"Where the hell did she go?" Laxus grumbled as he walked through Magnolia.
The Thunder God Tribe immediately suggested that they help him look for her as soon as Emi walked out. It had been about an hour since she suddenly left the guild. Once Freed returned to the guild, he revealed that they were unable to locate the woman. This caused everyone in the guild to help look.
Gajeel looked at Laxus and apologized, saying that it seemed like he was the one who tripped her pain. Laxus looked at him and shook his head.
"It's been happening a lot lately. It's been getting worse each time."
Natsu was the next one to speak up, shouting, "Well just leave it to us dragon slayers. We can smell her out if we have to."
Hope seemed to return back to the worried members of Fairy Tail.
"Of course," Lucy exclaimed. "How could I not think of that? We'll let you all lead and we'll split up with you to help look."
"I doubt it's going to work," Laxus spoke up.
"Why would you think that?" Gray asked.
"If you all haven't forgotten, I'm a dragon slayer, too. And I haven't been able to catch her scent anywhere."
Hope seemed to leave the guild once again and everyone's heads hung low.
-------------
Who was that? And why did it seem like we were so close? I couldn't even see his face, but I felt so warm around him.
After Emi had run away from the guild, she made her way through different alleys, making sure to conceal her scent by using a magical item she had picked up a while back called scent-be-gone. Emi laughed at the simple and rather direct name for the contraction, but she appreciated it in situations like this where she just wanted to be alone.
Emi made her way to the edge of town, aimlessly walking. She had spotted a small bakery closer to Magnolia's center, so she started to head in that direction. Emi had made it about halfway to the shop when she accidentally bumped into someone.
"I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's fine."
Emi looked up at the person she had bumped into and saw that it was a man with red eyes and black hair. He was wearing a cloak with a white guild crest on the left shoulder. His hair was blocking one of his eyes, so she couldn't really see his face.
"Fro thinks so too!"
Emi quickly whipped her head towards the ground where a green creature stood.
"Um, frog?"
"Cat," the man corrected.
"Ribbit."
If he's a cat then why is he making frog noises?
"You're very cute. What's your name?" Emi asked as she squatted down to the exceed's level.
"His name is Frosch."
"Well it's very nice to meet you, Frosch. Um, and I'm sorry for running into you again," Emi awkwardly ended.
Emi started to walk away when she spotted who she recognized as Wakaba making his way towards her. Emi quickly scurried into an alleyway so that she wouldn't be seen. Damn. Laxus really made the whole guild look for me? What a pain.
Emi snuck around Magnolia, slowly inching towards the bakery. When she finally reached the shop, she quickly opened the door and slipped inside. Once inside, Emi took her hood off and walked up to the counter to see all the baked goods that she could choose from. Emi's mouth started to water at the sight of all the food. She didn't need to be a dragon slayer to smell the beautiful scents of the different cakes, cookies and pies. Emi stopped when she saw a perfectly cut piece of apple pie.
"Excuse me, can I have a slice of apple pie?"
The baker smiled brightly and handed Emi the slice before asking for payment. Once Emi paid, she exited the shop. She went to turn towards the edge of town again to eat her pie in peace, but she spotted a white tail with a bow tied on it. That must be Charle, which means Wendy is close by. I have to be careful of her nose.
Emi ended up eating her pie in a dark alleyway while avoiding the others of the guild.
"There you are!"
Crap. Emi slowly looked around, but she didn't see anyone. She heard them again, and she looked upwards to see Natsu on top of the building behind her.
"Um, Natsu, why are you up there?"
"To look for you of course!" Natsu smiled wide as he jumped down from the building and landed in front of her in the alleyway.
"How did you find me? I thought I covered my scent enough."
"Oh, I didn't smell you. I could smell a delicious pie and followed it right to you!"
"Um, Natsu? I don't really want to go back yet, so can you wait to turn me in for a little while longer?"
Natsu looked unsure as he reasoned, "You know Laxus is really worried about you. I wouldn't want to be on his bad side."
Emi sighed before an idea popped into her head.
"If I share my pie with you, will you pretend you didn't find me?"
Natsu's eyes lit up as he immediately sat down next to Emi. He instantly agreed and they started eating the pie together in the alleyway.
---------------------
"Has anyone been able to locate Emi?" Warren asked through telepathy.
Gajeel's group (Levy, Jet, Droy, Macao and Reedus) replied that they hadn't, which was the same response he got from Wendy's group (Erza, Gray, Cana, Lucy and Wakaba) and Laxus's group (Evergreen, Bickslow, Freed, Juvia and Mira).
"Has anyone heard from Natsu or Romeo?"
Romeo then spoke up, reporting that Natsu had run off to get something to eat, claiming that he couldn't effectively look on an empty stomach.
"That idiot," Lucy chided, "this is an emergency and all he can think about is food."
-----------------------------
"So," Nastu questioned with his mouth full, "why'd you run off like that?"
"I don't really know. I guess I just wanted to be alone."
"You remembered something, right? What was it?"
Emi looked up to the sky and saw that it was getting dark. The stars had started to come out.
"Natsu?" Emi asked, gaining the dragon slayer's attention, "Do you ever think that the people you miss most are watching you from afar?"
Natsu stated that her statement made no sense to him before Emi elaborated.
"You miss your dragon, right?" Natsu nodded in response, which let Emi continue by questioning, "Well, what if you forgot about your dragon, but you still missed him? What if you missed someone that you couldn't remember?"
Natsu put down his fork and turned to Emi, saying, "I would probably be really frustrated and angry. I would never want to forget Igneel, no matter how much pain missing him brings me."
Emi nodded at Natsu's answer and explained that she was going through the same emotion that he described. She was mad that she couldn't remember the people who she assumed were those she held close.
"I couldn't even remember my parents. The first thing I'm able to remember about them is the memory of watching them die in front of me. And then I got a memory about someone training me and then a memory of someone that made me feel warm."
"Warm?"
"I don't really know how to explain it. I felt comfortable and safe. Almost like Laxus, but at the same time it was completely different."
Emi and Natsu sat in silence for a few moments before Emi got up. She held out her hand for Natsu to use to stand up and she looked at him with a smile.
"Thank you for listening, Natsu. It really helped. I think I'm ready to go back now."
Natsu gave his signature grin before pulling her down the alleyway.
"We're getting more pie first!"
---------------------------
Everyone in the search team returned back to the guildhall.
Makarov spoke up, "So nobody was able to locate her?"
Everyone shook their heads at the master saying that they had looked everywhere and came up empty. The doors to the hall then opened and revealed Emi and Natsu walking in.
"Found her!"
All of the wizards stood in shock as they watched Natsu and Emi walk into the guild, both holding an entire pie. Laxus was the first one to speak up.
"Where the hell have you been? Do you know how late it is? You could've gotten hurt. Someone from a dark guild could've--"
"I was just getting some pie. Don't worry. I made sure to stay in well lit areas where lots of people were for possible witnesses," Emi easily lied, fully well knowing that she had done the complete opposite the whole night.
Laxus huffed before walking up to her. He grabbed the pie away from her and set it on the nearest table, earning a "hey!" from the woman. The lightning mage then pulled Emi in for a sudden hug, which shocked Emi and the entire guild. Laxus pulled away from the hug and smiled.
"I'm glad you're okay."
Emi went to smile back at him when he smacked her in the back of the head.
"Is that what you wanted me to say? You idiot, what would you do if someone cornered you? You can't even bring yourself to kill a spider when it comes into your bed. You're reckless and lack any caution."
Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the couple. Despite his lecturing, Emi hugged him tightly before facing upwards to look at him and smiled at him.
"I brought you some apple pie, though. Does that make up for it? It's really good."