Lost Goodbyes

ZERO

:A HEARTFELT MEMORY:

His eyes blinked slowly, awareness of the surroundings quickly sobered his thoughts.

Honey, her hair was like honey.

He reached out to run his hands through her soft, thick hair, to hear her groggy mumbles, to have something of her.

But his hands grasped air, and his dreams were awakened by reality...

:MERRI:

'Goodbye, I've always hated the very word. I hate saying it even more so, I hate the way it rolls of the tongue, I hate how it sounds, but most of all?

I hate why it has to be said.

My first experience with the word was when my Grandfather died, and as a child I associated the word with death. Being older now, I understand that it can be said for many things, and it can also be a way to a way to say hello again.

But still, I hate goodbyes.'

Snapped from her thoughts by the loud explosion from the left, a tired look formed on her face, one she had carried on many of her missions. A groan is silenced as Merri stumbles to stand up, her legs protest in pins and needles.

"Here comes the cleaner," rolling her eyes, she begins to walk in the direction of the destruction. Slowly making her way there.

Don't rush the cleaner, they have all the poisons...

:SKIP THE TIME:

It had taken awhile, but she had managed to trace her teammates footsteps, and as her job implied, she cleaned up the mess they had left.

First she dealt with the ones who hadn't been knocked out, then she dealt with the wounded, taking her time to drag them all into a pile. Then, she dealt with the majority of damage, which had been done to her ego.

A power type mage, she had been reduced from leading fighter to babysitter since the arrival of him. She didn't mind, she never minded.

She was Merri...

Lifting the final person, she threw them over her shoulder, a soft 'oofph' could be heard from both parties. Thirty men, it had taken around an hour to clean up thirty persons.

Then came the easiest bit, Merri had to wait for the governments pigs to arrive to take their bandits.

Her team had chosen to clean out a group of bandits from a small, but important town in which many officials liked to holiday in. The group had been causing problems with those residing in the town, and the mayor had offered a large reward to anyone who could clean them out.

Resting her body against the pile of unconscious fools, Merri patiently waited for something to happen.

:SKIP THE TIME:

"Heck yeah! Do you see it, Merri?"

"Yes, Dimitri, I can see the buffet. It is extremely, and slightly disturbingly, large,"

Dimitri, who was overjoyed by the sight of editable food, had trouble containing his excitement. Even his pants couldn't hide it.

Moving away from the bouncing male, Merri signaled towards the food, which released the beast, who would leave no evidence that a buffet ever existed.

To the left of the room, away from the onslaught of gluttony, sat Acel and Ezekiel, who both watched in morbid interest in Dimitri's eating.

Casually, Acel raised a bill in air.

"A hundred berries, Dimitri will eat it in under ten minutes," Without either looking away, Ezekiel raises his hand to shake hers.

"I give him roughly around five minutes," They shake on the deal and a watch magically appears and starts counting down.

The last member, a cat like creature who was called Kiko, slowly walked into the room and closed the door.

Both he and Merri, under mutual understandings that this was too sick to watch, move out of the room to discuss what was happening behind closed doors of the payers.

"They were arguing about whether to give us the money, or use it to rebuild the town," Causally, he leans against the pole.

Looking down at her feline companion, Merri is unsure of how to respond.

"They have agreed to give us a limited amount of the money, and are going to use the rest to pay for the damage..."

"We did destroy the town, Kiko," She replies softly.

"I know, but we completed the job. Surely they must have understood that damages would occur?"

"It's the government, they would have been stingy about money even if there was no destruction," He sighs in agreement.

"Ah, what?! You purposely slowed down!"
"Don't make bets about my eating and I won't fuck up your bets."
"This is an outrage!"
"THIS IS SPARTA!"
"Give me the money that both of you bet with,"

Kiko and Merri find themselves chuckling at their teammates antics, as they usually did.

It would be a long night before dawn broke...

:SKIP THE TIME:

After a long journey, the team had returned home, with half the promised amount of berries. After destroying half the town in a battle of warriors, the officials refused to give them the five hundred thousand berries that the job had been listed for.

Exhausted, Merri, Dimitri, Ezekiel, Acel and Kiko all got off at the Magnolia train station, with their heads high at the joy at being home.

With less money then they hoped.

Annd a possible lecture from Master Makarov for the destruction they caused.

Plus the amount of teasing they would receive from their guild mates.

Plus horrific punishments from the Master.

Their heads and shoulders drooped lower then their knees and toes.

"At least Gramps won't be as harsh as he would be with Diaki..." Trying to brighten the mood, Ezekiel brings up the misfortune of their notorious guild mate.

"And he promised that every first monthly punishment would be the least harsh," Dimitri pipes up.

"But this is our ninth," Pointing out their doom, the four glare at Kiko.

Shaking her head, Merri looks at her team in mild disappointment.
"Let's just get this over with, I'd rather have any punishment over and done with, then it being dragged out by worrying 'bout it..."

Taking the lead, Merri starts toward the guild, even though Kiko and her had nothing to do with the actual damage and had even cleaned up a majority of it, they both still took the horror of what their Master had in stall, as a team.

Following in worry, the rest of the group make their way to the guild.

A soft whisper of bells chime in the wind.
"Goodbye sweet laughter..."

:SKIP THE GOODBYES:

Hello! And welcome to my newest story, which I hope will be completed, hopefully my first completed story!

Anyway, tell me what you think, any questions you have, and if you want you could give some suggestions.

If you want you can vote, but only if you enjoyed and want more.

Diaki belongs to : YourWorstFantsy

And her story is on : CarrotLovingMonkey (which hasn't been published yet.)

It's a co-written story between Worst and I (Are you insulted?)

Goodbye~ (Merri: CREATOR!!)

~MercyGod out (~-3-)~