July 24, x776

My day started like any other with the exception of Father Brock wishing me a happy birthday when I passed him in the kitchen. I did my exercises, I meditated, and then I left for the guild.

Sure, it was my birthday, but there was no point in taking the day off, I could always use more savings. This time next year I'll probably be taking a big ol' chunk out of it, and I do not want to go broke anytime soon.

I entered the guild at my usual time, as abandoned as it was. I wished Gramps a good morning that he tiredly echoed, ordered a light breakfast from Genkei, and then checked the requests.

The magic shop job was available again, I'd definitely be taking that. I could take a small ingredient gathering job as well, that extra bit of cash would be good. I wouldn't really need to use a lot of magic either, so I'd still be able to do my stamina training later too.

Get these done now, and I'd still have most of the day to myself, that'd be nice. I could spend some time with Levy after I get done, if she's not too busy with studying or burying herself in the archives again.

Heck, if my container isn't too low I could give her a spar too. She'd been wanting to practice her new spells a bit, and while I wouldn't go too easy on her, I'd probably still be a better opponent than Gray or Cana, let alone Erza.

Wait no, Gildarts just got home from that job he took a couple weeks ago. So Cana's going to be too busy pretending not to enjoy all the attention to spar with anyone. Definitely gonna have to be me to spar with Levy if she wants to.

The planning for the rest of my day took more attention than the jobs themselves, honestly. Recharging magic items was pretty mindless and so long as you had decent control, it didn't take too long. That 30,000 jewel reward was definitely worth a couple hours of boredom. The magical reagents was something a kid could have done in an hour or two as well, but it put a decent 10,000 in my pocket, so I wasn't complaining.

I'll have to see if there's any decent jobs available out of town, though. I'm allowed to leave Magnolia and its surrounding area without an adult now, and I want to see more of the world! Maybe I could find a job that would take me somewhere like Crocus. Seeing as the capital of Fiore was on my list of places to visit, and probably the easiest considering it had its own train station and wouldn't require a lot of walking or exorbitant carriage fees.

God I couldn't wait to buy myself a mode of transport. A magic mobile or motorcycle would be amazing. That was a long time from now though. Not only was there a frigging license test, but they were expensive too. The fact that only 10 percent of the population could use them meant they were basically made to order and had a cost to match. The equivalent to some cheap econo-box was over five million jewel, and the faster ones that I would actually want to buy were north of ten. It was no wonder that most mages just rented one whenever they needed to get somewhere quickly.

Shaking thoughts of a sports car and blazing along dirt roads at speeds far above what was safe from my head, I noticed something incredibly odd as I reached the guild.

It was noon, and the guild was utterly silent.

It was noon, Gildarts and all the kids were home, and it was silent as a tomb.

Then again, considering what today was…

I took a moment to work my face into the appropriate apprehension for the situation, and stepped into the darkened guild hall.

"Guys? Where is everyone?" I called out in what I hoped was a convincing tone. I heard a giggle and before I knew it the lights were flipped on and I was nearly rendered deaf.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELIO!"

I blinked in reflex as I rubbed my ears. The guild had been decorated in the few hours I was gone, a birthday banner hung from the second floor, and streamers were strung from the rafters. There was a ton of food set up on the bar and different tables. My face almost hurt from how hard I was smiling at the effort they put in.

You'd think the effect would have been ruined by them doing the same thing for Gray and Levy's birthdays.

You would be wrong.

"You guys…" I said faintly, "You guys are the best!" I shouted, the guild roared their appreciation as they broke off into conversation or raided the buffet around them.

I mean, to be honest, I probably should have seen this coming a lot earlier than I actually did, but it was touching all the same.

The party itself devolved pretty quickly into the usual Fairy Tail shenanigans, I don't even know who started it, honestly. One moment, I was standing in front of Genkei, ready to get the first slice of cake and the next Reedus was on top of the bar covered in the remains of it.

There was a deathly silence for but a moment…

Then it was chaos.

Reedus jumped off the bar and into the crowd, followed by Genkei, who was wading in with angry shouts, a cake knife in his hand and murder in his eyes. Macao and Wakaba were squaring off, Krov got tossed out a window, Master was looking very annoyed, and Gildarts was laughing like a madman.

I was still standing there, plate in hand as I tried to process the anger that was suddenly coursing through my veins.

"My… birthday cake…" I said faintly.

"Uh Helio? You okay?" Enno asked. I didn't answer her, instead turning on my heel with a growl.

I wanted that cake damnit!

With a roar of rage, I joined in my first Fairy Tail guild brawl.

"Wait Helio, it was an accident I swear!"

"DIE!"

Once I got into the spirit, it was actually a lot of fun!

Well, Niggy didn't have much fun, but then he shouldn't have ruined my cake should he?

July 28, x776

It took three whole days to fix the guild hall, such was the mess we made of it in our brawl.

Master was very upset with us.

I found out what that was.

I did not want to know what that was.

I am now cursed with that knowledge, and I shall hope I never need to see that again.

I shuddered in remembrance.

Thankfully with the guild cleaned up and the Master mostly over his anger after he'd appropriately punished us -I shuddered again-, the four of us could finally get down to what we had intended to do before my party had devolved into a brawl.

I was old enough to leave Magnolia on my own, which meant my friends and I had a promise to keep.

On July 28, x776, Cana, Gray, Levy and I gathered around our usual table, and formed our very first team.

It wasn't exactly the most perfect formation, of course. We argued over who should be leader, Cana because she'd been in the guild longest or me because I was the one who could actually leave Magnolia. I won that argument by simply reminding them that I was the only one who could take the jobs and they were coming with me, but Cana could be my second in command.

Instead of ending it though, that started a whole new argument.

Now that half of our team had a ranking of any sorts, Gray and Levy both argued that they should have one too. Thankfully, Levy was easy to please, being made our Head of Research, and Gray mostly gave up after Cana and I both offered him the prestigious title of Stripper.

As leader, I made the executive decision that our team did not need a name, and as such, we would not spend the rest of the day arguing over what it would be.

Instead, we informed Makarov of our team-up, and after a few moments of staring, he sighed and agreed that we could all go on requests outside of Magnolia together.

"It violates the spirit of the rule while also following the letter. I can't really complain, I suppose." He'd said before laughing and downing his mug of beer. "Just don't go getting in over your heads, alright?"

Enno looked down from where she was dancing on a nearby table, "Don't go fighting anymore ancient evils for a few more years, at least?" She laughed, "You'll give us all heart attacks before we're thirty."

"It's not like we went looking for them…" I grumbled as Levy assured her that she had no wish whatsoever to fight anything like that ever again.

Team formed and ribbing over, we were a team now, and that meant we needed to do a job!

The four of us huddled in front of the request board and looked over the available quests, there were no more restrictions, we could do whichever job we wanted!

Huh… all of a sudden I understood why Nab was so indecisive.

Without being limited to Magnolia and the surrounding area, there were a lot of jobs to choose from. Non-Combat jobs like fortune telling, magic tutoring, translation and cataloging old magical tomes. There were ingredient gathering jobs from retrieving magical plants from the top of snowy mountains, or even from the caldera of a volcano! There was no less variance in the combat jobs either, anything from escorting cargo and people through exotic and dangerous locales to monster subjugation or even fighting an entire dark guild!

If we chose those last two though, Gramps would probably have an aneurysm.

"What about this one?" Gray asked, pointing at a request.

Bandit Capture

RANK: B

Our roads are being plagued by highwaymen, their presence is scaring off merchants and potential tourists! Please help us! See Hu Pockett in Sharon Village for details.

PLACED BY: The people of Sharon Village

REWARD: 250,000 Jewel

"Looks good to me!" I declared, pulling it from the board. I'd need to consult my map of Fiore to pinpoint its exact location, but it was definitely a ways away from Magnolia, and the reward wasn't half bad either. 62,500 jewel between the four of us was a lot of money.

Taking the request to Master Makarov, he looked it over for a second before nodding and handing it back. "I'd recommend getting your things together and leaving in the morning, you don't want to be fighting a hideout full of bandits in the dark." We nodded, "Good to see you're actually thinking things through rather than simply running off the second I approved it."

The four of us walked back towards our table discussing what all we would be needing for this request. Thankfully, even though Sharon Village didn't have its own train station, it wasn't in some remote far flung region of Fiore. Provided the job itself only took one day and barring any catastrophes, we'd be gone for three days.

Probably best to pack for a week, just in case.

Of course as we were discussing the logistics of getting there and back, something none of us had thought of was brought to our attention.

"Wow Cana, you got Gildarts to agree to you being gone that long? I'm surprised he's okay with it." Macao's sentence was flippant, just a throwaway thought he'd mentioned as we were about to go get packed.

Right, Gildarts.

That was a thing.

"Well Helio, since you're the leader and all, I guess you're going to be the one explaining this to Gildarts!" Gray said obnoxiously. I glared at him as we trudged out of the guild hall. Gildarts was a complication I hadn't even begun to consider when it came to Cana being on our team.

He still went on a lot of requests, but he was always gone for a month at most. Knowing his daughter was waiting for him ensured that he was headed home a lot quicker than ever before.

He'd allowed Cana to go on jobs outside of Magnolia before, usually with Macao and Wakaba or on rare occasions, Laxus tagging along to keep an eye on her. This would be the first time she'd left the area for days without someone he considered responsible enough to watch after his daughter.

This could be hairy.

Or not.

Wanting to put my best foot forward, I had all four of us present a united front to him when we arrived at their house. Cana had led us in and called for Gildarts to meet us in the kitchen, as that was the only room in their house with enough seating to accommodate the five of us.

He'd walked in with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile as he saw us all sat on one side of the table facing him, and plopped himself into the chair across from us.

I mentioned the formation of our team to him, along with the fact that Master allowed us to leave the area on jobs together, and it had very obviously clicked why we were here explaining things to him.

"How are the communication cards coming?" Gildarts asked, turning to Cana. She blinked for a moment before smiling widely as she pulled out a pair of cards from her requip space and placed one on the table.

Still not saying anything, she made the card in her hand glow, and the one on the table began to vibrate intensely enough that it was steadily moving for the edge of the table. Gildarts grabbed it and smiled widely when Cana's voice echoed through it.

"I'll tell you what." He said after he finished gushing over how much he loved his "talented and adorable little girl." "So long as you call me at least once every hour-"

"-every other day."

"Two hours"

"Once a day."

"Six hours"

"Once in the morning, once at night."

"Twice a day and whenever you arrive or leave somewhere." Cana rolled her eyes but nodded nonetheless. Gildarts smiled triumphantly, "Then you can go on missions that last up to a week."

I blinked. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be." I had thought that Cana would be arguing with him about it all night at best, not a negotiation like this that lasted all of half an hour.

Gildarts rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Master got onto me for being overprotective recently. Cana can take care of herself, I wasn't much older than her when I started going on missions that took at least two weeks to finish. At least I'll know where she is." He laughed, "Besides, she'd go no matter what I said, whether I grounded her or not. She's too much like me for her own good." Cana nodded smugly. With Gildarts' approval, the four of us went over the plan one last time. Gildarts was both proud of how seriously we were taking it, and laughing at how seriously we were taking it.

Still, with parental approval secured for Cana, we could finish preparing everything else.

Was I taking this far too seriously? Yes.

Was I being paranoid in preparing a week's worth of stuff for a trip that in all actuality would probably take three days at most? Probably.

Did I care? Absolutely not.

July 30, x776

So far everything was going very painlessly, honestly. Aside from Gildarts crying when Cana got on the train -which we really should have seen coming-, travel to Sharon Village had been uneventful.

The job itself was easy enough, the mayor of the village had given us rough sketches of the men that had been seen, and informed us that exactly one of their members, the leader, used magic. We spent the entire day tracking down their hideout and taking down the few bandits we could find within just to learn that the leader and the rest of his men were off making some kind of "deal".

With that statement -which was in no way ominous, not at all-, we'd tied up the bandits and carted them back into town on their own carriage just in time to meet their leader standing in the village square with far more men than we'd found at their base. Turns out he'd learned about the job request, and he was not happy. Not one bit.

The fight that had broken out was chaotic. His men were the poster children for cannon fodder, and he wasn't very strong either, but he made the next few minutes very confusing. He had some kind of sensory magic, and took obnoxious pleasure in subjecting us to the unholy lovechild of a rave on molly and a flashbang.

Which his men were immune to.

Because of course they were.

When the noise and light faded away and I held their unconscious leader by his collar, I finally took note of what had happened.

The village square had once been a very nice garden with very beautiful hedges that were trimmed to perfection with different market stalls interspersed in the space between. It had all been centered around an ornate topiary in the shape of the woman that had supposedly bred the bushes the village was so proud of.

Was being the operative word.

It was now a torn up, iced over, burning wreck. The topiary was just gone.

I laughed sheepishly at all the angry looks we were getting.

"Heh…heh… oops?"

July 31, x776

So, good news! We got home in the three days I thought it would take!

Bad news!

We lost out on the entire reward sans travel expenses, and Master was now tearing a strip off our hides with the verbal lashing he'd been giving us for the past five minutes.

Turns out they had been sure to send a complaint to the Magic Council as soon as we left, and they'd not minced words about it either. Gramps had been livid when he saw the amount of property damage we'd incurred, and he was not shy in letting us know exactly what he thought about it.

Finally, after almost eight full minutes of being screamed at, he held up the complaint he'd been quoting and incinerated it. "I say forget what they think! You did the job, you did it well, and you returned home without a scratch! That is a job well done to me!" We cheered at his sudden praise. "Just one more thing you four." We leaned forward in anticipation.

"WATCH WHERE YOU AIM NEXT TIME!" With that he walked away grumbling about mini Gildarts and how property damage must be contagious.

"Scary…" The four of us murmured in unison.

It seemed like Erza was the only person aside from Gramps who hadn't thought the results of our first job was absolutely hilarious.

Where everyone else had congratulated us in some way, usually with uproarious laughter or snickering, Erza had glared and told us to be more careful. Apparently the stress wasn't good for the Master's heart or something.

I had expected a far more physical confrontation, but I suppose being her regular sparring partner, it was a lot harder for a point to be made via fists.

I did notice a bump on Gray's forehead later, so I suppose she got physical with someone.

Still, it could have been worse, it's not like they made us stay and replant the garden or anything.

I did notice a job request about a plant mage helping them regrow their hedges when I checked the board a week later though.

Curiously, it specifically forbade sun mages from taking it.

Can't imagine why.

August 24, x776

August 24, x775.

It was an unremarkable day to many, a day like any other.

They got up, went about their normal routines and went to bed. Maybe they spent time with their family, maybe they met up with a friend or a lover.

For me though, it was a day that I would never, could never forget.

I woke up at my usual time and forced myself through my daily exercises as best I could. Today was a day where everything just felt wrong. I wanted nothing more than to leap back into bed and sleep until tomorrow, but I couldn't. I had things that needed to be done.

I'd already cleaned out my requip space for it, giving up now would be a waste of time.

For the first time since I joined the guild, I didn't head in first thing in the morning. Instead of heading into the heart of Magnolia, I turned around and walked out of it. I had a different destination in mind.

The hills outside Magnolia allowed for some wonderful views, this one in particular had beautiful sunsets. I had found it on an ingredient gathering request and decided it would be the perfect place for what I had planned.

There was something about the way the surrounding hills framed the sunset just so, that made them so much more beautiful than watching it from the top of the guild.

They would have loved it.

With that thought in mind, I set about my work for today, intent on getting it over with.

Blueprints, wood, nails and a hammer were brought out of my requip space and I began.

I'd had to commission the rest of it, but this one required some assembly.

The sun was on the wrong side of noon by the time I was finished. I was nearly out of nails, and if it weren't for Solar Power, both my thumbs would be broken, but I was finished all the same.

It wasn't the exact style of shrine that he would have had in the temple, but it was the best approximation I could manage considering I couldn't exactly build one in the church. .

I lit a couple of sticks of incense and stuck them in the holders on either side of it and bowed my head, saying a small prayer before I stood and began the preparations for my parents.

Where Master Flare's shrine had to be built by hand, I had to commission a couple's monument for Mom and Dad. It was expensive, but worth every single jewel in my opinion.

Dart

Anna M. Blaise R.

July 31, x737 March 17, x738

August 24, x775

"Brilliant lights still cease to burn"

I placed them side by side on that hilltop outside Magnolia, as perfect as I could make it. I sat down between them, and for the first time since I had met Macao, Wakaba and Cana, I let myself cry.

Tomorrow I would wake up at the crack of dawn, I would go through my daily exercises, and I would walk into the guild with a smile. In a week, I would gladly celebrate my one year anniversary as a member of Fairy Tail, no signs of sadness to be seen.

Today though, I would let myself break down between the monuments to the most important people in my life. I would pretend they were right beside me, that they could hear me as I told them about my adventures. I would pretend that the wind held promises of love and pride.

I would be sad today, so that tomorrow I could be happy.

A/N: Phew, that ending got pretty fucking heavy, yeah? I didn't mean for there to be mood whiplash there at the end, but this chapter is probably the best place for it, considering we're nearing the end of x776 and the beginning of a very important year in the Fairy Tail timeline.

Thanks as always, to FFN user obliviousss, without talking my ideas through with him, this story probably would have stalled out a while ago.

FFN doesn't want to play nice with my formatting for the gravestone for some reason. Just imagine a few more spaces, or go look at the chapter on AO3 if you want the proper look of it.

See y'all next time!