Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 2: Demon's Domain

The bell resounded around the school to signal the beginning of classes for that day. Like the good student that she was, Mirajane headed towards her seat in classroom 3-C. She put her hand on the doorknob, turned it before entering the room. It looked like today was going to be a full house, as every single desk seemed to be occupied, besides her own, of course. She walked towards her seat. The second she sat down, the door slid open again and Class 3-C's homeroom teacher, Gildarts Clive entered the room, a bored expression on his face.

"Is everybody here?" Gildarts asked lazily, as a chorus of 'yes sir' could be heard. He had never really been the one to take attendance, and as a result, it was very easy to play traunt from class and not get caught. Even so, Gildarts' had some keen senses. He scanned the room and pointed towards a single empty desk near the back. Mirajane hadn't seen it, which was odd considering it was the seat right behind hers.

"Natsu," Gildarts simply stated. "Natsu's not here," he continued, as he marked the young man absent on the roll call booklet. "Shame too, that kid's almost always in school," Gildarts commented. Mirajane could vouch for that. Natsu was certainly a person who regularly attended class and his face was a welcomed sight for her in the morning. After ticking Natsu off as absent, Gildarts turned his attention back to the rest of the class.

"Students. Today, I've got some news. There's going to be a new pupil joining our class," he informed them. "I know it's late in the year, and you've all formed your own social groups and whatnot, but try and befriend this guy, alright?" Gildarts added, as he walked over to the door. He opened it and poked his head outside. "Hey, come in now," he muttered, as he grabbed someone by the arm and led them into the room.

Mirajane couldn't believe her eyes.

Standing at the very front of the class with her homeroom teacher was none other than Laxus Dreyar, the grandson of her boss. There was no way that he could be the new student. He had read one of her textbooks and treated it like it was child's play, that and he was huge, his face was brazen, and he looked much more like an adult than a teenager. Then again, the same could apply to her.

"My name is Laxus Dreyar," he introduced himself, without much emotion at all. He didn't really seem to be looking around the class, but he wasn't really staring at the ground either. Rather, he looked quite indifferent, as if he didn't really care about being there. It was obvious that he hadn't seen Mirajane. "I'm 19 years old. I was attending Hargeon University, but I was ... er, expelled," he said, almost fumbling his words, which was pretty uncharacteristic of him. "I'm taking the entrance exams for Magnolia University, so I decided to repeat my final year," he finished.

Gildarts patted Laxus on the back. Much to Mirajane's surprise, Laxus and Gildarts were both the same height, which only served to make him more intimidating. Gildarts scanned the room, stroking his beard as he did so. "There doesn't seem to any room. Well, that's fine. I'll get a chair for you tomorrow. For now, sit in the seat behind Mirajane's. The person who normally sits there is absent today," Gildarts told him, as he pointed towards the empty seat behind Mirajane's.

Laxus' brow raised curiously, as he heard her name. He looked towards the direction where Gildarts had been pointing and it his suspicions were confirmed. Mira could see a slight smile appear on Laxus' face as he headed towards the empty seat. He didn't even look towards Mira's way as he sat down in Natsu's seat. She looked back at him and stared, wondering if he would even bother acknowledging her. They were friends after all, right?

"Hi, I'm Laxus," he greeted sarcastically. To the outsider, this would have looked like a friendly introduction, but Mirajane took it as an insult, and she was right to as well. Huffing, the white haired woman turned around. Laxus feigned ignorance, as he rested his head on his elbows, looking warily up at the board.

Gildarts clapped both of his hands together. "Alright, let's start," he said, grabbing a stick of chalk. He began to write on the board, but the next thing he knew, banging could be heard throughout the room. Everyone looked towards the source of the noise, Laxus included. He could see an average sized pink haired boy standing on the ledge outside the window, tapping frantically on the glass.

"Aren't we on the second floor?" Laxus muttered, not to anyone in particular. There was no emotion in his voice, as if this was a regular occurance for him. The students stared in shock for a couple of seconds, while Gildarts looked on, wide eyed. Only one girl reacted. A blonde one, Laxus noted. She walked half the room to the window, opening it, allowing the boy outside to fall into the classroom.

"Thanks Luce, you saved me!" the pink haired boy said, gratefully as he draped both of his arms around the girl, causing her face to turn as pink as the boy's hair. She pushed him off of her, much to the pink haired boy's confusion. But he didn't let it get to him, as he turned around, his eyes meeting with Laxus' eyes. The grateful look on his face faded as he squared up to the blonde man.

"Oi, you, you're in my seat," he growled, as he put one leg up on the desk. Laxus didn't take this standing down, of course, as he stood up and grabbed the boy by the collar.

"Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?" Laxus said, gritting his teeth. Mirajane looked on at the two of them, the pink haired boy's foot was on the desk, as if to exert his dominance over it, while Laxus' hand was on his collar, pulling it up, probably making it hard for the boy to breathe.

"Natsu, stop it!" a voice called out. At first, Mirajane thought it was Gildarts calling out for his student to stop acting so rude to a new pupil, but she soon realized that the voice that called out was far too feminine to be Gildarts. Laxus and the boy known as Natsu were both surprised as they turned to see who had called out. Before Natsu could fully turn around though, someone had already smacked him in the head with a book. Laxus let go of the boy's collar as Natsu fell to the ground. Laxus faced towards Natsu's attacker. It was the blonde girl that opened the window.

"Lucy, what was that for?!" Natsu winced, rubbing his head. It was clear that he was trying to sound as tough as possible. Laxus looked down at Natsu, who was still sitting on the ground. Now that he thought about it, this guy looked pretty familiar. What did the girl call him again? But before Laxus could collect his thoughts, someone was already touching him, as if to check his condition. Lucy, he recalled.

"Are you okay, did he hurt you?" Lucy asked. "I'm sorry about Natsu, he does this a lot, but... he's a nice guy, really. He can just be an idiot sometimes," Lucy told him, as Laxus looked back towards Natsu, who had already picked himself up from the ground.

"Natsu..." Laxus repeated, the name rolled off the tongue. Now that he thought about it, he knew a guy called Natsu, a long time ago. "Pink hair, ugly scarf... why didn't I notice it was you earlier, Dragneel?" Laxus scoffed, looking away. "You've grown... a little,"

"Natsu, you know Laxus?" Mirajane asked curiously. Natsu's ears perked up, like a dog that had just heard something exciting. He squared up to Laxus once more, but he didn't do anything that would have offended the bigger man. He simply stood there, examining Laxus from head to toe.

"No way..." Natsu uttered, his mouth wide open in surprise. "Laxus, is that you?" Natsu said, his voice was soft, and his knees looked like they were trembling with excitement, a wide grin etched onto his face. Natsu was the kind of guy that always had a smile on his face.

"If you had gotten to class on time, you'd know that it is me," Laxus simply stated, not looking having as excited to see Natsu as Natsu was to see him. Laxus sighed, as he looked towards Gildarts'. It was obvious that he didn't really like the attention. After all, the entire room had their eyes on him, Natsu and Lucy.

"Sir, what are we going to do about this?" Laxus said, gesturing towards him and Natsu. The seat was quite small, so there was no way that the both of them was going to fit. Gildarts looked like he was deep in thought, contemplating what the best course of action was.

"First off, Lucy, go back to your seat," he said. Lucy blushed slightly, as she tiptoed back to her desk which was at the other end of the classroom. He then looked at Laxus then at Natsu. "Alright, guess I'll have to ask Macao for a desk. His class is tiny anyway," Gildarts sighed, as he exited the classroom. He looked back at the two boys, the only two people left standing. "Natsu, sit down. Laxus, don't move,"

As promised, Gildarts returned a couple of seconds later with a brand new desk, positioning it fairly close to the top, much to Laxus' dismay. "Tch," he muttered, as he headed towards his new desk, which was practically right in front of Gildarts, the teacher. He probably wouldn't have a hard time concentrating now that he was so close to the board, but he sort of wanted to sit near Mira. Laxus' face turned cherry red for a split second as he turned around to look at her. She was diligently working away on something, much too preoccupied to notice that he was staring at her.

"Hey, you," someone whispered as they tapped Laxus on the back. The blonde man turned around to see a young man staring back at him. He had short black hair, and seemed to be wearing his uniform a lot differently from everyone else. For one, he wasn't wearing the school shirt... or any shirt for that matter.

"The hell, why are you naked?" Laxus asked, as he scanned the man from head to toe, wondering if he was only shirtless or whether he was full body nude. Fortunately, the man had some pants on. Laxus let out a silent sigh of relief, but the man didn't seem to hear him. It was just Laxus' luck to have to sit in front of a stripper.

"I see you're checking out Strauss, eh?" the man said, nudging Laxus slightly. He spoke in an incredibly hushed tone, as to not arouse the suspicion of Gildarts. Laxus raised an eyebrow. Strauss? Ah, he remembered now. Strauss was Mirajane's surname. She had introduced herself as Mirajane Strauss when the two of them had first met... about two chapters ago.

"And so what if I am?" Laxus replied, in a soft tone also. The last thing he wanted as to get in trouble on the first day of school. The half naked man frowned, and turned to look at Mirajane, before letting out a sigh.

"By the way, when were you going to say hi to your old buddy?" the half naked man asked, completely ignoring what Laxus had said earlier. He nudged the blonde man slightly.

"Do I know you?" Laxus asked, curiously.

"Gray. Gray Fullbuster," Gray replied, as he leaned in slightly

That name rang bells. Ah, now he remembered. Gray was always hanging around Natsu in the bar. That's where he knew the pink haired man as well. They were both regulars at Makarov's bar despite both of them being kids. Laxus didn't really mind though. He preferred talking to them rather than having to talk to some drunk adults.

"You've grown," Laxus murmured. Gray smirked and crashed down into his seat, albeit making little noise as he did so. He took out a lollypop and stuck it into his mouth, before taking it out again.

"So Strauss, eh? Is that the kind of girl you like?" Gray asked, putting the lollypop back in his mouth. He turned around quickly to look at Mirajane. "Pretty face, actually. Great body too. But she's a total teacher's pet," he sighed, observing the fact that she was writing something onto her notebook. He looked back at Laxus with an assuming smirk. "So, do you like her?"

But before Laxus could reply, a booming voice could be heard. "I'm not deaf, you know!" Gildarts roared, as he slammed his fist into Laxus' table, probably doing more damage to his hand than to the table, but if he was in pain, he hid it well. "Dreyar, talk about your crush on Mirajane another time. Fullbuster, get that lollypop out of your mouth and put on a shirt," he commanded.

Laxus and Gray remained quiet for the rest of the class.

The final bell rang to signal the ending of the school day. Laxus got up off the seat immediately and headed out the door, not bothering to wait for anyone else. Chances were, Mirajane probably had a shift at the bar later on tonight, so he would definitely see her. Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow would probably be there too. Now that Natsu and Gray knew he was back in town, they were both sure to make an appearance also.

Laxus let out a weak sigh as he approached the school gates. It had been a somewhat turbulent day at school. After Gildarts embarrassed him in front of the class by talking about his 'crush' on 'Strauss', Laxus wasn't able to bring himself to look back at Mirajane. He wasn't sure whether she was embarrassed as well, or whether she had just shrugged it off. The way she was working, she might not have even noticed.

Laxus could see a figure waiting by the school gate. The closer he got to the school gate, the more visible the figure became. It was a woman, for sure, and she was definitely waiting for somebody. At first, Laxus thought it was a girl waiting for her friends. However, before he had even reached the gate, he had a good idea as to who it was. It was obvious, really.

"You waiting for somebody?" Laxus questioned as he approached the white haired girl who was waiting by the gate. She was staring straight at the ground, and hadn't seen him approach her. She seemed surprised as she looked up to see Laxus talking to her. She shook her head.

"You going straight to the bar?" Laxus inquired curiously, rubbing the back of his head. He wondered whether she heard what Gildarts said earlier, but put it to the back of his mind. Even if she did, it seemed like she didn't want to talk about it.

"Yeah," she replied. The two of them exchanged quick glances. Without words, they both began walking, their destination being the Fairy Tail bar. Their entire journey was marred with silence, but for some reason, the two of them wouldn't have had it any other way. Silence was peace. Silence was best.

A/N: This is the longest chapter! I hope I haven't bored any of you, but I feel like I should introduce some of the other characters. As always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you have suggestions. Also, Awesome D.T, unfortunately, the book that Mira was reading isn't real. I just made it up, haha. Maybe the next book she'll pick up will be a real work though!