Hot and Cold

Day Three

~*****~

I can hear the destruction inside of the fancy hotel, urging me to go barging in. I find Natsu cracking blows against what I assume is Sabertooth's Master. When the dust settles from an intense attack, I can only shout. "Natsu!" I shout angrily. "What the hell are you doing?!" A woman stands in front of the master, and she completely deflected Natsu's Lighting Flame Dragon attack as if it were nothing.

"Certainly, you'll agree. This little quarrel of ours has gone too far." The woman hums.

"What?" Natsu growled as I stomped towards him and grasped onto his sleeve.

"How dare you get in my way! This does not concern you." The master snapped.

"Please forgive me. You could easily defeat this man, so I'm not doing this for your sake, father," The woman chirped.

"He's your dad?" Natsu echoed.

"But we must take into consideration how this altercation would appear to the outside world." The woman stated. "Despite the fact that you are clearly the aggressor in this situation, our master killing another competitor would leave Sabertooth in an awkward position, to say the very least. It would certainly put a damper on the games."

"You know what I think--" Natsu tried.

"I don't care what you would think, Natsu!" I snap at him. Natsu snaps his gaze onto me, eyes wide and shocked. "Get. Moving." I say through my gritted teeth. I turn back to the woman. "We will leave peacefully." I say slowly. "And continue the games as normal. I understand that my guild mate has disturbed all of your slumber and infuriated your guild but take my sincerest apologies. I'm sure neither party wants to deal with the fallout from this." I can't believe I'm spitting these words out.

The woman hums delicately, her lip curling up in a snide smirk as I bow my head, turn and grasp Natsu's arm to pull him out. "You've got some serious guts for such a fool." The master hums.

"We can settle this matter once and for all inside the arena," The woman chirps. "Where we'll show you no mercy."

Natsu stops me and turns his glare over his shoulder. "Fine. But you'll never beat us. We're at a whole other level. Cause a real guild treats its members like family. That's why I came here tonight." Natsu stopped me a ways down the street. "Why'd you stop me?" He asks irritably.

"Think about it, idiot--" I snap and take a sharp inhale. "I'm sorry for being angry, but dammit, Natsu!" I snap again. "If you had injured someone on their team, Fairy Tail would've been kicked out of the games or worse. Do you understand just how crippling that would be to the guild? We're already on thin ice with the magic council, and if they found out we'd attacked another guild during the games, we might be disbanded! It's not just a guild anymore, it's the livelihood of our friends and home to all of us!" I storm forward for a moment before whirling back around to Natsu. "Tell me exactly why you decided to go there tonight. I want to hear the full story and don't you dare leave anything out!"

Natsu stared down at me for a moment, his cheeks flushed before he snorted and leaned forward, his forehead pressing against mine. I couldn't help the hum of appreciation worming it's way out of my throat as I'm suddenly being enveloped in a tight hug. He does explain in full detail, and I can understand why he'd rage so hard like that. "I'm sorry I made you mad." Natsu murmured.

I hum and let out a soft sigh. "I understand your frustration. I really do. But going about it that way, was a misstep. You need to save that anger for the games. I know it sounds childish, but that's what we're facing against now." I pull away slightly. "They might target us specifically now. And with Raven Tail on our butts, too, it's going to make winning the games even harder."