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I never thought the night to be that hectic, firstly, Evergreen got up in the middle of the night and found Kaya's bed empty. Worried sick, she woke us up, "Kaya left."
Freed grumpily rubbed his eyes, and accompanied the witch to their room. Inspecting her stuff, he found that her bag of flasks disappeared but the rest was left scattered at the bed end.
Bickslow smirked, and turned to me, "Do you smell where she could've left?"
I hummed the air, and followed the perfume she left in the air, we were all astounded when we found out she headed to the depth of the forest. Weirdly, her scent stopped at a point in a tree, growing near a burrow, I could hear, voices and huge shoutings through the tree. It was no ordinary tree.
Bickslow grinned and one of his minion tapped on the tree bark. Eyes revealed through a hole in the tree. "What do you want?" he asked with a threatening tone. Ever stepped before him, removing her glasses to turn him into stone. She kicked the door open. The group passed through a narrow corridor leading to a hidden tavern in the burrow.
"I didn't know such places existed..." remarked Freed with a serious expression. Scanning the place, Laxus frowned when he found the smell of his mage leading to a brunette woman, seducing a man in the corner of the place.
She was wearing a revealing outfit, and chuckled lightly to the man. Laxus froze up when he recognized the man they were searching. "Bickslow? Is it really Kaya there?"
The possession-mage cackled, noticing the woman playing with her prey. "It is."
The enhanced hearing of Laxus allowed him to hear the Kaya's smooth voice expressing 'handsome' to the stranger. Soon after, both left the place, through of a back passage. Laxus grunted all he could, that amused his comrades a lot. Ever was impressed by the skills of Kaya.
The team silently followed the duo outside, Laxus was preparing to knock the man out, especially when he leapt forward to Kaya. However, the mage slyly pulled out of a flask of suspicious liquid making him breath it. All at once, the dragon slayer perceived the dying voice of the man. "What are you... do... ing....?". Then he fell in the dirt.
The lightning mage swore he perceived the satisfied grin of his comrade. "Sleep tight." She bent over the criminal, hand-cuffing him, beaming up at her own work. "All done." she declared with confidence, hands on her hips.
"What was that?" exploded Laxus, making their presence known to their friend.
She froze in place, noticing the presence of her team, Ever and Bickslow laughed, noting the stunned cat being caught mischieving. "Shoot."
"Well she definitely could handle him alone." Ever concluded.
"So you already knew where he was hiding?" was asking Freed as they were carrying the researched criminal to town in the forest. Kaya nodded.
"I had an idea. Most criminals hide in the underground." she informed us, unfazed.
"The underground?" pointed out Ever with curiosity.
"Yes, dark guilds have their own places where they do businesses as well as taverns to entertain themselves." she added, pulling her cape closer, Laxus frowned enough for him to have wrinkles in one hour.
"How come you know all this?" questioned Freed with suspicions. Kaya smiled at that question. "Well, working with Crime sorciere allowed me to enter that world. I'm pretty sure I know all the hidden spot located in Fiore."
The scowl on Laxus' face worsened, hearing those words. She was researched by all of those dark guilds, yet literally hid under their nose. "Come on, we didn't frequent them as much." she reassured him, smiling with all her teeth.
"Jellal worked to disband most of those places. But some kept running, and I was sure such a person would roam there."
Ever approached the mischievious mage with malice in her eyes. "How come you know how to act like that?" she interrogated Kaya right before Laxus.
Kaya rubbed her neck, a bit uncomfortable. "Well, Meredy and Ultear taught me how."
"Why?" this time, it was directly Laxus who asked.
"To extort information from someone or even capture a researched person without causing ruckus. The liquid is a mix of herbs causing faintings and even death if you breath it for too long."
Freed trembled, hearing the news she delivered as if it was nothing. "You can't use that, what if the council heard about this! You would be suspected of crimes! Even buying it would bring you trouble" he warned her.
She shrugged with indifference, "Well, the thing is, I don't buy them."
The group turned to them with amazement, Bickslow asked with wonder, "Then how do you acquire this?"
"I learnt how to make them?" she confessed. Everyone stopped walking, observing the young woman walking joyfully near Clover in the early morning.
"Are you aware it might be dangerous!" Ever worried, scolding her friend, playing with her cheeks.
"Relax, it's not like I'm a novice. I played with these things for quite a long time." Freed reminisced that time they visited her flat in the capital, at that time, he never realised why she had so many dried herbs hanging in her kitchen, he suspected innocently that she used them for cooking.
Laxus cleared his throat, avoiding her gaze, "Well, you could've informed us of your little plan, you know."
A teasing smirk appeared on her face, "Drop the act, Laxus, I knew you all would have refused. I needed to prove that my methods work."
Laxus shuffled, bothered, Evergreen teased him about how he was flustered seeing her light outfit. He wondered how she could transitioned to such clothes without a sly.
"You're right, okay? I think I will let you do the work as you wish now." he accepted, reluctant. Kaya's eyes lit up, and the guys could see her jumping with excitement.
"Thank you!" she threw with glittering eyes. Now that her friends knew her interest for poison, and plants, from time to time, she would stop to pick out herbs, she'd carefully place in her little bag.
The anguishness in her eyes made Ever and Freed shiver a bit. She sure was weird and hide it very well. Until then...
Laxus on the other hand, refrained from grunting around her, he didn't want to disappoint her and push her away. She seemed lighter, and it is as if she stopped concealing a new part of her personality the group didn't know about.
After giving the man who was captured to the authorities, Kaya split the reward with the guys. They tried to refuse it, but she ignored it, stating that it was purely for accompanying her. She still was stubborn as hell. Coming home, Laxus reflected thoroughly on the question. Maybe it was time to ask her.
So when he recovered from the train ride, he turned to Kaya, "Hey, I have something to ask you." he pronounced with calm.
The woman slowed her pace, her interested eyes pointed to him. "What is it?" Laxus thought about it, with anticipation, his tongue helped the words to spat out.
"Do you want to join the Thunder Tribe?" he asked.
Suddenly, Kaya's eyes brightened up and she jumped on the dragon slayer with her small frame, embracing the large s-class rank. Fortunately, she changed her clothes from yesterday to her usual long sun-dresses. "I thought you would never ask!" she exclaimed with joy.
Laxus' cheeks reddened upon hearing that. He gave back the embrace of the girl, both stood like this until their companions shook them out of their daze.
"Hey you two! Let's get going, you lovebirds." joked Bickslow, tapping the hand of Evergreen, both demonstrating a satisfied grin. And Laxus broke the embrace between the two. He attempted to brace himself up, but the teasing wouldn't stop. He knew for sure, he wouldn't get away with it at the guild.
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As promised there's two chapter tonight, it's night in France, right now. I hope you enjoyed the second chapter. I had too much fun, writing it.
Thanks you all readers, for giving a chance to my first ever finished writing project. I promise to launch more chapters as days goes by. ;)