Phoenix Fire || Fairy Tail [1]

𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥

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"C'mon, man!" Sting cheered boisterously, shoving a glass of foaming alcohol in Rose's face, "let's get drunk and party the night away!"

Rose blocked the glass with her hand and looked at him blankly, unamused. "I hate to break it to you, but my metabolism doesn't allow for me to get drunk."

"Party pooper..." Sting pouted in mock offence. Rose rolled her eyes as he waltzed off to pester some random other party-goer, leaving her to stand in the corner listlessly like the socially awkward person she was. At some point, she decided to approach the buffet table to retrieve something to fill her ravenous stomach with.

That was a mistake.

"Oh, my!" a posh-looking young man exclaimed, rushing over to her, "you must be the phoenix slayer girl, yes?"

Rose raised a brow at him silently before answering. "I guess?"

"Wonderful! I'd been meaning to speak with you," the young man held his hand out for her with a flourish.

Rose squinted at his appendage as though it were a bomb, before eventually reaching out to shake it. She could only grimace as he pressed a kiss to the back of her glove. Maybe that dagger would come in handy after all...

"About what?" Rose inquired, only then remembering that he'd actually spoken.

Flashing her a charming smile, the man winked. "Why, about becoming my fiancée, of course—"

Rose tossed her fancy finger-food-on-a-tooth-pick at his face, hoping it nailed him in the eye, and high-tailed it out of there before he could say another word. She should have known there'd have been weirdoes mixed in among the guests. It was apparently quite common for random people to attempt to set themselves up with members of the winning guild to have a chance at stardom.

"Lucy!"

Screeching to a halt, Rose hurriedly ducked behind her blonde friend. When she felt the area was clear, she breathed out in relief and stepped away as though nothing had happened, crossing her arms – the picture of indifference.

"What was all that about?" Lucy inquired cautiously, unsure as to what could have evoked such a reaction from her usually apathetic friend.

Rose scuffed the floor with her heel, as though trying to clean the tiles of some insignificant dirt particle.

"... I ran into a weird person, that's all..."

"Okay then?" Lucy tilted her head, but then seemed to remember something. "Oh, yeah...! I've been meaning to ask you something. Is it okay if we go out to the balcony to discuss this?"

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Rose merely bobbed her head wordlessly before falling into step beside Lucy. They exited the bustling golden hall and emerged atop a stone balcony washed blue by the moonlight, the lights of the city sparkling jovially below.

"So..." Rose began nervously. It was unlike Lucy to be so serious. It was uncanny.

"I guess I should just say it, huh?" Lucy asked, though it was more to herself than it was to Rose. The phoenix slayer merely watched her as she moved to stand against the stone rail, silhouette pale pink against the darkening navy sky.

"How old are you, Rose?"

Rose felt her blood turn to ice. For Lucy to be asking this question... did that mean...?

"Don't you remember?" Rose rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously, "I mentioned this when I registered at the guild, didn't I? I'm twenty."

"You say that..." Lucy turned to fixate the phoenix slayer with her gaze, and Rose felt like she couldn't stand to lie to such a person. "... but you've been dropping hints all over the place. You're so apathetic, so cold – so well-adjusted to violence – not to mention how much you seem to know about dragons, even though they went extinct so long ago..."

Rose felt like she was trying to swallow a rock wrapped in sandpaper. Finally, she managed a few words, though they were shaky. "What are you trying to imply?"

She felt cold. The warmth of the party was long gone, and now she was standing with the moon as her judge and the stars as her jury—

"I did some reading on phoenixes," Lucy said finally. Despite her usual conviction when it came to books and tomes, at that moment she sounded almost hopeful that what she'd learnt was untrue. "About phoenix slayers, too. And I realised that it was rather odd that we'd never heard of either, and that there was no such thing as a phoenix slaying lacrima... because that would mean there was no way for you to be a slayer. I accessed the palace library... Princess Hisui gave me access to their restricted books... and I found that the last phoenixes were killed or sealed away centuries ago... and that they were known especially for a certain ability..."

Rose bit her lip and tried to not notice that Lucy's voice was escalating into a panicked crescendo. Everything was turning cold – her skin, her heart, her mind. The cold was devouring her. She was freezing over like a shallow lake in the dead of winter.

"Rose..." Lucy whispered, eyes growing glossy with unshed tears, "...Rose, how long have you been twenty?"

Rose felt the air around them growing even chillier and the stars above them shining brilliantly on in their frigid blue light and the moon glaring down at her disapprovingly – and she felt that the ballroom of a few seconds ago had suddenly become far more preferable an option to this.

"Four centuries now," Rose said softly, as if she hoped saying it quietly enough would cause the reality of her existence to fade out into oblivion.

"Four... four centuries," Lucy repeated to herself. Rose frowned and took a step back. Had she overstayed her welcome? What was she expecting, fooling around with mortals for so long? Obviously, something of her nature would not be accepted nor tolerated in a place so pure as Fairy Tail.

"I'm sorry," Rose said finally, already preparing herself to run before she could face the backlash of what she'd done.

Lucy was silent. The stars burned brighter yet, and it felt as though they were trying to scald Rose's skin.

"Sorry?" Lucy echoed hollowly, looking to Rose, who was beginning to regret associating with people in the first place. "Rose, it's not something to be sorry for. It's just—I just— I don't know... it's a bit difficult to comprehend, but... it's not your fault."

Rose tried not to let the fact that she'd ever felt hurt show. "I don't think I should stay here any longer."

"What? Why? I mean... I get that you—"

"Get what, exactly?" Rose began defensively, arms crossed. She looked very much like an agitated predator that'd been caged for far too long in that moment, and it seemed as though she'd transform into her fiery avian form and fly away if Lucy so much as made a misstep. "What is there to understand? I don't belong here, Lucy – I never did – and it would be stupid of me to think otherwise. It's not like I spent four hundred years doing charity work! I'm a murderer! A killer! I'm sure you've read some book that can tell you as much— monsters don't get happy endings... I don't get a happy ending."

Despite the assurance with which she claimed this, Rose seemed to be trying to persuade herself just as much as she was Lucy.

"Then why did you come in the first place, if you believe you didn't deserve a happy ending?"

Rose was still. The sky was still. For that moment, it seemed that even the ballroom had grown silent and lifeless. "... I don't know."

"Exactly!" Lucy took a few confident strides forward and jabbed an accusing finger at Rose's shoulder, earning wide eyes filled with bewilderment. "You deserve an opportunity, Rose – no matter how much of a monster you think you are."

Rose had nothing to say to that.

Published: 04/12/2017

Edited: 04/03/2019