Chapter Text
Crocus. Was. Huge. Huge, and awesome, and they had all day to explore! Well, basically all day. They did have to be back at the hotel by midnight, but that still left plenty of time to see the sights! Gray and Juvia had split off quickly- well, Gray split and Juvia tagged along- and Wendy had flitted off not long after, chattering excitedly at Carla about going to see the castle gardens. Which left him with Happy and Lucy, wandering through the lively streets of the capitol.
It was called the Flower Capitol, according to Lucy, which he could totally understand because there were flowers everywhere. So many that the floral perfume actually made it difficult to suss out other wizards in the crowd by scent, an endeavor which wasn’t really helped by the flower necklaces they’d gotten. He could still pick them out by guild mark though, most wizards- himself and Lucy included- displayed theirs proudly. He didn’t recognize most of the marks he saw, which... wasn’t really that weird. It had been seven years, after all, and he’d never been the most attentive to these things besides.
The important thing was that none of the other wizards he saw tried to start anything, so he didn’t either. They’d be in the Games soon enough, and if he started something now Erza and Gajeel would both yell at him.
“It’s a fight!”
The shout rang out over the crowd, and Natsu’s head snapped towards it, a grin spreading across his face. Gajeel would still do that disappointed face of his, but Erza wouldn’t have any reason to yell at him if he just happened to get mixed up in an ongoing brawl! And Gajeel couldn’t disapprove too hard, because Natsu knew he would do the exact same thing given half a chance. Lucy yelled something after him, but her words were lost in the din of the crowd as he shouldered through them.
The crush of bodies grew too thick to press through a few rows from the front, and Natsu let his masking slip, just a little. Just enough to unsettle the non-wizards around him, so they jumped and squished together to get out of his way as he pushed through the final few rows of people. Just in time to see Sting and Rogue execute a perfect tandem takedown of a musclebound wizard who must’ve weighed as much as they did put together. Or, well, as much as they looked like they weighed. Dragons were denser than humans.
“Oh hey, it’s Fairy Tail.” someone from the other side of the crowd jeered. The crush of bodies behind him had dispersed some, allowing Lucy to catch up.
“Pre-show!” another bystander called, laughing.
“The twin dragons of Sabertooth are gonna take you down!”
“Should we give ‘em a show?” Rogue asked through the tome’mir [psychic bond], cocking his head just slightly and smirking as Forsch and Lector regrouped to stand between him and Sting.
“I think I’d rather save the beatdown for a bigger audience.” Natsu smiled back, all kal’edee [fangs] and wisps of smoke that trailed behind him as he entered what had clearly been a ring of combat. “It took both of you to take down this many nobodies?” he chided, and Sting laughed.
“Master Jiemma ordered us not to use magic in the city until the Games begin.” he shrugged, and Natsu eyed his shirt, fit snug and cropped to the bottom of his ribcage. No, right, he’d mentioned he got surgery. If he was binding in the Games, Natsu would’ve sicced Gajeel on him without hesitation. “Even for dragons, it takes a bit to down this many flies with only hand-to-hand.”
“Fair enough.” Natsu held out a hand, and Sting clasped it firmly, letting Natsu yank him in and smiling as they rubbed cheeks. Rogue followed, and Natsu slung an arm around each of their necks, careful not to kick the extra two cats underfoot.
“How about we all get dinner before heading back to our hotels?” Lucy suggested. “Give you three time to catch up.”
“Sure thing!” Sting beamed, and Rogue nodded, leaning just slightly into Natsu’s hold. When had these two dorks gone and gotten taller than him? It was so not fair.
“Master Jiemma won’t like it.” Rogue muttered, his presence in the kara’cika [nebula] seeping concern.
“Who cares what Master Jiemma thinks?” Sting scoffed. “And anyways, he can’t get that mad at us for having dinner with our big brother. He let us help with the search, after all.”
“So... where are we going?” Lucy asked, and Rogue melted out of Natsu’s hold, disappearing into shadow only to reappear two paces ahead.
“We know a place.” Sting said, straightening up as Natsu released him. “Our treat?” he offered, and Natsu almost turned him down on pure reflex.
“Please.” Lucy sighed before he could say anything. “We haven’t had a chance to get proper work since we came back, so we’re still pretty broke.”
“Well, I doubt you’ll be placing last this year, now that our vod’e [siblings] are back.” Sting said, tucking his arms behind his head. “So work should pick up for your guild soon enough.”
“Still can’t believe someone stole my food money.” Natsu grumbled, crossing his arms. Rogue chuckled, and they fell into an easy patter, grabbing street food at a few different carts and eating as they walked. That was a thing Sting liked to do now, apparently. Try the street food in every city they visited.
People gave them odd looks, probably due to their guild marks declaring they belonged to guilds so far apart in the public eye, but Natsu didn’t care. Rogue was largely silent, even in the tome’mir [psychic bond], but Sting talked enough for both of them. In fact, the longer he listened, the more Natsu got the impression that Sting talked for both of them, period. He told a story about Rogue being silly in front of the girl he had a crush on, then at some insistent needling in the kara’cika [nebula] he also told a story of himself getting in a little bit of trouble for sticking up for their own new girl, a celestial spirit wizard who could give Lucy a run for her money in raw power.
“Maybe we’ll get to go head to head, in the Games.” Lucy grinned, resting a hand on the pouch which held her key ring. “It’s been a while since I fought another celestial spirit wizard.”
“Oh yeah, that lady with the Seis right?” Natsu asked, and Lucy nodded.
“I’m surprised you remember that.” she gave him a sidelong look, and Natsu shrugged. He couldn’t rightly explain it himself, he just remembered that Pegasus guy talking about how he’d helped Lucy finish the fight, and the incomprehensible emotions which had roiled in his chest at the thought.
“I mean, you had more keys after than before.” he grinned, and Lucy sighed heavily as Rogue muffled a laugh.
“You sure that’s why?” Sting teased, and dammit Natsu recognized that smugness in the kara’cika [nebula]. Whatever it was that amused Gajeel so much about his friendships with Lucy and Lisanna, the twins had clearly been let in on the joke.
“I’m pretty sure that’s why.” Lucy interjected, as he shoved his irritation against Sting and Rogue’s mirth. “Natsu’s kinda an idiot, but he keeps good track of our friends in the guild.”
“Aww, thanks Luce.” he beamed, irritation fizzling out. Gajeel and Wendy prodded at them with gentle curiosity, and then Wendy- she didn’t quite vanish, the way Gajeel and the twins had when they first arrived in Edolas, but she went still and silent in the bond so abruptly Natsu stopped in his tracks. Sting and Rogue did as well, and Lucy froze a step and a half later, thumbing open her key pouch and looking around.
“What is it?” she asked, the cats clustering around her legs.
“Wendy.” Natsu gasped, pushing absentminded reassurance at Sting and Rogue when they jerked around to look at him with naked horror.
“She said she was going to check the castle gardens.” Lucy said, spinning and scanning the skyline. “That way.” she pointed, and Rogue whistled, sharp and short and piercing. Frosch lept to his back, and the pair of them took off.
“I’ll run back to our hotel, warn Erza-”
“No.” Natsu cut Lucy off, grabbing her by the wrist. “Until we know what happened, we stick together.”
“Safety in numbers.” Sting agreed with a nod. “Lector, give her a lift. We can’t move at tal’suum [dragon-blood] speeds if we want to catch up with Rogue.”
“On it!” Lector saluted, and Lucy didn’t even yelp as she was scooped up off the ground. A moment for Lector to gain altitude- Lucy finally had some decent muscle on her, but Lector was used to carrying around at least twice her weight in dragon- and the four of them were off, Natsu dropping his masking completely to get the crowded streets to clear for them. Lucy yelled directions from up above, and they reached the gardens as the sun painted everything gold. Natsu masked his aura again, bundling all that wild, unusable magic back into his chest and smothering it out of sight.
“That’s Wendy’s purse!” Happy cried, landing on all fours and running over to sniff at it.
“This way.” Sting said, and hurried past the bag, following Rogue’s frantic pulling in the kara’cika [nebula]. Lucy paused to scoop it up, then hurried after them, until they found Rogue on his knees next to Wendy, every shadow in the vicinity writhing.
“Is she hurt?” Natsu asked, the shadows parting to admit them.
“I can’t tell.” Rogue whispered in their tome’mir [psychic bond].
“She’s not bleeding.” Sting said hopefully, taking a knee at Rogue’s side, eyes narrowed as he scanned their immediate surroundings. Natsu stayed standing, magic roiling hot under his skin, ready to lash out the second Wendy’s attacker showed themself.
“Rogue, did you move her at all?” Lucy asked, kneeling on Wendy’s other side. “Either of them.” she gestured to Carla, curled up against Wendy’s hip. Rogue shook his head, and Lucy pursed her lips. “Not bleeding, nothing’s obviously broken, but I don’t have any spirits who know enough about medicine to-” she paused, and smacked herself in the forehead.
“What?” Sting asked, leaning towards her with wide eyes.
“I don’t have any spirits who are good at medicine or healing magic, but Wendy’s right here.” Lucy pulled a golden key from her pouch, the air going heavy with her magic for a moment before she channelled it. “Open, Gate of the Twins, Gemini!” she slashed the key through the air, and the two little blue spirits popped into existence with their usual piri-piri.
“Gemini?” Sting frowned, and Natsu grinned.
“Just watch.”
“Gemini, please copy Wendy.” Lucy gestured to his sister, and the twin spirits twirled into a single familiar form, standing among them with perfectly unruffled pigtails.
“Now that’s just unnatural.” Gajeel said, his boots hitting the ground just inside Rogue’s circle of shadows.
“If this works, I’m asking them to copy Wendy every time we split up on a job.” Lucy muttered. “Gemini, can you heal her please?” she asked, and the spirits wearing his baby sister’s face beamed.
“No problem!” they chirped in Wendy’s voice, and okay yeah Gajeel was right, that was creepy.
“I thought Gemini copied everything about a person.” he frowned, watching a familiar green circle light under Wendy’s still form on the ground.
“Yeah, they do.” Lucy nodded.
“So why aren’t they in our tome’mir [psychic bond]?” Gajeel finished his question, and pushed calm at the twins. “Little chicky here’s one of four people who know the truth.” he said into their tome’mir [psychic bond]. “The truth came out in Edolas, and they’ve sworn to keep our secret on pain of death.”
“Does that mean we can tell people?” Rogue asked, and Gajeel actually considered the question as Natsu looked around again. Still no sign, but if anyone was stupid enough to try to attack four dragons and a tal’suum [dragon-blood] with the ability to copy any one of them, then they’d be pasted as they deserved.
“She’s all healed up!” Gemini-Wendy chirped, then frowned. “I can’t do anything for her low magic, though, and I don’t think she’ll wake up until she’s recovered from that.”
“Low magic?” they all echoed, and Natsu crouched down next to Lucy as Gajeel took over scanning their surroundings.
“Really low. I don’t know how it could’ve happened.” Gemini-Wendy bit their lip, and Natsu had to resist the urge to draw them into a one-armed hug and cheek them.
“Me either, but once she’s awake she should be able to tell us.” he pointed out.
“Thank you for your help, Gemini.” Lucy smiled, squeezing the spirits on their shoulder. “Do you want to stick around a little longer?”
“No, we’re glad we could help with this!” the spirits beamed with Wendy’s face, then dissolved into motes of golden light as Lucy closed their gate.
“Freaky.” Sting muttered, and Natsu gathered Wendy up into his arms.
“I may be able to wake her up.” he said, and all eyes were on him.
“How?” Happy asked, seated next to Carla, with Lily on her other side.
“Little trick we worked out while we were training.” Natsu answered, shifting Wendy in his arms. “But we’ve never tried it with one of us unconscious, before.”
“It’s worth a shot.” Gajeel squeezed his shoulder, and Natsu nodded. Shut his eyes to concentrate. Pulled on his magic, coiling out a thread of fire in its purest form, and bent down to exhale the magical energy over Wendy’s face. She inhaled instinctively, a sharp gasp like a half-drowned person realizing there was air to breathe again, then groaned in his arms, twisting to bury her face in his sleeve.
“Holy shit.” Gajeel and Lucy muttered in unison, while Sting and Rogue simply stared in shock.
“Since when can fire magic do that?” Sting demanded, and Natsu chuckled as he let Gajeel- now kneeling next to him- take Wendy from his arms.
“It’s less about the type of magic and more about the intent.” he explained, watching Wendy slowly come to, nestled safe and comfortable in the arms of their alor’tiui [leader]. “We worked out during training that if I gave her my magic, instead of her trying to steal it from an attack, then it wouldn’t hurt her. Helped her keep up, when we were training magical stamina.”
“Oh, like with Laxus!” Lucy gasped, and Natsu nodded.
“Yeah, that’s what gave me the idea actually.” he smiled at her, then looked back to Wendy.
“It’s getting late.” Sting muttered as the golden light began to fade, lacrima lighting up along the garden paths. “We need to get back to our inns by curfew.”
“Go.” Gajeel nodded. “I’ll help get Wendy back to Honey Bone.”
“Wait, you’re not gonna stay?” Natsu frowned.
“In the same room as Erza?” Gajeel raised an eyebrow, and all four of their conscious cats giggled.
“Shut up!” Natsu snapped, which only made Happy and Frosch laugh harder. Lily picked up Carla.
“Thank you, Gajeel.” Lucy sighed. “Hopefully she’ll wake up by the time we get back.”
“Hopefully.” Gajeel agreed, as Rogue drew the writhing shadows back into himself. “And Rogue?” he called as the twins stood. “Solid ground level perimeter, but it’ll be more effective if it can also warn against approaches from above.”
Rogue nodded, and the twins peeled off to get back to their inn, cats following close on their heels. Soon enough, Happy was on his shoulder, and they were headed back to their inn as well. Now they just had to wait for Wendy to wake up enough to eat some air and get better, and then they’d know who to hit with Extreme Prejudice once the Games began.