brains and brawn | sting eucliffe

⁹ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ɪɴ ᴍʏ ɢᴜɪʟᴅ ɪꜱ ᴛʀʏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴋɪʟʟ ᴍᴇ

The hallway seemed to stretch on for miles, the echoes of the crowd thundering through the concrete walls like it was nothing.

Gears' ears rang slightly from the noise, making her feel sick to her stomach. She pitied the dragon slayers in the arena, because at the moment she wanted to rip out her skull. It made her a bit dizzy, actually. Clenching her eyes closed, she winced as the sounds grew louder.

The orangette was lined up along with the rest of her team in one of the east wings of the stadium, waiting for their cue to be announced. She couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when they saw their team exit into the playing field.. if only this stupid ass headache would go away.

Growling at the ground, the girl waited for the rest of them to start moving towards the gates.

Makarov had chosen for the team to match their outfits, so instead of the violet that team A wore, this group wore dark purple and black. Which.. definitely wasn't her style.

But, thankfully for her it seemed to work. It was pretty snug, but she thought it was cute. A black jumpsuit clung to her features, the only 'revealing' thing about it being the fact that the sleeves were low cut. A purple belt decorated the middle, along with little white and purple stripes going down the sides of her legs. The combat boots she wore were just regular, but still cute.

All in all, they somehow got her an outfit that didn't make her want to barf or curl up in complete embarrassment.

"And in fifth place.."

The girl was still struck with nerves.. it was a huge crowd, a whole lot of people watching her every move. It.. terrified her. She wasn't used to all the attention.

"Hey.." A voice resounded from her side, and she turned her head to see Gajeel crouched besides her. "You okay, short-stack?"

The girl blinked at the man, pursing her lips before shaking her head. "It's a lot of noise, it makes my head hurt. How in the world are you doing okay?"

The metal-mage raised a brow. "I have heightened senses, not sensitive ones. Sound the same, but they're completely different."

Gears nodded slowly, still curled up into a ball as she pressed her knees to the sides of her head, trying to relieve the pressure. "Oh. Well- that makes sense."

He sighed as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You'll be fine, promise. Once you get out there it'll be better- it just echoes here, makes it worse than it actually is."

The younger teen gave out a nod in agreement as he sighed, getting up and giving her a hand. She looked up at him to see the rest of the team giving her either smiles or soft nods in reassurance. Finally taking his hand, she pursed her lips. "Let's do this."

It wasn't very far until they were almost visible to the crowd, the light of the day blinding them as they approached. Finally it was their turn.

"Oh wow! What a surprise!" The announcer cried as they made their way out of the concrete hallway. "This year's competition just got a whole lot more interesting, folks!"

The girl stepped out into the light as lightning crackled around them, creating the Fairy Tail logo in mid-air. She gaped at it as the headache slowly started to let up, and her yellow eyes filled with excitement. Which totally ruined their 'cool-kid' vibe, but it was fine. She was a teenager, let her be.

"It's Fairy Tail team B!"

Gears looked up from where she tried to hide behind Laxus, smiling and waving at the ones she knew. The girl was too happy not to at least greet familiar faces.