Hello everyone, chapter 3 is here!
I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters, all rights go to Hiro Mashima
Chapter 3: Cold Tune (Grey and Leon)
Fairy Tail was a busy mess today, wooden crates and barrels being moved around, tables and chairs being brought out and a large stage being set up.
The reason? The annual talent show.
Every year, Fairy Tail will host a talent show. The participants would preform for the audience, no magic allowed. There was no prize but people often had fun showing off their skills.
The event started a year after the Alvarez war as a way to unite the light guilds and raise morale.
Here we see team Natsu looking at the signup sheet.
"Wendy, are you going to sign up with Chelia this year?" Lucy asked the young dragon slayer.
"Of course Lucy-chan!" Came an eager reply, "I love putting on these performances for everyone to enjoy."
"That's good, Natsu, Grey are either of you two participating?"
The two males who had been snickering about something turned around.
"No thanks Erza, I don't really want to this year."
"Yeah, same as the stripper, not my thing."
So the pyromaniac and the cryomaniac walked away laughing about something like "If only Ganjeel's voice was as nice as his guitar."
The remaining 3 team members pondered. They had never seen either of them sing or any of the sorts.
Lucy then had a brilliant idea. "I say, how about we sign them up."
The other 2 were looking at her skeptically.
"Lucy-san, they said they don't want to and I think we should respect that." Wendy responded.
"Think of it as revenge on how many times they forced us into dumb situations."
"Even so, we really should ask them before we sign them up!"
As the blonde and bluenette argued, Erza was contemplating. She did want to see what her boy friends could do but she didn't want to disrespect their wishes. In the end...
"ERZA! WHY ARE YOU WRITING THEIR NAMES DOWN!" Shrieked Wendy.
The scarlet mage shrugged, curiosity beating out morals.
"Thank you Erza! Now we get to see them embarrass themselves in front of everyone!"
As the preparations for the show finished (rather quickly thanks to the over competitive nature of the guild), all the other guilds were arriving.
Laima Scale came around, Shelia and Wendy greeting with their courtesy hug, Grey and Leon shaking hands and Jura staring down Laxus.
Mermaid Heel was next, Milliana tackling 'Er-chan' while Kagura settled with a handshake. The cat woman then went on a search for the 3 residential exceeds.
When Blue Pegasus arrived, Ganjeel and Natsu tackled Anna. The trimen went around flirting (and failing miserably).
Sabretooth and Crime Sorcière arrived together, the 3 dragonslayers glaring at eachother, Yukino and Sorano chatting and everyone just enjoying their travel from the guilds (minus the severe motion sickness the dragonslayers experienced).
The last to arrive was Quatro Puppy (They reverted the name a while ago but Elfman beat them in the games again). They went around, being 'Wild!' and in Bacchus case, tried to drink out the entire cellar.
After some time mingling, Master Makrov stood up on the stage.
"Welcome everyone!" He began, utilizing his titan magic to make his voice louder, this is the X year of the Fairy Tail talent show! I am happy to see our friends from across the country come and enjoy this spectacle. Now enough dilly-dally, I bring you our first preformer, Mirajane Strauss!"
The crowd went wild as the ex-model (she retired after Mermaid Heel started shooting) came up to stage with her signature guitar.
Of course she sang, it was a song she composed a few years ago that used her sweet singing voice and light guitar strumming. The entire crowd was entranced and when the song ended, applause erupted from the crowd.
Ganjeel Redfox came next, everyone had made sure to bring ear plugs (and in the case of Eric, asked Richard to literally bury him), remembering how poor his singing voice is. Everything else about the song is fine, he just has the voice of a screeching viola.
"Alright, thank you for that ummm... performance Ganjeel," Makrov spoke, not making eye contact with the iron slayer, "Next up we have, oh, this is a surprise, GREY FULLBUSTER!"
The crowd clapped, not knowing the ice mage had not signed himself up.
He gritted his teeth, went up to the stage and yelled "Oi Leon! Come up here!"
Understanding that his brother figure probably did not volunteer for this, the Laima ice mage sighed and climbed up onto the stage.
"This song is called 'Hey Falcons' and it is a folk song Ur used to sing to us."
Leon looked over and understood the underlying message "we are singing that song, be prepared."
The men picked up a lacrima mic each, and Grey began:
Somewhere from beneath the mountain
A young cossack mounts his stallion
And bids farewell to his frozen homeland
And tenderly to the longtime home had
At this point, some of the audience, namely Mira, were holding in tears. But when Leon joined in for the chorus, she started sobbing.
Hey, Hey, Hey Mighty Falcon
Fly high over the river, hills and mountain
Ring, ring, ring the hear the bells ringing
Never halt their anxious singing
Natsu and Juvia's eyes widened, the former having heard Grey hum this tune and the latter having sang it in her native tongue.
Hey, Hey, Hey Mighty Falcon
Fly high over the river, hills and mountain
Ring, ring, hear the bells ringing
Keep on going ring. ring. ring.
Leon then takes over for the next verse, his guild quietly cheering in support. Mira is now not the only one crying, as both Elfman and Juvia joined in on the sobbfest. Juvia thankfully controled how much water came out of her eyes so she didn't flood the streets.
Cry, cry, cry young cossack
Cry for the home you left to up track
Cry, cry, cry no longer
You now found a place with Saunders
Juvia wiped her eyes and she realised that this variation was modified specifically to reference Deloria and the guilds. A Saunder being a name for a warrior or defender, meaning guild wizards.
She decided to join in on the chorus, but in her own tongue.
Hej, hej, hej Sokoły
Omijajcie góry, lasy, doły
Dzwoń, dzwoń, dzwoń dzwoneczku
Mój stepowy skowroneczku
Ganjeel smirked backstage. It had been a while since she used that language. He felt oddly nostalgic remebering she would use it to jibe at him behid his back.
Hej, hej, hej Sokoły
Omijajcie góry, lasy, doły
Dzwoń, dzwoń, dzwoń dzwoneczku
Mój stepowy, dzwoń, dzwoń, dzwoń
The last note of the chorus was held out to finish. After a hearty pause, a slow clap was heard from Erza. Then more joined in and soon it became thundering.
The ice mages left backstage, and was then rushed by team Natsu Juvia and Laima scale.
"Grey-sama! I didn't know you were from that kind of north!"
"Leon! Since when could you sing? It felt so strong of Love!"
"About time you showed the world how good you were, ice-prick."
The last comment came from the fire dragon slayer. Everyone looked at him incrediously. Especially Grey.
"Wait? How did you know I could sing?" He shouted back.
"Whenever I passed by your place, I heard with the help of dragon ears. Quite pleasant actually."
Grey's face turned red, and started mumbling about 'stupid flame ears' while his soon-to-be girlfriend walked away with him.
Everyone else gawked at Natsu. He had just willingly complimented his greatest rival.
Erza, being the quickest to recover asked "Since when did you compliment Grey?"
Natsu laughed, "Just because we're rivals doesn't mean I can't recognize his tallent."
The pyromaniac then walked towards Gruvia, and sat with them.
"So flame-brain, what else did you hear me singing?" Grey said, still a bit red in the ears.
"Juvia is also curious as to what other songs Grey-sama sings."
"Hmm, well there was this one about a girl named Katyusha..." Juvia's eyes were covered by shadows, thinking her Grey-sama was stolen by this 'Katyusha' person, "and there was 'Long live the Free Cossacks', Ivan Polkka and... I don't remeber any more."
Juvia's eyes widened in recognition. All of these songs (minus Katyusha) her mother used to sing with her all the time.
"Grey-sama, you and Juvia must duet some time! Juvia sang all these songs as a kid!"
"Really Juvia? And here I thought you knowing 'Hey Falcons' was impressive enough."
Natsu stood up and left, understanding that this isn't his place. So the two lovebirds conversed about their childhood, and how they came across the music. Turns out, they were both from northern nations with similar culture.
Opposite may attract, but similarities bind together.
GRUVIA! GRUVIA!
But yeah, that's a wrap. The song used is a Ukrainian-Polish folk song called Hej Sokoly. Check it out some time.
I first got this idea when I saw Juvia's character. Her accent and outfit at the time were very Slavic looking to me. Then as the story progressed, and their relationship bloomed I imagined the two dueting. I went through a lot of songs (as shown by Natsu's list) and found Hej Sokoly to be the right one.
The little phrase at the end is a chemistry reference, if you know you know.
Anyways, review and peace out!