----Recap----
You began to think of your mother and the day before she left over and over again. It was all you were thinking about at the moment until you heard a large blast from the arena which reminded you of the struggle that was occurring right now. Your heart was shattered into pieces like glass... Like a crystal...
----End of Recap----
You were brought back from your thoughts from a loud crash and saw a gigantic hole within the center of the arena. How much did I miss? You asked yourself. On the lacrima vision you could see Natsu and Gajeel falling with Sting soon diving in. You also noticed that Sting and Rouge looked different, they had scales all over their bodies which confused you until the announcer began talking about them having dragon force.
Natsu soon caught himself on a falling piece of rubble and set up an attack towards Sting. Sting was pushed into the direction of Gajeel as Gajeel sent Sting into the ground. You quickly walked up to the railing in your team box as Sting stood up without a scratch on him. "Light?!" Erza gasped.
He has Holy Attribute Magic?! "Natsu, Gajeel!" you yelled out as they were attacked by the ray of light. Sting and Natsu started going at it till Sting eventually sent Natsu flying.
Soon it became a 2 on 1 fight as Natsu and Gajeel tried there best to take down Sting to no avail. You also noticed that Rouge was no where to be found. That's weird... Where is he? you began thinking. Sting stood proudly as Natsu and Gajeel laid on the floor... There's no way that they could have been beaten that easily! Or... Is this the strength of a third generation Dragon Slayer? You still couldn't comprehend the thought of killing your parent... The one who taught you, who raised you and cared for you. The day your Mother left, was one of the most painful days of your life. You could never kill her. Sure, you've been frustrated with her before but... who hasn't with their parent. You always thought she would come back... but she never did...
---Flashback to July 7th, X777---
You woke up with your jacket still wrapped around you and stood up. You checked the time and saw it was... 9:00?! You slept in and began to freak out. You quickly got dressed and brushed your teeth. You were about to walk out of your room till your new jacket caught your eye, yeah it was too big for you to wear now, it would get in your way. Then an idea popped into your head, you grabbed the jacket and wrapped it securely around your waist and headed out.
You began thinking of why your Mother didn't wake you up? And how your Mother even get this jacket? She's a dragon! She can't just walk into a store and buy something... then you remembered that your Mother had connections. That must be it! You thought triumphantly. You quickly checked where your Mother usually sleeps and saw that she wasn't there so she didn't sleep in.
You ran out of the cave and sprinted to the forest. She's gonna kill me! You ran to your usual training area and saw that it was empty as well. Maybe she was waiting and got tired of waiting... You waited a little longer so you decided to go looking for her, you used your enhanced senses to try and find her. Every lead I had went cold as I finally sat down to rest. I began thinking that this might be a training exercise. Seemed legit enough to you. You started to look down by the lake, just before the outskirts of the town, and through the rest of the forest.
-----Time skip-----
It was almost sundown and you began to doubt that all of this was a training exercise... You headed back home and searched around the cave some more and found nothing. You finally gave up and began cooking dinner. You ate, bathed, and got ready for bed. You checked around the crystal house, maybe she slipped a note through a window. You found nothing again and headed to bed.
You woke up the next morning, got ready at around sun rise, and began your search again. You did the same thing you did before with your leather jacket. You started to scout through the forest first which took up about half your day. You stopped down by the lake again to search, rest, and get water.
You stared at your reflection in the water and began to try to think positive. Maybe she had to go on an important journey and forgot to tell me? Yeah! She wouldn't just leave me here! She's my Mother and she loves me! Stuffing your head with positive bullshit was getting old very quickly and the negative began to invade your thoughts... Maybe something bad happened to her... Does she need my help? What if she left for good... If so, was it because of me? Did I do something wrong? Was I not working hard enough? Did she feel sorry for me when she found me? Was that the only reason that she trained me? Because I was so helpless and she felt bad? Did she fell that I was trained enough to survive on my own? Did she lie about loving me? Did she despise me so much that she finally... left?
A splash in the water from a fish awoke you from your thoughts and reminded you of your first day of training... Yeah, she showed you so much kindness and understanding... There's no way that she could have faked it. You finally got up and stopped wallowing in your self pity. If something did happen to her, she wouldn't want you to be like this... She would want you to never give up... or lose hope. You dusted yourself off and decided to train the rest of the day pushing yourself to the limit while constantly chanting to yourself, Never give up, don't lose hope, I'm doing this for Mother, I'm making myself a warrior...
---End of Flashback---
You trained yourself harder everyday from that point on waiting for her to come home but... she never did. You looked back at the fight to see Natsu standing his own against both Sting and Rouge. The hell did Gajeel go?! you thought to yourself angrily. But the worry of that left your mind as you watched Natsu fight and hold them both off with more ease. He was showing power that you've never seen before and you couldn't believe it! Both sides were strong and relentless, no one gave up which you definitely admired.
Eventually, Sting and Rouge began to prepare an attack, a unison raid... As their powers merged, the feeling of their magic became more desperate within each second. The power released from their attack was incredible yet, Natsu didn't move a muscle...
As a guild, you all had connected mind sets that can only be understood by each other... In unison, everyone gave the Fairy Tail salute. It showed how much we believe and have full confidence in each other. As the attack came closer to Natsu he didn't flinch until he finally prepared for the attack using a secret dragon slayer art which shook the arena completely obliterated Sting and Rouges' attacks which in the end... Took out Sting and Rouge... Natsu won! You couldn't help but give a smile at the idiot's face... Your smile soon took to a frown when you looked at Sting. It looked like he was in incredible pain... Damn It! There I go again! Forget him he's the enemy! you screamed at yourself.
Your team and you headed down to greet Natsu and congratulate him on his victory. Lily soon asked about Gajeel and Natsu figured he left the battle out of no where, but you found out earlier that Natsu sent him into a mine cart and into the tunnels, poor Gajeel...
As everyone began leaving, you called to Natsu, "Hey Natsu! Can I talk to you for a minute?"
He looked over his shoulder with a bit of blush on his face, "Hm? O-oh um... Sure Akiko, what's up?" He walked towards you a bit so he was right in front of you.
You gave a smile, "Well, I wanted to congratulate you on your win. You were incredible out there! I'm really impressed."
Natsu's blush got a bit more red, "Really?"
You nodded and did something that shocked him and you both, you pulled him into a hug. Not a loose hug or side hug, but a true whole-hearted hug. He hugged you back after recovering from a total of shock. You noticed how warm he was too... The two of you pulled back from the hug after a few minutes but still had each other's arm in an embrace.
You let go but Natsu kept his arms around you. "Natsu?" you asked hesitantly as you looked up at him. He started to lean in and you began having a panic attack, you thought about it so much that the touch of Natsu's lips against your's awoke you from your thoughts and left your mind blank. To your own surprise... You began to kiss back... Natsu pulled you against his body to deepen the kiss as your hands wrapped themselves around his neck. You two proceeded to make out in the currently abandoned corridor until you two finally pulled away for air. You two stared at each other for a few moments, both attempting to comprehend what just transpired between you two. "Y-you should get checked out at the infirmary and w-while you're there, tell the others a-about your match," you suggested to him trying to get out of this intimate situation. You added a smile to let him know he didn't do anything wrong because he now looked like a nervous wreck. He nodded and headed off to the infirmary. Once he was out of sight, you leaned your back against the wall and sighed. You put your finger tips to your lips and thought about how Natsu's were so soft despite just being in such a big battle just now... You began to wonder how Sting was doing, he must be devastated from the loss and only Kami knows what his guild master is going to do to him... You sighed once more thinking about visiting him- OK WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM THIS GUY SINCE THE GMG STARTED AND NOW I'M THINKING OF GOING TO HIM?!?! WHY AM I SO CONFLICTED?! You interrupted yourself angrily. You always became an emotional wreck when it came closer to the day your Mother disappeared. pulled yourself from the wall and began walking towards the exit hoping you could look after Asuka and or Romeo for a bit. To help you get your mind off of things.
------Time skip to later at a pub------
Everyone was rejoicing as you entered the pub. You had just put Asuka to bed after babysitting her for a few hours which were quite enjoyable. You ordered a water and walked to the back of the pub to relax as you looked on at your fellow guild mates. Only a few minutes into your observing, something black and fluffy fell onto your head, "Hey Tora," you greeted.
"Akiko!" Tora cheered happily. She left your head and sat on the table in front of you. "So Akiko, that was a pretty good match today with Natsu, huh?"
You nodded and smiled, "Yeah, and Gajeel barely got a taste of it."
She giggled, "Yeah! Lily was so worried about him too! I felt so bad."
You gave her a knowing look, "So, how's you and Lily going?"
She blushed and scowled, "I-it's not like we're together or anything!"
"Mmhmm..." you hummed smugly.
She sighed and mumbled, "You're so nosey..." She drank some of your water (you didn't mind) as another conflict began to unravel between Natsu and Gray.
"What was that, jackass?! Say that one more time!" Natsu shouted while standing on top of a table.
Gray who had his back turned to Natsu replied, "Jeez... I said you're too frickin' noisy, Natsu! You're stifling me."
"You wanna make somethin' of it?!" Natsu retorted.
Gray turned around, "You wanna make somethin' of it?!"
"Go for it Natsu!" Happy cheered.
Carla sighed, "As always, they've got more energy than they know what to do with. Right, Wendy?"
Wendy giggled, "One's a wizard who controls fire and the other one's a wizard who controls ice, so..."
Lily stepped in the conversation as well, "Well, I suppose we can't expect them to just get along. It's even deeper than that."
Juvia adored Gray from the side and Lucy stepped in, "Alright, that's enough! Any more and you'll destroy another pub!"
"Lucy..." Gray and Natsu said sadly in unison.
"Well there is a break in the GMG tomorrow, so why not let them blow off a little steam?" suggested Mira.
"Mira!" Lucy whined, "That's not the point!" Master Macarov just let out a drunken laugh. "Master! Is it okay to let them go at it?!"
Master chugged the rest of his drink, "I'll tell them off. Natsu! If you're gonna do it, go all in! Show me the fire of a dragon slayer!"
"H-hey! Wait a minute!" Shouted Lucy. The rest of the guild started cheering them on as well.
"You don't gotta tell me that! I'm gonna make ya cry, Gray!" shouted Natsu ready to brawl.
"You're gonna be the one crying, Natsu!" retaliated Gray.
The small exceed in front of you giggled at the scene, "Akiko, you might wanna step in before Erza does and kills one of them..."
You sighed but knew it was for the best and began to walk over. As they were going in for the first punches, you grabbed both their wrists to stop them. The were shocked to say the least. You started to tighten your grip on them and their faced twisted with pain as they begged for mercy. "Only if you don't destroy the pub," you offered. They happily accepted and you let go of their wrists.
Lucy hugged you and cried 'thank you's' for being the only one in the guild for understanding.
Soon Gajeel walked into the pub, "Yeesh, I finally made it out for crying out loud..." Natsu blamed Gajeel for walking out during the match which we had to explain to him again. "Forget abut it. More importantly, come with me, Salamander... You too Akiko... There's something I wanna show you two..."
Author's Note: Sup guys?! So, I got a little Natsu and Akiko action going on over here! Next update will involve a little bit of Sting and Akiko action! Anyway, I don't have much else to say so I hope that you enjoyed, please vote/ leave a comment/ add to library for more updates. Peace out girl scout!
~Xx_animegirl_xX