"You look happy. Very happy."

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked in return as the crowd began to cheer and roar at Natsu's brilliant victory over Sabertooth's twin dragons just seconds ago. Gajeel probably wouldn't be too happy at how Natsu all but rendered him useless by throwing him into a mining cart and then proceeded to hog all the glory, but as long as we win, whatever works, I guess.

Laxus simply rolled his eyes at my reply, having already known about my grudge with Sabertooth since the preliminaries. In the end, Master Makarov had selected Natsu, Gajeel, Erza, Laxus, and I to be the five members to represent Team Fairy Tail. If it were under any other circumstances I would have rejected the offer or try to find an excuse to worm my way out of it, but Sabertooth's recent declaration of war at us had sparked a petty vengeance within me that wouldn't be quelled until I had my way with them.

The replacement member was a toss-up between Gray and Juvia but Juvia had very happily given up her spot for her beloved "Gray-sama" almost right away, so that was that. I still think that Mirajane should replace either Natsu or Gajeel since she is an S Class mage, but the nature of her Take Over is also a problem because it is not a form of magic that she could use consecutively in short bursts or for prolonged periods of time. The power of demons are not easy to keep a handle on and the event on the last day of the games would be a huge battle royale that would most likely require the participating mages to keep battling until they drop. By the virtue of that alone, that made Mirajane an unsuitable candidate because while powerful, her magic is not one that allows its user to keep fighting without rest for extended periods of time.

"We certainly are famous now. Look at all the eyes on us," I subconsciously imitated Meredy's usual habit of letting out a low whistle of appreciation whenever something had impressed her or caught her attention, not even realising that I was doing it until I had done it. Despite a shaky start on the first day, the display that our guild had put up from the second day onwards had drawn the attention of every single other participating guild because we had proved that despite being trapped in time for seven years, we are still a very powerful contender for the title of the Number One guild in Fiore.

Not that I ever care about that stupid title but if it makes the morons in the guild happy, then getting the title is what I will do.

"Yeah, even her eyes are on us. Congrats, you got yourself a new fan," Laxus grunted out, elbowing me to catch my attention and gesturing in a specific direction with a slight jerk of his chin. I looked at where he was looking and spotted the gallery high up in the arena where members of the Royal Family were supposedly seated. It was just at the exact moment when the naive Princess looked in my direction, spotted my gaze, and then waved at me with a big smile before retreating back into the gallery, probably taking her leave now that all the events for today had concluded. I might have been imagining it, but I think she mouthed "All the best" to me before she left.

She's doing this just to annoy me. I just knew it.

It was with high spirits that the guild returned to our lodgings because Natsu's and Gajeel's victory had snagged us 10 points, just enough to make us sit right at the very top of the rankings at first place after today's events had concluded.

To nobody's surprise, the first thing the guild did was to party and these morons really know how to party hard. Even after joining the guild for over a year this was my first time seeing for myself how Fairy Tail really partied and honestly, a part of me was actually daunted by how insane their parties were. Chairs were flipped, tables were overturned, drinks were always flowing without seemingly stopping, cheers and shouts were constantly filling the air and there was no lack of stupid acts being conducted for the most silly of reasons.

Maybe Alvarez should consider themselves lucky that Fairy Tail was a guild that was founded in Fiore instead of Alvarez, because Fairy Tail would definitely be a constant source of headaches for people like the ice prick or August who tend to be a stickler for the rules, but I guess that's what makes Fairy Tail's parties fun and that is what constitute its charm.

"You guys are no fun!" Cana lamented out loud when nobody took up her drinking challenge and then promptly down her cup of booze in one single gulp. It's a well-established fact that nobody in the guild could outdrink Cana at her own game.

"If you get yourself drunk this time I'm not going to help you in any way, just saying," Meredy spoke up from where she was seated beside me, having joined in the party as well. Actually, the full three blind mice gang that was Crime Sorciere were all partying together with Fairy Tail since they had nowhere else to go and nothing better to do until the GMG was over.

"Hey, it's gotta be fun, I had never met anyone who could beat me in a drinking game before," I smirked and Meredy audibly groaned. I guessed I might have spoken a little too loud because Cana's head whipped in our direction right after.

"You can drink? You never told me that during our training trip!"

"I don't just drink. In fact, I had never lost before," I issued my challenge there and then. The guild immediately cheered when there was an unexpected new contender for the title of best drinker in the guild. Cana immediately walked to my table and seated herself opposite me, slamming her mug down on the surface of the table with a large grin on her face. Almost everyone started to gather around us after they were made known of this little competition and bets had already started.

"Place your bets, Cana vs Argoo!" The dumb tomcat hollered out loud while flying about in the air as Natsu volunteered to be the referee for this particular bet. Bets were noted down and money was thrown into the pool with immediate effect, building into an impressive pile in moments. I simply shot a string of light at Happy, pulling him down from the air as he let out a terrified shriek.

"Look, you dumbass kitty cat. You get my name wrong one more time, I will be having cat sashimi for breakfast tomorrow," I verbalised my threat extremely clearly, my right hand gripping Happy's face by his jaw and my fingers pushing uncomfortably into his cheeks. Happy nodded vehemently, yelling "I'M SOWWY!" until I was satisfied.

"Stop bullying him, he's just a cat, pick someone your own size," Meredy plucked Happy away from my deathgrip and hugged the damn cat close to her. Either Happy had taken acting classes before or the damn cat was simply a natural actor as he trembled "helplessly" in Meredy's arms, trying to make himself as small and as pitiful as possible while Meredy hugged him close to her chest and lovingly stroked his fur.

I knew all along that she always had been more of a cat person than a dog person but I never knew that her love for those felines extended to the Exceed race as well. Still, as one of her few friends, I found myself having the obligation to point out something that she might not have realised yet.

"In case you haven't realised, that perverted cat is using this opportunity to grope your boobs."

Happy took an abrupt pause from rubbing his face into Meredy's cleavage with a perverted look on his face, but still too late to retract his grubby paws from those melons. It wasn't hard to detect Meredy's change in mood as she stared down at the perverted cat with narrowed eyes. Happy decided to try acting like the cat that he hoped he was in a last ditch attempt to save himself.

"...Meow?"

It was to nobody's surprise that Happy was soon seen flying out of the window trying to cling onto dear life with soaring magical swords out for its blood, but that's a story for another day.

I took a look at the betting pool. Clearly, the odds were not in my favour because not a single person had betted on me. Wow, much faith, much trust.

"Guys, seriously?" I pointed to the betting pool while waiting for Kinana and Laki to prepare the drinks needed for the showdown that we will soon be having.

"It's Cana," Macao shrugged, as if that would explain everything.

"Ever heard of the term dark horse?"

"It's Cana."

"I'm so hurt, Macao."

"Hurt is what makes a man stronger!" Elfman declared and I sighed. Fine, nobody believes that I can drink, much less outdrink Cana, I get that.

It was then that Meredy slipped a few notes over the surface of the table towards the betting pool.

"Four thousand jewels, on the rude jerk."

I turned to face her, making sure she could see the incredulous look on my face because she had never done something like this before. She pointedly ignored me and simply sipped on her drink.

"Hey, I get that you guys are friends, but are you sure about this? Four thousand is a lot for a bet and he's drinking against Cana," Gray asked, his shirt having gone missing a long time ago to nobody's surprise.

"That's because you haven't seen him drink. When he gets going, he can really drink," Ultear spoke up as she slid some money over as well while her lacrima orb rolled along her outstretched arm. "Five thousand jewels, on Argus."

"FIVE THOUSAND JEWELS?!"

"Six thousand, on Argus," Jellal followed up on the bet and immediately a few more morons echoed out "SIX THOUSAND?!" in true comical Fairy Tail fashion.

"Wow, I'm so touched," I cannot help but say as I put my hand over my heart and mock weeped, knowing very well that their bets were less of an act borne out of our friendship but more of them knowing very well that I could really win this little competition. The three of them simply saw this as a way to earn some quick bucks because they had seen me drinking at full capacity before.

"That's a lot of money!"

"Maybe Argus really can drink? Should we switch bets?"

"But it's Cana!"

"True… but hey, she recently lost to Bacchus too."

"Damn, you have a point."

"It's too late to switch bets now!" Natsu quickly halted that train of thought. "Drinks are already here!"

"Don't say I didn't warn ya," Cana grinned as she took her first mug, waiting for Natsu to call this match to start since he's the referee.

"Oooh, I'm scared," I dragged out my words in a drawl as I took a cup as well. "How about this? Let's spice things up, the loser covers the tab of the winner for one entire week."

The guild cheered even louder than I thought possible.

"Well I ain't got a reason to lose this now!" Cana declared before turning to Natsu. "C'mon, Natsu! Get it started already!"

"Match… START!"

Our drinking speed was at about the same pace, and by that I meant that we simply chugged down the contents of one mug after the other as fast as we could while the other members that were spectating helped tally the number of mugs each of us emptied. We soon reached the thirty minute mark and we were both slowing down due to how fast we were drinking without rest. By my estimate, both of us had already individually drunk more than sixty mugs, which would average to more than two large mugs per minute.

"Hey, tipsy already? I'm not done warming up yet," I taunted and promptly emptied another mug, much to my guild's horror. The booze that we were drinking was Cana's favoured type of booze, the kind with a very powerful kick to it and an equally intense alcohol content to boot. It's not a type of beverage that anyone can easily stomach. Even Cana had started to rock on her seat from side to side as she struggled to get another mug in but I'm not even swaying yet.

Cana did struggle for another ten minutes but that was all she could manage before she slumped over the table in a drunken slumber, unable to continue. This drinking competition had ended in my complete victory.

"WHAAAAT?!"

"CANA LOST!"

"MY MONEEEEY!"

"Serves you morons right for underestimating me," I huffed and downed another mug. "Hey, there's still a lot of drinks here, help finish it."

"YOU CAN STILL DRINK?!"

"Sorry to break this to you pal, but you ain't seen anything he can do just yet. This is nowhere near what we saw him drink," Jellal coolly interjected as his experienced fingers quickly counted the large wad of notes he just collected from the betting pool before pocketing them.

"He barely started," Ultear helpfully added, also happily counting her winnings together with Meredy.

"B-But we knew him for two years and yet we never saw him drink so much before!" Wakaba yelled in frustration. "If I'd known I would have bet on Argus!"

"Now you finally understand how hurt I was when you betted on Cana instead of me? Man, I'm so hurt, my heart is still bleeding. Can you hear it, the sound of my bleeding heart?" I continued to rub salt on their wounds while downing yet another mug.

"How are you so good at drinking? We have never seen you drink so much before!"

"Yeah you always just drink a cup or two and that's it! You fooled us!"

"My dear friend, I can drink, but that doesn't mean that I love to drink. There's a difference, in case you haven't realised," I replied to Vjeeter's accusation without a care in the world and finished up a few more mugs. Reedus was very much silent and in his own world as per usual, finishing up a painting which I guessed would be his drawing of the scene from our little competition from earlier.

"Arrrgh! Dammit Argus! That was my rent for the next month that you swindled!"

"Swindle? I didn't put a knife on your neck and force you to start gambling, did I?"

"But… my money!"

"Too bad, too sad, but life is just like that," I did an overly dramatic sigh that was of no help in alleviating the disbelief and frustrated screams of the morons around me. Messing around with them is kinda fun.

"Look at your faces right now, totally over the moon for profiting at my expense," I cannot help but drawl when I saw the contented grins on the faces of Crime Sorciere. I did all the hard work and yet I did not get a single penny from this while each of them netted thousands of jewels from their bets.

"Don't say that, what are friends for? We are there to help each other in times of need," Jellal slung an arm around me and started to spin his daily dose of Chicken Soup for the Soul with that ratty glib tongue of his. I could see how he had infiltrated the Magic Council because his tongue could really spin some believable tales that could make people incapable of differentiating between black and white.

The sneaky little rat.

"I cannot help but think that this seems to be a very one-sided occurrence when it comes to our relationship."

"How can you say that? We've known each other for so long!" Meredy exclaimed just as dramatically from where she was seated beside me, her face looking as if I had wronged her in the greatest way possible. Heavens above, my only friends outside of Fairy Tail are a group of Oscar deserving actors. Why hadn't I realised it until now?

"It hurts on the inside if that was what you truly think of us," Ultear joined in the party too and I simply ignored them and finished another mug. Such wonderful friends they are.

"I regret ever knowing you guys."

"Aww, just admit that you love us," Meredy cooed, much to my annoyance.

"You guys are clearly delusional."

"How can you say that when all we did was to brighten up your life?"

"Jellal, stop with the lame puns, it's just not funny when you are the one doing it."

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

"Jellal."

"And here I thought we were having an enlightening moment between us."

"One more pun about my magic and I will stab you."

"Stab me? I prefer if you punch my lights out-"

He never did get to complete his sentence. I made sure of it.