afterglow | natsu x reader

Chapter 20: Hoping for Better Days

"Yay Lucy!" I yell as Lucy starts casting "Ultimate Magic of the Stars." Urano Metria. The whole Fairy Tail guild is looking hopeful. And the scenery is just breath taking. As Flare is about to be struck, Gemini disappears and the attack is cancelled. Lucy falls.

"Is Lucy out?!"

And the match is over. Flare looks just as confused as everyone else. She turns to her guild and says things to Lucy, who is crying. Although I'm not allowed, I run down to the arena and to Lucy. She crying as people boo her. I extend my hand out for her and squat down.

"I'm sorry." She cries and I smile, "It's okay, you put up a good fight. You showed everyone what Fairy Tail could do. If you ask me, someone cheated." I whisper the last part, so no one else could hear.

She laughs and takes my hand, "Our score can only go up from here. We still have time to turn everything around." And we stand up.

-

I was furious. Everyone was getting drunk and drowning their sorrows in beer, which seems like a nice idea. "Here's to zero points and utter embarrassment!" Master raises his cup and everyone cheers. Juvia walks up to me.

"Y/N... Juvia hears that you're taking my place?" Juvia asks.

"Only if you want me to," I answer.

She nods, "Of course! With you on our team, we're guaranteed a win." And she walks off to stalk Gray. The other battles were interesting. More, Orga vs War Cry. Black lightning. It was nice. And "Mystogen" vs Jura was quite funny.

"What the hell happened to Fairy Tail?!" Cana slurs out. Elfman calls her our for drinking instead of cheering for her team the whole time. Cana defends herself with, "I watched through the lacrima screen at the bar!"

"Y/N," Natsu calls you, "I heard what you told Lucy after her fight. We can only turn things around from here," He quotes me, "And I'm up tomorrow! Make sure to cheer extra loud for me!" He states.

"I hope you know I'm now apart of Fairy Tail B, so I'll cheer a bit louder for my team than yours." I say.

"Ah well hopefully they both Fairy Tails against each other during battles, so I can kick your butt in front of everyone else!" He yells and I sweat dropped. Why take out your own teammates?

"I heard Salamander say he's competing tomorrow, so I guess I should go in too." Gajeel walks up to Natsu and I.

"I'll cheer you on, Gajeel." I give him a thumbs up. Natsu accepts Gajeel's challenge.

"I think it's time for a speech for our Fairy Queen!" Makarov hiccups and calls me over. "Y/N! You gave Lucy some very inspiring words after her battle, so let's hear something to encourage us."

Master helps me stand on the table. "Today's defeat is a seed for tomorrow victory! Both teams will try their hardest to bring Fairy Tail back to number one. Anything below that is not an option—," I take Master's mug for him and raise it, "Hoping for better days!" And I drink all the beer in it in one go. Everyone yells "YEAH!" And drinks.

I jump off the table and see Cana having a drinking competition with Evergreen and Freed, who clearly can't outdrink her. Suddenly an unknown man walks up to Cana.

"Heavy drinker, eh babe?" He flirts. She hiccups in response. I get a good look at him and see a Quatro Cereberus mark on his back. He slams a mug of beer on the table. "How about a drinking competition?!" He suggests and Cana accepts the challenge.

"Does he really think he can outdrink the Cana?" Macao asks Wakaba. They start to warn the guy on how much of a heavy drinker Cana is, but he doesn't seemed fazed by their warnings.

-

Cana falls to the floor and everyone is shocked. "S-someone outdrank C-cana?" Someone says. And the guy keeps on drinking. Without saying anything else, the guy removes Cana's top.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Macao cries as the guy starts wobbling out the bar.

"My trophies." Three men go to attack the guy, but in one swift move, they're taken out.

"Bacchus?" Erza comes to check out the commotion.

"Erza~ As fine as ever." Bacchus coo'es.

Erza flinched at the smell of alcohol, "You smell. It's been a while, Bacchus."

"After War Cry's pathetic lose, Master asked me to join in. Hopefully we go head to head, Erza," He winks and with that, he's gone.

"Who's that?" I ask Erza.

"He's an S-Class wizard from Quatro Cerberus. We used to run into each other a lot on jobs. We've fought several times and there's never been a clear winner." Erza explains to everyone.

"I bet I can take him!" Natsu smirks and continues wrestling with Gray.

"Stop fighting!" I yell at the two and they quickly stop, scared of what I'll do to them. "We can't destroy anything especially now that we have no money to repair it."

"We'll have tons of money after we win these games!" Natsu screams confidently. And with that day one concluded. We all celebrated. All clueless to that fact July 7th was nearing.

The Dragon King Festival.