A/N
Sorry of the formatting is a little weird. Thegreatroshen and I had some complications this week.
Enjoy!
Katla
I slept for about a day after I removed my botched filter and replaced it with a more succinctly worded privacy filter. Ironically, simply putting a PG rating in place would have shut out everything that I didn't want to see. But I had been tired, filled to the gills with second hand embarrassment, and so freaking done that I had over thought all of it and tied myself up in some terrible knots. And not having them felt very good now.
I rolled over, rubbing at my eyes. Staring up at the ceiling of Lucy's apartment. Levy slept on the floor on a futon Lucy kept under her bed. I was on the couch with Wendy, and Carla was tucked under her own small blanket with an equally sized pillow.
Thinking without that block, what I had put in place myself was a remarkable sensation. Like thoughts could actually take their necessary routes instead of tiptoeing around the blockades. An uncomfortable realization had been plaguing me throughout my 'update'
If I'd put that bad filter up before Tenrou, I'd never have known something was wrong.
It had been Gajeel and Levy's plight and the open acting on their feelings that had alerted me to there being any kind of trouble on Tenrou with both Morgana and myself deliberately not looking at events on the island. And the anti-romance filter would have made me remain totally unaware of what was going on. Laxus and Mest would never have warped in to help. Which could have cascaded into one of them actually not coming home-
But they all are home now.
I told the fatalist thought firmly, pulling myself out of the scary pit of 'what if's' that neither Morgana or I really liked but had gotten too many good ideas out of to ignore completely.
They were all home safe, and the corrupted filter was gone. Jellal had helped me pick apart the too comprehensive and capable spell, which had taken considerable effort on both our parts. Once that was done, I had gone into a deep meditation and had organized my thoughts in an Occlumency exercise with Morgana to put everything where it belonged. Then I had Mest scour my memory and Simon my active thoughts to make sure there was not any lingering traces of the sentient spell who I was naming Petra Pan, the thing that wanted me to stay a child forever..
My evidence that it was working was the appearance of a new ship during my discussion with the Darkness Mage, now Fairy Tail 4th Guild Master.
-vVv-
I was sitting across from Simon as I worked through the steps to connect something with a romance. Simple at first. Gajeel and Levy's new closeness meant they were together.
Gale for life!
"Ok I heard that That's what it's supposed to be like? But I have to ask:" Simon inquired, head tilting slightly. "Where did the name come from?"
I deadpanned at him.
"I have a ship happy fangirl living in my head who exists independent of rhyme, reason and hormones."
It said a lot about how Simon and I worked that he accepted that without another word.
"What are the other names you've got?"
"Uh. Elfgreen. Elfman and Evergreen. AlBis, Alzack and Bisca. Natsu and Lucy, Nalu."
"So it doesn't need to be an established relationship?"
I shook my head, massaging a throbbing spot on my forehead.
"No. It only really gets bad if there are open gestures or things that could be considered reciprocation on both sides if it's unspoken."
Simon hummed, folding his hands in front of him.
"Well...I suppose this does explain a lot about the last few years."
I went very still and looked at him very closely.
"Simon...Are you dating someone?"
His small smile grew a little broader. A glimmer of mischief behind his glasses.
He is.
Now I was invested. But there was only a short list of candidates. Simon was in the guild hall a lot. There were only so many people that he had a lot of contact with. And there weren't that many girls in the guild now during our time skip. Kagura was his sister, he had practically raised myself and Wendy, he wouldn't go there-
Someone who has shared life experience in being subject to a Dark Guild's control and raising intelligent, stubborn teenage girls.
I wheezed for a second.
"Oh my- Ultear!?"
Simtear has been in progress, long distance for two years now.
-vVv-
My first question had been what Kagura thought about this. And apparently his younger sister had met and liked Ultear. Well enough that she had approved of her brother dating a wanted felon. Quite refreshingly open minded of her, I thought.
I still wanted a long term moment to process and safely compartmentalize everything that I had been missing. It wasn't like I was trying to install several years of updates overnight. I'd have been out of it for several days. I was just adding a new program to run and process new information as it came in. So upon telling this to Wendy and Lucy, the latter had mandated a sleepover at her place in case something came up and I needed help with something. I had caught a whisper of Lucy thinking about having the team over for another sleepover/ breakfast tomorrow. The first one we had had still held a high place in her memories.
She may have liked having her space, but I know there was a lonely little girl inside Lucy who liked having friends over. Just for the sake of being with them.
I sighed and closed my eyes again. It was still very early in the morning and no one sane would be up and about for several hours yet. The removal had gone smoothly, it was a successful psychic operation and I was now fully integrated and ready to face being a normal adolescent.
That was relatively painless.
So the day looked like it would be productive and relieving in many ways to be free from that worry.
-vVv-
In hindsight, I really should have known better than to think that.
-vVv-
Natsu's coming to check on Lucy~
The long absent, pink, lovesick voice cooed in the back of my mind. Emitting from roughly the same place where I registered Morgana's. My usual companion gave a small sigh of relief.
I almost missed them.
Apparently only Morgana's aid had kept my filter from doing permanent harm to my own emotions. And by extension, hers. I remained still and poured all my focus into giving her the tightest, longest hug that I could.
Morgana had split from me because she had chosen to not have emotions in effort to avoid pain. Her instinctive use of Story Magic had made my personality as a new lease on life because she felt she wouldn't recover the ability to feel and be normal with how our life had been early on. My sleep deprived, thoughtlessness could have set her back to that numb, empty state she had been in as G2.0, the identity that had replaced the baby girl she had once been. And it might also have harmed me in the long run. She had utilized her growing capacity for emotion, and her declared purpose to protect me and my happiness to alter the intent of the spell to keep our other emotions from getting smothered and instead relegated them to the extreme back burner.
I had wanted a good night's sleep. I had wanted to let Alzack and Bisca be happy without feeling awkward or embarrassed because they were doing normal things that people who were in love did. I never wanted to hurt myself or Morgana like that.
You didn't know any better than I.
For all she was technically older, a tumultuous childhood had equalized us in terms of maturity. I then heard a faint chuckle from Morgana.
What is it?
The usual. Remember? Natsu is going to arrive on Lucy's property in under a minute.
Nalu gleefully started to dance, an indistinct but very upbeat and cheerful presence in the area designated for the ships and other relationships. There was usually only room for one to register at a time to keep things organized. Morgana kept running tabs on the queue and sorted them by importance.
Oh. Natsu's coming to check on Lucy. I smiled, absently brushing some hair off of my cheek. Nice that some things haven't changed.
Sting and Rogue are also coming since they didn't find you and Wendy at Fairy Hills.
When will they get here?
Right about...now.
I chalked it up to her growing capacity for emotion, but Morgana seemed subtly gleeful at informing me of this. I froze under the covers, seeing it in my minds eye. It was something like an out of body experience where I could see everything playing out like it was a scene from a movie.
Natsu was entering through his usual spot, the window over Lucy's bed. But on the other wall to the right of that, where he wouldn't have seen him approaching, Sting was climbing up the wall to the window over Lucy's dresser.
Natsu slid the window open and Happy carried him inside, muffling delighted snickers. He lighted on the floor silently, careful to not step on Levy. Then the Fire Dragon Slayer sensed something amiss and looked around. Which was when he caught sight of Sting perched on the sill of the closed window. The temperature rose slightly as he saw a stranger intruding on his territory.
The stare off between the returned wizard and his at one point admirer-
No past tense. Sting still holds Natsu in very high regard.
The air was so tense, I found it hard to breathe. Something warm and hot was wrapping over us, even though the fire had burned down over the night. I felt like an egg in a nest with a protective dragon looming over it. And contrary to both of their usual personalities, they were practically silent. It was not normal for either of them to be quiet.
How much longer can I pretend to be asleep?
Morgana showed Natsu contemplating, which was very unnerving, and just observing Sting with a level, calm stare. Looking from him, to the various girls scattered about Lucy's apartment. Looking for a reaction from the White Slayer. First Lucy, then Levy. To his credit, the younger wizard didn't waver throughout the silent interrogation.
Why them first?
The girls he knows are taken. Gale and Nalu were cheering in blissfully silent approval. Morgana exercising her new ability to control their volume.
My pulse was starting to pick up, and I reached telekinetic fingers for my pen to be ready in case the dragon slayers decided to start a fight in Lucy's apartment.
I didn't think he was that cognizant of relationships.
Fairy Tail is his territory, the people, not the actual property. And Natsu looks after it. If Levy showed resistance to Gajeel's attention, Natsu would have interfered to get him to leave her alone.
Since Natsu normally fought with Gajeel at a moment's notice or less, I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to tell that his motivations were any different. But whatever Natsu was looking for, he didn't see the reaction from Sting that he expected.
Which was seemingly a good thing. The air lightened considerably. I saw him look at myself and Wendy then back to the observer. Happy was trotting around the room, investigating the changes in the familiar space and not seeming to notice the White Slayer in the window.
Then my attention was brought back to Sting the faintest tinge of a sparkle appeared on his cheeks.
In my omniscient view, I saw Natsu's face split with a grin that showed a little too much fang.
He's just met Sting and he knows that he sparkles when he blushes? Where is Rogue?
Waiting for a reasonable hour to knock rather than waking you up. Lector and Frosch are with him.
As Wendy grew older, one of her personal projects included making a consumable version of the Troia spell that she worked into a pill form and used as a personal anti-nausea medicine. The bonus perk? It also worked on her. As she was capable of her own flight, and meant to be, she didn't get as queasy as the Twin Dragons on moving objects. She often gave them their own doses since they would ride the train to come by and hangout as often as they did. So I wasn't really surprised that they were here now. Nor at their behavior. Since they would have stopped by Fairy Hills first and then likely have been directed here by Kagura.
Something dark wrapped around Sting's middle and yanked him down from the window, his grip leaving score marks on the frame as he was pulled back to the ground. Natsu quieted his laughter by stuffing his fist into his mouth and gleefully pulled out a marker to doodle on Lucy's face as she slept. Completely moving past the bizarre experience without so much as batting an eye.
I get why you're doing it. But I'm still gonna mess with it.
I grabbed my pen, shaking off the strange trance like vision I had been caught in, and cracked an eye open to scrawl a few runes to transfer whatever Natsu tried to put onto Lucy's face to his instead.
If Sting and Rogue were here, then it would only be right to see them. They had undoubtedly heard about Fairy Tails return and come to see for themselves.
Not quite.
And as proof that there was more that she wasn't telling me, Morgana held onto the magical connection that tried to spring into life.
Gana, what are you doing? I have to see if the new filter works.
It does. But I've waited too long for this to let it happen that easily.
Let what happen?
Happy's laughter woke everyone up when he saw the impressive mustache and monocle that Natsu had drawn on himself in trying to prank Lucy. I nudged Wendy who was trying to burrow under the blankets, the girl did like her sleep when she could get it. Carla was stirring and stretching, dressed in tiny elegant pajamas.
"Hey Wendy, the boys are here."
She groaned and started to stretch.
"M'kay. Give me a minute..."
Then everyone realized what I had said.
Levy stumbled on the way to the bathroom and turned back towards us. Carla froze, eyes blowing wide and Lucy paused in getting out of be, giving me a deer in the head lights stared. All three were now looking at me and Wendy with fixed attention.
"The boys?"
Lucy repeated in a strange tone.
"What boys?" Levy plopped down on the pullout bed, eyes glittering with eagerness.
"None! They are both far too young!" Carla's fur was puffed up in indignation. Wendy had been on the verge of emerging from temporary hibernation but was now clutching her blankets around her with a death grip, completely concealing herself from view. Natsu was leaning against the bed, snickering as Happy tried to calm Carla.
"It's been seven years, Carla. They're not babies anymore."
But she wasn't interested in listening. She was on the warpath. I felt like her raised hackles should be crackling with energy.
"I am well aware of that, Tomcat. But that doesn't change that they are only 17!"
Age isn't the issue. It's that there is someone in our lives that you don't know or trust yet.
Lucy was hopping on the bed now, ready for all the gossip. She seemed to have completely glossed that Natsu had broken into her apartment again.
She gave him a key. Decided it wasn't worth fighting with him over it every time.
And boy if that didn't make Nalu go wild in the back of my head, so enthused, and thrilled that Morgana couldn't mute it's squeals of delight.
She likewise gave Gray (and Erza) blanket permission to stop by whenever needed.
This made a very small but devoted presence named 'Graylu' start to beam. Then shiver as Gruvia loomed over it menacingly.
Two inalienable facts: Juvia really, really likes Gray. And Gray totally would go out with Lucy if it were anyone but Natsu that was interested in her. These are facts, and you both can sit down!
They didn't look like they were going to resolve this peacefully. I steeled myself for the inevitable migraine.
"What are their names and how did you meet them?"
I was distracted by the soon to be warring entities in my head and so I would have answered Lucy's question automatically.
"They're-"
Except Wendy uncoiled like a spring, shooting out from under the blankets and slapping her hand over my mouth. I was surprised to see her cheeks were burning bright pink and her eyes were a little rosy too...
Huh, you can Dragon Force out of embarrassment? Interesting.
I made a questioning noise behind her hand. And she glared at me.
"No."
I protested, still not able to say a word, but communicating my point rather effectively I felt.
"I said no. I'm not awake enough to deal with this."
-vVv-
Rogue was the one who knocked at the door. It had scarcely opened before Frosch bounded through, leaping into Wendy's arms. Carla had been ready to give whoever came through the cold shoulder just on principle. But Frosch was Frosch. And therefore the exception to many rules.
"Frosch slow down!"
Another male voice complained from behind Rogues knees. Lector, Sting's small magenta and white Exceed friend, squeezed through and scowled in put upon fondness at the onesie wearing cat.
"It's rude to charge into someone else's house without being invited." He minded the threshold line, though he wanted to enter and drag the other Exceed out again. Frosch merely nuzzled into Wendy's neck happily. We had gotten dressed to go see Rogue and Sting and give them an update on what would be going on for us lately. But...
I only saw Rogue standing in the hallway. The White Slayer was conspicuously absent.
"Ok, I know he was here. Where did Sting go?"
Lector's ears twisted back the way cats did to portray displeasure and his eyes narrowed as he looked at me.
"He wouldn't come up. Didn't say why."
Because Rogue got accepted as a young visitor to Natsu's territory years ago and Sting is a new face. He's automatically being cautious about encroaching now that he knows he's here.
"We heard the news. It's good to see you returned safely. They missed you a great deal."
Rogue addressed Natsu and Lucy politely. The Celestial Spirit mage took the reins of the situation. Happy was now looking at Lector with wide, unassuming eyes. Carla was regarding him and Rogue with more suspicion.
"Rogue! It's so good to see you too. And of course this little angel. Look at you, you got so big!" Lucy cooed, patting Frosch's head who gave her a beaming smile, letting go of Wendy to politely shake her hand with both his paws.
"Frosch thinks so too!" The Sky Dragon Slayer was always in perfect agreement that Frosch deserved all the love and attention he could get. But she was shifting slightly.
"Yeah, So I hate to cut the meet and greet short, but I do have a shift later today..."
I caught what Wendy wanted.
Time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast with the boys before she had to scrub up for her work at the clinic. I slipped out the door, watching Lector as his hackle rose slightly as he glared at me. I trusted he was mature enough to not swipe at me or hiss in public.
"We've gotta get going, Lucy. Sorry for skipping on breakfast-"
"Oh no, don't worry about it! Don't worry about it at all, Fae!" Her brown eyes were shining with excitement as she waved me and Wendy on. "I want to hear all about it later!"
"Same!" Levy added, winking at me.
Why are they so excited? It's just Rogue and Sting.
Because under normal circumstances this would be the sort of thing you would do for a date or romantic outing.
Oh...
That certainly put a different spin on the morning.
Especially when I considered that they had to have been riding the train for a few hours already just to get here, let alone this early... The newly opened part of my head that was romance friendly was nodding approvingly in agreement with Morgana.
I mostly felt sheepish because the boys and their Exceed partner coming by for breakfast, or any meal...wasn't exactly unusual. We were now down in the street, walking together towards my and Wendy's preferred cafe.
"What time did you guys leave to get here at this hour?"
I addressed this to Sting who was walking closest to me. The blond looked a little run down now that I was paying attention. There were bags under his eyes and he was in a more of a tired slump than his usual relaxed posture.
"We were taking care of some bandits near Shirotsume. We were already pretty much half way here when we heard the news." He cocked his head and gave me a crooked smile. "So, you got your guild back. Might actually stand a chance against Sabertooth now."
Oh he was coming in sassy and I was here for it! I replied with a saccharine smile.
"It's still my lead, you oversized kitten."
He had leaned into the competition thing we had started up a few months ago after more than half a year of vehement disagreement and separation. He had come down practically every other weekend and kidnapped me from my regular schedule to do something other than work. Like learning how to ice fish. Or going to Oak Town's annual Snow Sculpture contest. And then going sledding/snowboarding. (Sting cheated with his Repulsor hands, letting him keep his balance even on unreal turns and upping his momentum for tricks. That was the only reason he won, and I was going to die on that hill.)
"Not anymore, Princess. I managed to Raid with another guild member."
He said this very smugly. And with good reason. It was an extraordinarily difficult thing to do and took a lot of skill. And was something I was very much invested in making this more accessible. Once it became more accessible, then I could find ways to make the applications extend beyond combat.
"Really?" I couldn't hide the excitement I felt at this. The phenomenon of Unison Raids was rare enough that there wasn't a whole lot of research data.
"With Dobengal. That makes three people for me."
My book flicked open to the notes section and I began to compile new questions and review old ones.
"He's got Spatial Magic, right? Focusing on Teleportation. How did that combo turn out?"
"Let's just say mirrors are a lot of fun."
He then went into a technical break down of the combination. Bouncing around a series of reflections rather like Haku did in Naruto on the bridge with his ice mirrors.
So I had a few working theories on Unison Raids and Sting happened to mention, just in passing, that he had managed to pull off a Unison Raid with Rogue not just once but repeatedly. This had resulted in my taking up most of an entire day grilling him about the details to pin down my own method. Inspired by my, Jellal and Wendy's accidentally destroying Nirvana instead of just shutting it down.
Magic was about intent. Unison raids were unique combinations of a spellcasters talents that were closely overlayed with one another, but also had enough inherent friction to create a maelstrom effect. Two currents of power clashing and forming a spiral that pulled more strongly on the world around them. In order for ocean currents to form a maelstrom, not only did conditions have to be just right, but the two forces also had to have the proper balance to get the desired effect.
And the wizards who could sync up like that enough to read what was the proper amount of magic power, it was not just an even split down the middle, but a varying amount through the spell, were extremely rare. But Unison Raids didn't need two perfect wizards, it just needed one really adaptable one.
And Sting happened to have a weird way of being really freaking good at syncing himself with his partner enough to achieve the desired end goal. His control was immaculate, and I suspected he was able to discern the patterns of energy in the air because they were similar enough to light to register in his senses.
"Ok, point to you. But...you haven't seen what Wendy and I can do yet."
He leaned in, just as interested in this.
"Oh?"
I smirked at him, fingers dancing over the binding of my spellbook.
"It's a secret."
"If you meant to keep it a secret. I'd never have known about it. So spill, Princess."
A voice cleared his throat pointedly from down below and I realized that we had been ignoring Lector. Or he had been ignoring me, and I hadn't obliged by asking for his attention.
"You're talking to me now, Lector?"
"No." he said mulishly, turning his nose up and away, but still glaring at me from the corner of his eye. Sting sighed, bending and picking up the cat who instantly snuggled into his partners hold and gave me a pointed look. As though he had won something.
What?
"Buddy, you're being childish."
"So's she."
"She's doing exactly what you asked."
Lector didn't like me. And he had made a fuss over my talking to him first. Or I was pretty sure that meant he didn't like me. It changed over time. He would warm up to me as we spent time together, ie: he would forget to be such a brat and behave normally, and then after we didn't see each other for a bit, he would revert back to his original stance and attitude. Rinse, lather, repeat.
I chalked it up to something between a child protesting their parents attention being elsewhere, or a pet despising their owner's friend. The Exceed adored Sting over all else. I could see it sitting wrong with him that I had managed to come out on top as many times as I had. Though admittedly not through always what he thought were honest means.
Traps. He doesn't like when I use runes to set traps.
Lector actually had a remarkably rigid sense of what was right and wrong and what was fair. So in addition to him needing to share his friends' attention, I wasn't someone he had respect for because of how I had learned to apply my skills. It reminded me a lot of Sting, actually. The clear cut, absolute definitions of what was right and wrong, acceptable or abhorrent. L I was thinking the moral polarization was part of him using dominantly holy and good aligned magic.
I flipped through the loose pages that were in the Heavy Duty Index of my spellbook. Putting in some shorthand notes about the Unison Raid theories that Stings data could help me form into something testable. And checking my own calendar.
Sting was right, about one thing in particular: If I hadn't intended to demonstrate something, I would never had dropped a teaser to him. I intended on talking Wendy into doing another test run of my experimental way of hacking Unison Raids before she ran off for her shift. He was probably one of the only other people qualified by way of experience with Unison Raids. While most senior, experienced wizards had seen one, and knew enough about it to identify one, the number of people who had actually pulled one off was rare. And those who could do so in combat were even more unusual.
By combining my modest talent with Archive Magic, I could create an opening into my spell book, an energy receptive portal that would receive power. That power would go to a specific spell of my choosing. Once the spell reached the required amount, it would shut down and be primed for use on one of my spellbooks pages, scribing a magic circle and the story linked to the spell. Once I was ready to use it, I would tear the page right out of the book and throw it as needed.
The particular one I was thinking of would require my ninja headband to access properly.
And it did tear me up a little bit inside every time I tore a page out of my book...but I put that in there at Morgana's suggestion:
I was very attached to and dependent on my spellbook and what it held. But if I got too protective of it, I wouldn't be able to use it as I intended it to be used when I designed it. So I had to be willing to expose it to damage. The tear out pages would regrow over a day or two, or less if I invested some time in rewriting the story and the magic circle on it.
Sting was still talking with Lector in a low, patient tone and Lector's irritation was fading as he got his partner's attention and forgave me a little.
He still looks tired.
It was also an overcast day so he wouldn't be getting as much of a boost from the natural sunlight as the day wore on.
I moved away from my Heavy Duty index to the Soundtrack section of my spell book. I began humming the tune to 'I'm Walking on Sunshine' with a light application of magic to fuel my desired result. A few minutes later, before we got to the café, the sun was peeking through the clouds.
If Juvia could make it rain on a whim by shedding a few tears, I felt it couldn't be that harmful if I touched the weather in a few small ways. It would only be localized to my area, thank you magic for playing merry hell with modern meteorologists. So it wouldn't do anything in the long run. Except give Sting a little mid morning pick me up after what looked like a rough night.
He let Lector snuggled into his fur lined vest and looked skyward at the rays piercing through the clouds...Then he looked over at me. I just smiled and kept on humming.
He came a little closer to knock me gently with his elbow.
"Thanks Fae."
"And don't it feel good?"
I sang at him, skipping a bit.
The Exceed in the White Slayers arms stared at me...then looked up at his partner.
"Why are your friends so weird?"
I laughed, reaching out and booping the Exceed's nose which made his whiskers twitch as he sneezed. Looking way more adorable than he normally did when he was glaring daggers at me.
"Everyone has at least one weird friend, Lector. I just happen to be that one."
I kept on humming the song and the sunshine persisted. I noted that Wendy, Rogue and Frosch were slightly separated. Carla seemed to be softening somewhat in her stance on Wendy's association with a boy. She was at least looking at Rogue.
It's not an association. They are dating.
My toe caught on a perfectly level, smooth piece of ground and I tripped.
Sting managed to catch my elbow, so I didn't end up eating dirt. But I still felt pretty floored. My guildmaster was dating an unconvicted felon. One of my roommates had been an item with a mutual friend. What else had I missed?
Other than apparently the obvious.
"What's wrong?"
Sting asked, setting me on my feet again.
"Coping with recent life changes." I replied glibly, smiling through the pain of my beating myself up once again.
"I thought you couldn't wait for the rest of your guild to come home." Lector remarked, having wormed his way up onto Sting's shoulder and snuggling into the lining of his vest.
"Doesn't mean it isn't a major life adjustment to have them back. I mean, it's been six years. More is different than the same after this long."
"Understatement." He reached out and took my right hand, turning it face up. Something fell in his face. Nothing changed about his expression, but it still was a little down. Resigned in a way.
He's disappointed but unsurprised.
"Congrats on getting your mark. Any guild would be lucky to have you."
Now this warranted a question.
"Why the long face, Sting?"
He shook it off with a crooked grin that didn't entirely convince me everything was alright.
"Nothing you need to worry about."
This time when Lector and I looked at each other, it was in complete mutual understanding that Sting was hiding something and this was not to be accepted.
I was preparing to call him out on this when Morgana prompted me quietly.
Wendy, Rogue, Frosch and Carla have all arrived at your destination.
"Friendly warning, I don't believe you and neither does Lector. And unless you want to go up against the two of us working together, we'll be talking about that later."
Lector snickered as we walked into the café.
"Now you're speaking my language!"
They had already gotten our usual table, the owner and morning staff greeting Wendy and myself as local regulars. Leticia, the owner and operator, had been a godsend to a younger me who needed a change of scenery, and peace and quiet outside of the guildhall. She was also the reason that I had discovered excessive amounts of caffeine and my system were just not meant to be. The brief spurt of productivity was not worth the massive crash afterwards.
Her grandson, Wallace, the morning help, was delivering Wendy her coffee without her even having ordered yet. She had found a favorite and was devoted to it. Sandy brown hair and warm blue eyes. Not too far away from our age.
Why am I noticing this now? I've seen him hundreds of times.
Morgana silently pointed at my new awareness of romance, which included additional perception about people. Specifically people my age.
"Your usual order of Wake the Dead, Dr Marvell." He looked at me then, eyes gleaming. "What can I get for you today Fae?"
The newly opened area in my brain started to hum, registering Interest.
Wallace has been nursing a crush on you for years.
Well that was a little awkward. Here I had thought his addressing Wendy by her title was him being polite. Respectfully acknowledging that she had accomplished something amazing. But looking back, he had pretty much always addressed me by name. Which I could now recognize as his efforts to kindle a sense of intimacy and familiarity between us. I tried not to let my new found awareness of this show and defaulted to 'polite but brief'. Hopefully my smile wasn't as awkward as I felt.
"Cinnamon tea, please."
Part of my brain was overthinking this 5 second interaction in the extreme and it was not comfortable.
Wendy was quick to speak up, she and Carla were the only ones who were in the loop about my newly expanded world-view. Bless her for it, because this was probably going to be playing merry hell with my ability to interact with people normally for months if not years.
"Everyone alright with the Spring Special for four?"
Bread and rolls, with different types of jam and cheese and light meat along with soft cooked eggs and fruit. Simple fare, but delicious and with unlimited refills on drinks and above all else: Privacy.
"Can Frosch have juice?"
Ask with those eyes, and I'm pretty sure Rogue would find a way to wrap and give you the moon.
Getting our food and getting settled didn't take long. Wallace was efficient at his work and knew that lingering would be in poor taste.
Lector had grabbed four soft boiled eggs and was contentedly chewing through them while Frosch happily sipped at his juice and ate his sandwich that Rogue prepared for him. We talked about recent projects. I shared my intent to make Squish sentient and give him Transformation capabilities. (Yes they did remind me about the precautions needed when potentially creating sentient life. They were good and responsible friends...right now.) The boys talked about their last job rounding up some ne'er do wells that had not realized they were in Sabertooth territory. Wendy described the preparations to open another clinic in Blue Pegasus Terrain near Morgate.
"Won't the travel time needed cut down on the work you can do in either location?"
"It'll be made up for by having an established location in an allied guild territory. Blue Pegasus is already forwarding clients on a commission basis to Fairy Tail for Rune work. This is just opening a new avenue for us."
"Us? You're expanding to Morgate too?" Rogue asked me, arching a brow as he absently topped off Frosch's juice.
"When you are a specialist, people go to find you, it's true. But only the ones who can afford the cost of traveling."
We had been working for people in a different tax bracket than we had been in before. The general jobs that had kept our guild running before were now all going elsewhere. And a lot of the work that was coming in was for our particular skill sets: Kagura managed combat, Wendy item production and medicine, and myself handled Curse Breaking, wards and the occasional bit of private investigating. Jet still ran deliveries, and Droy had actually been instrumental in bringing in the usual crop harvest with his Plant Magic during a bad case of blight only two years ago. Everyone else was focused on keeping Magnolia and the small neighboring towns safe.
In short, what I had discussed with Jude was indeed happening: Fairy Tail was becoming an exclusive and private institution. Something that the elite would call on. A status boost for them. Which was very much not in the spirit of Fairy Tail as it was meant to be run. But fixing it wasn't that simple of a task.
Giving away our services would look like philanthropy, further heightening the class divide we wanted to negate. Maintaining prices would establish us further in our current echelon. So we had to court the old contracts to pull in normal job requests and make our public image approachable again.
Mest was already working the Rune Knights over for work outside of our territory. Recent years had been relatively quiet with only the extremely deluded or foolish trying to stir up trouble. But Fairy Tail was back and we wanted to get back out there. Preferably while keeping some of what we had built.
"You know...With them all being back, is Fairy Tail gonna get in on the Grand Magic Games this year?"
The White Dragon Slayer asked, propping his chin in his hand.
"I know you always have seasonal contracts and all, but it would be nice to see you two getting out a little bit. A lot of idiots seem to think Kagura's the only really dangerous Fairy Tail wizard left. It pisses me off."
This time my hiccupping thoughts managed to turn away from Wallace's pining to look for an intrusive thought that wasn't there this time.
So Sting not liking when I'm not credited or acknowledged is not because he feels slighted?
The memory was there. Thinking that Sting took such offense at my hiding my strength, or being dismissed by others was a personal offense. He had picked me as a sparring partner and it would be like wasting his time if people didn't know that.
Some of that still rang true to me and my magic, but other parts didn't.
Must be a heavily filtered assumption.
So I consciously threw the whole thing out and tried to start again.
OK, if not that, then why?
Rogue said nothing, but he did look at Wendy in an extremely telling manner. And this time I could taste the unspoken communication between them. Landed with friendship and respect but it sang in a quiet intense tone of affection that my new, improved privacy filter felt should be censored. Not for any dirty reasons, but just because it was a private thing. Theirs and theirs alone.
And now that I was registering this, the same feeling had been hanging around their interactions for years. And I had never noticed.
Damn that filter is scary. How did I not see it before? They aren't being obnoxiously obvious, but they are cute.
She gave him a wry smile.
"The only thing that we lost that we really wanted to have again, is already back." Her arms tightened around Carla who purred softly as she leaned back into her. "I can't imagine people being that hung up over which guild is #1 in the country."
"Think again." Sting reached into an inside pocket on his vest and pulled out a folded newspaper article. The local Sky Tower paper where Sabertooth's guild hall was located. Splashed across the headline in obnoxious, bold letters it read:
The Old Favorites or the Reigning Champions?
The article on Fairy Tail's return had run for two days in Sorcerer Weekly and the congratulations were flooding in from around the country from that first interview Simon had given, and a follow up meeting with Makarov when he confirmed that he would be remaining a member of Fairy Tail as Simon had done good work in his absence 'and he had earned a decent retirement'.
I wrinkled my nose when I looked through the by-line. Jason, from Sorcerer Weekly was still faithful about dropping by for interviews for smaller articles. He chased the new big names as was his job, but always came back. I wasn't thinking too hard about it was because he really liked Fairy Tail or if Master Bob did his subtle part to keep Fairy Tail's old press connections from dying out completely. He would even drop a line to me asking for the occasional article asking about my media work in the last few years. (The Nirvit Historical Productions were still running. I...actually had a deadline for a first draft of the next one in a few days.)
But there was another writer that was pretty firmly in Sabertooth's pocket who was actually gunning for Jason's job at Sorcerer Weekly. Juana Farchild was a gossip monger and I honestly had never seen her without my mind automatically superimposing a color copy of Rita Skeeter over her. (Also known as Minerva's agenda.) Juicy gossip, hot stories, anything that made Sabertooth look good, was her priority. She loved to stir up controversy and spark rivalries between wizarding guilds. And her current target appeared to be Fairy Tail and Sabertooth.
Since no one in the guild had really done any flashy, publicly known wizard work, she hadn't done much with our stories. But twenty nationally rated top tier wizards coming back from the dead? That was news. And she had been one of those who started referring to our friends as dead from her debut paper. An article which had verbally handed the crown of #1 in Fiore to Sabertooth.
And now that she was being proven wrong in real time, she was trying to save face by writing this. As Fairy Tail's lost members were not dead after all. But she could salvage the situation if Sabertooth remained top dog and Fairy Tail remained a thing of the past. Even more definitely establish her favorite to win.
"Oh wonderful. What are the odds of this working?" Wendy took the article and sighed at it.
"Fae?" Rogue deadpanned at me. I turned my attention to Morgana.
Do you mind?
Factoring in all variables, including Jemma's considerable pride, there is a 94% chance that he will attempt to pull Fairy Tail into a conflict to prove Sabertooth's superiority. His success depends on too many other factors within Fairy Tail.
And his preferred venue, where he had demonstrated his guild's prowess on live broadcast, was the Grand Magic Games.
"94% chance of him trying it. Nothing about him managing. But the invitations have already been sent out and last I heard we weren't going to be applying this year either."
Not every guild was invited to the Grand Magic Games. Those who were invited would get financial support to allow the most popular players a time to hone their skills and put on the best show for the event. The normal training period was about twelve weeks long. Any guild could apply for the event, but they wouldn't get the extra help that the invitees got.
"Master's tight with the captain of the Rune Knights these days. He's one of the guys that recommends candidates for the games." Sting traced some wood grain in the table, face carefully neutral. "Put the right bug in his ear and he'll probably throw together some 'honorary invitation' or some BS like that since Fairy Tail's never actually participated in the games."
Mostly because before Tenrou and the S-class trial group got time skipped, the matter of who was the top guild in Fiore was never really a question. It had not been granted by default, but it hadn't been totally won either. And I could see how that could be the source of some insecurity. It also partially explained why Minerva had focused on me in the absence of the older girls. Between my entertainment industry business, my name being fairly well synonymous with Fairy Tail's, and being the youngest and least combat oriented of the Furies, Minerva had simply decided I was an easy target.
She didn't just want Sabertooth to make Fairy Tail obsolete. She wanted to make Erza and Mira, and the other strong female wizards who were in our membership submit to her. The Grand Magic Games were her territory and I had never put myself out there to compete with her in that area. I didn't see the need to cater to her whim in this regard. So I smiled and cheerfully said.
"We'll let Simon and the other S-classes figure that bit out."
In denying her a fight, I was by default denying her a victory.
It was cute that Sting thought Jemma would play fair and get us an invite. My bet was him trying to play on pride to get us to commit to the games without being able to take the supported time off so we would come out at a loss unless we won first. There would be some loss in this no matter what. But also considerable gains... I would pay a handsome amount, cash, credit or item, to see Erza take Minerva on and destroy her like I knew she would. The petty satisfaction that would give me...
"I'm almost disappointed. I thought we might actually have some competition this year." Lector said snidely, folding his arms and smiling at me smugly. Sting looked down at him with a chagrined twist to his mouth.
"Lector, we talked about this. There are a lot of good, talented wizards out there. And the Games don't always come down to who is the best fighter."
Almost instantly, the young Exceed's ears drooped, and he looked up at Sting with wide, wounded eyes. As if he couldn't believe the betrayal. It was a refreshingly moderate, and mature view to hear from Sting.
"Maybe next year." Wendy interjected gently. I heard Carla give the tiniest cough, and saw both Wendy and Rogue twitch slightly.
Were they kinda holding hands?
Yes.
Somehow I felt that I would be running a lot more interference with Carla around and my eyes being opened to the bloody obvious. They were cute, I could support this now that the shock was wearing off! In hiding my snickers at Carla's blatant disapproval of the subtle PDA, I caught Sting's eye. Light blue and with a hint of luminescence emitting from within. A more steel blue color than mine, but the intensity suited him.
And there was something weird about the way he was looking at me now.
Have I been looking too long? It's probably too much eye contact. I need a distraction. Gana?
Juana Farchild followed Sting and Rogue here.
...I had to ask.
I broke eye contact with a scowl, searching for more information.
Where is she and how long do we have until she arrives?
About 15 minutes until she reaches her destination.
"Woah, what's with that face?" Lector sat up, paws on the table to lean forward over Sting and his plate and stare at me. I looked at my
friends with an entirely fake smile.
"Farchild wanted another interview so desperately that she followed you here."
This made both Dragon Slayers straighten, expressions of varying degrees of annoyance. Rogue's pleasant happy face went stiff, but Sting was more expressive and outright scowled.
"We were going to meet with her tonight. She couldn't just wait?"
She had never done this before when the boys were visiting Magnolia. So I was thinking there was something weird about this.
"Did you by any chance have plans that you postponed when you came to see us?"
Farchild wanted a story and she most likely wanted it from Sting and Rogue. They had been working almost immediately prior to coming here.
"No, we just told them we were taking a personal day."
Which they would have heard after knowing that Fairy Tail was back.
It was not in most Dragon Slayers nature to be secretive. (Rogue being a major exception) So they hadn't hidden the fact that they visited us for years. That they were friends with us. In a small way, it showed Dragon Slayer solidarity and it was fairly normal for wizards who had the same type of magic to find common ground. The only thing that had changed now was the rest of Fairy Tail was back.
It would not behoove Sabertooth's agenda to have their strongest duo acting friendly with Enemy No.1 when they were trying to grind us into obscurity. Especially when there were now twenty or so more wizards between them and that end game. So Farchild was probably here to cause trouble of some kind with some pointed questions.
It was what they had tried on me before. Coerce me into a public meltdown and spin the story out of our control from there.
But there's more than just me now. People with hotter tempers and less restraint.
-vVv-
I had not gone without an interview or similar event for longer than two weeks in years. This was the longest no-media contact that I had had for a long time. And I didn't mind. Simon was taking the reins and dealing with the madness of people wanting to see, hear or speak to their old favorite wizards again. I was old news in comparison. And that was fine by me.
Jason was almost bawling with joy as he zipped from person to person, greeting people as if they were old friends. It did not seem to matter that he had been there only a few days ago. And to some they were, Jason had been our media point of contact for years. However, this return was a big thing. So there was more than just Jason there. Simon had organized an informal panel for a group interview.
Farchild was heading for that to slip in among the press of the crowd. There was no way we were going to be getting in through the front doors, so I flicked out my wings to make for the roof. Sting made the jump with a surge of light, melting the few scattered flakes of snow on the ground with a blaze of light from his feet.
The mirrors in his shoes seem to have made a big difference.
They have.
Lector was on Sting's back, ears pressed flat, face hiding in his neck, and clearly not having a good time.
Poor little guy.
The landing platform was clear save for Kinana, holding a mug of something that steamed faintly in the air. She was bundled up, hat, gloves, scarf and heavy coat, as she was typically whenever the temperatures dropped. The landing platform had a fairly stable Rune control climate. But making it a perfect neutral ambient temperature when it was near or below freezing was just too costly in terms of energy. It was better than being out on the street, but still wasn't exactly warm.
"Hey." She greeted, a handful of purple scales lingering at the corner of her eyes indicating her current stress levels.
"Fae said Farchild was heading this way." Sting, in contrast to Kinana, looked underdressed for the weather. The more light he could take in and emit, the more temperature stable he was. With some acknowledgement for the weather. He had his fur lined vest, gloves designed to focus his magic, useful for flight and combat. He still had more exposed skin than any reasonable person would be showing.
Kinana's hiss was barely there but in Parseltongue it was a fairly colorful statement. She sighed
"She's already here. I keep reminding himself that the threshold will eject her if she gets too rowdy. And I really really want her to."
Ah, she went for Eric.
He had been keeping his nose clean, but he was still a former Dark wizard. It was something that we had known would come after us from the more unforgiving side of politics.
"You didn't stay to listen to Simon to talk her in a circle again?"
Yeah, talking trash about members formerly affiliated with a Dark Guild to a Guild Master who had a publicly known history of being enslaved by a Dark Guild. That the Magic Council had failed to neutralize for years, only to have Fairy Tail succeed. So if people very personally harmed by the Balam Alliance did not take issue with the Poison Slayers former associates, then she hardly had a leg to stand on.
The Snake Woman snorted, cheeks pink with cold and embarrassment.
"I felt too...nippy to stay. So I came out to cool my head."
Because the animal instinct to being threatened, or their mate being threatened, was typically fight or flight. Add Kinana's own human feelings, and the likelihood of someone getting near fatally poisoned via snake bite increased exponentially.
"Alright, let's get this over with."
-vVv-
Erza, Master, Laxus, Simon and Lucy were the wizards taking questions for the most part. Mira and Lisanna were working together at the bar to keep everyone hydrated. But most everyone else was lingering in the guild hall save those who had managed to score work.
I noted that Gajeel was absent.
Trying to pick up some old contacts and get a read on Raven Tail.
I leaned over the railing on the second floor, trying to spot where Farchild was lurking, Sting was looking too, with Lector perched on the railing between us. The Exceed spotted her first.
"There she is." He pointed to about the middle of the crowd, his voice staying relatively low. Lector knew the importance of discretion; he just didn't always choose to use it.
"You want her gone?" Sting asked, leaning over to murmur the question discreetly.
"That'd just give her more ammunition." Why were there goosebumps running down my back as the White Slayer spoke and leaned in so close to me? And that was before he chuckled, which sent what felt like a small jolt of electricity down my spine.
"That's not what I asked."
"As if you don't already know the answer."
I didn't begrudge her making a living. But I could and would hold it against her that she attacked others to earn it. Especially when they wre my loved ones. Tapping a small, marble sized lacrima on my bracer, I reached out to Simon with a minor telepathy spell.
"Please tell me she's been rude enough that I can escort her out?"
Eric wasn't looking up at me, he had to be supervised by a short list of people if I wasn't around and they were all in the hall at this time. So he had literally had nowhere to go when Farchild honed in on him. There was a small berth around him that was occupied only by Natsu and Happy. There was a tiny heatwave surrounding Natsu, barely noticeable to the naked eye. He had been irritated by the reporter too.
"Just a little longer."
Simon cautioned me.
"She's done a good job digging her own grave. Just a few more questions about old news instead of the Tenrou Team and she won't be able to show her face in public again, let alone get her name in a by line."
Simon got mean when someone went after own of our guild mates. And people were generally speaking, very susceptible to public humiliation.
"Roger that. I'll get into position."
I rolled my pen through my fingers as I moved towards the stairs, writing 'There's the door' on my other hand along with a few modifiers to ensure it wouldn't be too violent of an exit. Sting followed me, leaning over to peer at the writing on my palm. He had gotten a decent grasp of the scripts I used over the years so I knew he could discern the meaning.
"Didn't you use that on me?"
"Perfected it on you, actually."
We made it down to the main floor and began to skirt around the room. I had to be close enough to eject Juana from the building. And ideally she wouldn't see me coming.
It's not an ideal situation.
Oh well.
Jenny from Blue Pegasus was just finishing up a query if Fairy Tail would be getting back into the modeling scene now that they were back. And Mira was cheerfully saying she would rather get back into her old work as a combat wizard before returning to modeling.
Precedent set: Warning.
Morgana's voice made me pause in my stride. Why would the precedent of Mira answering a question directly related to her merit a warning? Sting didn't ask, but watched me closely waiting.
I got a queasy feeling in my stomach when Juana Farchild stepped forward, a predatory gleam in her eye.
"I've got a question for Sting Eucliffe."
There was a brief surprised murmur as people turned towards us. Posing a question to a non-Fairy Tail member at a press conference held here? But the precedent had been there. Jenny had addressed her question not to a panelist, but a bystander. It was not expected. And I wanted to banish her right away as Sting's back went stiff as Juana looked, not at him, but at me and grinned triumphantly.
"Everyone's dying to know if you've popped the question to Fae yet."
A/N
Is that ending evil? I feel like it's evil. But there is no way this gets sorted out in just one or two chapters. So some more waiting is necessary.
