Of Fire and Ice

C.31

We walked through the town I knew well, and lived in for six years almost. I recounted memories of different shops and places Ari and I had been kicked out of numerous times.

I thought I recognised a shirtless dude who was working as a blacksmith, but I didn't have time to check. We kept walking without me saying a word.

"Hey, we've gotten low on food. We should make a quick stop to just buy some stuff. It'll take two minutes." Natsu said. "How did we get that low on food already?!" I asked. "Well, there are eight of us now, and Natsu and Happy eat a lot." Grey said. "We might as well. Besides, it'll only take a few minutes." Erza said. And since Erza's words were gospel, we had to.

I was by Natsu and Lucy, looking at bread when I heard a voice. "Henley? What are you doing here?" A deep voice asked and I turned around. "Henley? Sorry sir, think you've got the wrong person." I said and turned back around.

"Oh please. I'd know those violet eyes anywhere." He scoffed and I turned around and sighed. "Hello, Radcliffe. What do you want? I'm on a little bit of tight schedule." I said.

"Just wondering what the hell you're doing here. You must know by now that the dark guild Pantheon are searching out light haired girls." He said. "Light? I thought they were looking for just blondes?" I said. "Nope. Blonde, light brown, light red, white, they don't care. They're taking everyone." He sighed.

"Well shit. We got to get going." I sighed. "You guys, pay for that and grab the others." I said to Natsu and Lucy, and they ran off. "How'd you know it was me?" I asked him. "Ariadne sticks out like a sore thumb." He said and I smiled a little.

"I've missed you, Hen. Really. Things get boring round here with our favourite fire making criminal." He sighed and I just shrugged. "Sorry, Rad. I've got a life now. Crime is done for." I hummed.

"You promised me two years ago you'd come back." He said and I bit my lip and looked away. "Yeah... sorry about that. Got caught up in some stuff." I said nervously. "What did you get so caught up in that you left the town? Left me? We were so close, Hen. Didn't you miss me at all?" He grabbed my hand and turned me to face him.

By this time, my friends were back, and I was wishing that I couldn't speak. Radcliffe looked heartbroken, so I'd just have to break it further instead of lying to him.

"I'd be lying if I said I did. You know I hate lying to my friends." I said slowly. "You hypocrite." Radcliffe snarled and walked away. For good.

I took a breath, straightened myself out, then turned to the others. "Come on, home isn't far now." I said and Ari and I lead them through the last two miles or so of forest, and by sundown, we reached the cabin in the middle of the woods.

"So this is where you grew up." Lucy said as we stepped in. "Yep." I sighed and took and deep inhale. Roses and lilacs with a strong sense of firewood smoke. "Still smells exactly the same." I smiled and immediately felt calm, at peace.

"Look! The burn mark from when you first breathed fire!" Ari said, pointing to a small black mark on the living room wall. "And there's yours, Ari." I said and pointed to the opposite wall, a burn parallel of mine.

"And there's the crack in the doorway you made when you were thirteen..." Ari trailed off as we stared at it. "What happened?" Erza asked. "I made that crack when I came back here after... after I watched my parents die." I sighed softly. "That same night, we moved out of this house and took shelter in an inn in the town I worked in. We haven't been back since." I said.

"So here's a question. If it took us a day and a half to get here, how come it took you two five years to get to Fairy Tail?" Natsu asked. "We traveled all around, dummy. We tried to find a place to stay all across Fiore, but we kept getting kicked out. Magnolia is the first we haven't been kicked out of." Ari explained.

"We should get some sleep." Erza said after a moment of silence. "Dibs!" Grey called, taking my hand. "There's no need to call dibs, idiot." I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, we all know." Natsu rolled his eyes. "And don't keep us up again, kay?" Lucy said. "Same to you, Mrs Dragneel." I smirked.

"Just go to bed!" Lucy yelled as Natsu blushed wildly.