I've always liked things associated with lightning, and translating it to Sin language would be... uh..."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Lei!" he exclaimed. "Yeah! And then you can be lightning dragon, which is, Lei Long—literal translation!" I could hear the grin in his voice as he spoke. "And since you're small, let's add 'xiao' in front, okay? Xiao Lei Long—small thunder dragon, how does that sounds?"

"Lei sounds okay," I said after a moment. I didn't know what to think about the first and last part. But Lei is nice to hear. "Laxus is nice too."

I thought he smiled—can't be sure, my eyes were being rebellious. "Thanks!"

"...Can you move now?"

"Yeah, I recover quickly so this is okay. Get on, I'll carry you back to Fiore."

I frowned. "I can walk fine on my own."

"I'm betting all my pocket money that you're going to trip and fall anytime soon. And when I'm right, you're getting a ride from me, whether you like it or not!"

I scowled. "Fine."

We walked in silence. Laxus walked in front, his steps determined; I couldn't see where we were going, heck, I didn't even know where I was, so I didn't know whether or not we were in the right path. I don't think Laxus will admit anything though even if we were on the wrong route; he seemed like the type who kept his mouth shut and would always insist that he was right.

Laxus won the bet in the end anyway.

I tripped not fifteen minutes into the hike down the mountain. I couldn't see properly, but I knew Laxus had that smug grin on his face.

I suppressed the irritation, climbing onto his back. I didn't like being so weak and helpless, but I had to admit it: my stamina was nothing compared to his and I couldn't even see what I'm walking on.

Were we on muddy grounds? In which, my new set of clothes Laxus had gotten me were of help in walking about this terrain. Or we were on a sandy path. I had the worst stamina in the world (I had yet to meet anyone whose stamina was worse than mine) and had already lost all feel in my legs after fifteen minutes of walking and running.

Laxus had yet to break a sweat from all the walking.

"Thank you," I muttered.

"No problem," he murmured back, his voice sounding far away.

Only when I was jostled into awareness did I realize I'd fallen asleep on his shoulder. Fortunately, I did not drool on his shoulder, else that would've been embarrassing.

I blinked, faintly hoping that my eyes were working again but as usual, I was disappointed.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"In Balsam Village, which is located a little ways west of Magnolia." He paused, and I could sense the nerves rolling off him. I glanced at him questioningly.

"What's wrong? Why did you stop working?"

"I just remembered that awakening someone's Eternano should only be done by experienced mages." Had I been able to see it clearly, I was sure he'd be worrying his lip. "I haven't been practicing magic for as long as my Grandfather did. I dunno... I heard this is illegal."

"You're scared he'll punish you," I said, summarizing his fears. "So, are you going to leave me here?" How would I survive if he did ditch me here?

"No, I plan on, uh, observing you for a moment."

"Like a science experiment," I mumbled. "see what would happen. If nothing's wrong, you can get publicized me and get a certificate, yeah?"

"Uh... not the way I would word it, but, yeah, basically."

"Half credit for me, when you become famous."

"Sure, you'll be the first person I share it!"

He shifted, crouching low enough for my feet to touch ground and I understood. I slid off his back, grabbing onto the hem of his pants instead. He held my hand as we weaved through the crowd. The ground beneath me seemed to be made of cobblestones, as I could see a myriad of dark colors.

If I were to guess, it was late into the night already. But blurry lights blared, forming rather pretty spotlights in my sight, it didn't blind me seeing as I was already half-blind. I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth at the painful reminder. If this world was filled with magic, there had to be some healing magic out there that could heal my eyes!

This dream would be completely ruined if I couldn't enjoy the sights.

"Laxus," I called. "Where are we going?"

"Well, you'd need somewhere to stay, right? I'm bringing you to a friend's place. He lives here." Laxus' blonde bob shifted, and a long bob of white appeared in the middle of the beige spot, which I assumed was his teeth sparkling as he grinned widely at me. "He's nice, quite crazy, but really a nice guy. His name's Freed."

Just as my knees knocked against one another, too tired, we came to a stop.

I could hear the sound of Laxus knocking on a wooden door. Someone answered with a loud yell of joy: "Laxus, you came!" Abruptly, my friend's grip was torn from mine; surprised, I grasped for thin air, whirling around to see where Laxus was. I glanced down at the pile of blobs.

A long, large green bob nearly covered Laxus' blobs of colors.

"I'm fine!" Laxus answered my unasked question, which meant that my face was an open book.

I shifted my feet nervously when the Freed blob moved. The green blob falling back to be replaced by red and black bobs—his clothes I assumed. He leaned forward. "Who's this? A friend of yours?"

"Yeah, Freed, meet Lei; Lei, Freed."

"Hi," I said quietly, not too enthusiastic talking to strangers whose intentions I could no longer discern through reading the emotions on their faces. I felt wary and nervous, afraid that Laxus didn't know his friend's true nature and that Freed was actually a very terrible guy.

"Hello," he returned politely. There was a very long silence before he spoke. "What's wrong with your eyes? They're all clouded and stuff—ow! Laxus!"

"Shut up, you insensitive idiot," The blonde blob hissed, elbowing his friend (if the noise of pain was anything to tell).

"So, what are you two doing here?" Freed asked as he invited us in.

"You live alone?" I asked before Laxus could answer his friend's question. "I can't hear anyone else."

"Yeah, Freed's parents are never home, working out of the country and stuff. So you can stay here and no one will bat an eyelash. Freed has the habit of bringing lost kids, puppies and cats home anyway."

"I'm guessing that's how you guys met?" I asked curiously, the question directed at Laxus who nodded, his blonde blob moving up and down.

"Wait, you want to stay here? Why?" Freed asked incredulously, but after hearing a noise of irritation from Laxus, he quieted down.

"I was magically kidnapped from home," I said. More like, dreaming. "Got nowhere else to go and Laxus promised to help, well, he wanted me to be his experiment."

"What experiment?"

Laughing nervously, and making Freed to swear never to tell anyone else, Laxus explained the whole situation to him. I could practically feel the awe rolling off in waves from Freed when Laxus finished regaling his tale.

"...so, can she stay? I'll visit often."

"Without arousing suspicion," I butted in.

"Sure! I'll alert you if she keels over or something."

"Hey!"

Freed ignored me. "Are you staying over too?" He seemed to be glancing at me when he added, "Go take a bath, I'll lend you my old clothes from when I was younger."

I did as told, and after a little while of pestering Laxus, he agreed that he'd stayed overnight, seeing as he knew we were both unnerved by the other's presence, he decided to play mediator and he'd wait till we get to know one another better before he left us.

I didn't trust Freed, he was rather mean to me, poking fun at me whenever he could or when Laxus was out of earshot. Well, the feeling of dislike was mutual.

I flopped onto the bed in one of the guest rooms. Even though it was useless, I found myself scanning the guest room. The walls were large blurry things that seemed to stretch endlessly, creamy white and the lower half of the walls were boarded up with mahogany wood. There was no other furniture but the plain white bed and a desk and chair and a cupboard to place clothes.

A vase of flowers rested by the windowsill.

I turned my head when the door slammed open against the wall, I saw the familiar blobs of blonde and green entering, carrying something in the middle.

"Hey, come and help us!" Freed called.

"Don't be stupid," Laxus said. "she'll be smothered."

"Nice to know your expectations of me were so low," I chimed in.

Laxus seemed to be shrugging. "Hey, just telling the truth. Freed, move it."

Even though Laxus did most of the walking from country to country and fighting mages to top it all of, he didn't even seem tired. I was though, yawning and squeezing my eyes shut. I was mildly surprised this dream was so real that I could feel fatigue. Or, this may not be a dream at all—

I stopped myself, turning onto my side as Laxus called lights out.

No, this had to be a dream. I refuse to believe otherwise.

I'll enjoy this dream for now, and then I'll wake up.

Question: How do you suppose the OC was transported to the Fairy Tail world?

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