The Demon Children

Chapter 8: One Step at a Time

When will Juvia get to marry her Gray-sama?" Juvia sat across the table from Gray, her eyes sparkling.

"Just as soon as her Gray-sama hits puberty," Lucy said under her breath to Laki, who burst out laughing.

"What's so funny? Gray rounded on their table.

"Nothing!" Lucy and Laki both said quickly.

Just then the doors opened, and Yukino came into the guild. "Hi Yukino!" Lucy said. "What brings you to Fairy Tail?"

"I was just on my way back from a quest, and I thought I'd stop in to congratulate Natsu-sama and Mirajane." Yukino said, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Oh – well, they're out on a quest right now." Lucy said. "But how are you? I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I'm doing well," she said, coming to sit by Lucy. Her smile remained, but her eyes were a little sad.

"What's wrong?" The blonde mage asked.

"To be honest… I'm a little jealous…" Yukino said. "I mean, I guess I thought Natsu and I had a special connection ever since that day…"

"Oh really?" Erza was suddenly sitting next to them.

"Umm… yeah," Yukino blushed. "I was hoping to be the one to marry Natsu-sama… so when I heard he and Mirajane were married, well… I guess I took it really hard…"

Erza looked at her with a sad, serious face. "There's something you should know… Let's talk about it outside…"

"Umm… Ok Erza." The celestial spirit mage replied. And the two headed out for their conversation.

~In the mountainous region north of Sabertooth~

"Come on out, dark guild guys!" Natsu yelled.

"That's not going to do any good," Mirajane said. "You're just letting them know where not to go."

"But I'm tired of searching on foot!" The dragon slayer said. "If they're so strong, what're they afraid of anyway?"

"Good question," Mira smirked. "We are only two wizards, after all."

Just then an enormous iron weight, almost 200 feet around, dropped on top of them. Natsu heard the iron make magic just in time to pop into fire dragon king mode. Then the weight descended.

Afraid of what?" Said a tall, green haired man, clothed in a flashy metal outfit. "A couple weak mages?"

As he turned around, he suddenly became aware of enormous heat pressure. He looked back, and saw that the entire center of the weight had melted away, leaving the two unharmed in the middle.

"Roar of the Fire Dragon King!" Natsu bellowed, shooting a devastating cone of fire at the mage.

"Iron Make: Shield!" A huge block of iron appeared in front of the mage, who then had to jump aside as a good portion of the attack made it through after demolishing the shield.

"Satan Soul: Helphas!" Mirajane transformed, moving to his position in the blink of an eye and blasting him with dark magic. The attack caused some damage, but the mage struck back with an iron sword that clipped her shoulder.