Celestial Heart (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 16: Fairy Tail Accepts Criminals

Loke's POV

"She'll be back soon, Loke. Just wait a little bit."

I sighed quietly, readjusting my position against the wall. Levy and I had settled down just outside Lorenzo's shop. The frantic father had rushed off just as we'd arrived, panicked about Ayah, spouting gibberish about how he'd promised not to involve her and I did exactly what he asked!

It wasn't hard to piece together; at least not for Levy.

Ayah had been in Candor's control, forcing Lorenzo to do the teen's bidding, including sending the faux job offer to Fairy Tail's request board. The deal had been something along the lines of "Ayah won't be harmed so long as you do as I say", but was obviously null and void now that Lorenzo had gone chasing after his daughter.

My brow creased as I rested my head against the shopfront. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right."

She was more right than either of us knew, something I most definitely took for granted at the time.

"Oi! You two! Do you know if Fairy Tail accepts criminals?"

Criminals...? She wouldn't really...

Oh but of course she would. She was Winter, and her primary meaning for existence was to continually throw my life into disarray.

It was Winter alright, standing (or, more acurately, hobbling) beside a thin green-haired boy, both of them hunched over slightly as though withstanding some terrible amount of pain. Winter had her arm slung around the boy's shoulder, fingers curled into the tattered black cloak that hung off his bony frame rather obviously. He looked uncomfortable at best, murderous at worst.

My skin crawled with anxiety.

Levy was the first to react, climbing to her feet, tension rippling off her in distressed waves. "Winter, that's... you can't mean..."

She smiled gamely, eyes bright and trusting even with the weight of exhaustion slumping her slender shoulders. "But I can," she said, giving the teen a friendly squeeze - it looked friendly, in any case. The sharp wince he tried vainly to hide said otherwise. "I offered Candor a chance to clean up his act. Thought he could do it at Fairy Tail, ya know, cause we're all upstanding citizens over there." Here she rolled her eyes, and I could vaguely make out her lips forming the words damn Flame Brain.

Natsu was always one to slander our guild's reputation...

In any case, I could only muster up enough energy to sigh and roll my hand, beckoning Winter and her newfound buddy closer. She grinned, dragging an unwilling Candor forward, her claw-like grip on his cloak never wavering, even as I noticed the trembling of her fingers.

It was then I saw the blood.

The entirety of Winter's neck was caked in crimson, a deep, burgundy line tracing from just beneath her ear to a spot residing under her chin, clearly intersecting with her vulnerable jugular vein. And she was smiling. Wincing whenever her stiff, stained hair brushed over the gash, but smiling just the same.

And I couldn't comprehend.

Obviously it had been Candor who inflicted the wound on her, had nearly killed her. Yet here she was, friendly and genial, only a tad harsher than her normal personage. She grinned - completely cheerful for unjustifiable reasons - at Candor.

It was all I could do not to fall onto my ass in shock.

"You... you honestly want him at Fairy Tail?"

A tired sigh fell from Winter's bloody lips, her arm falling from around Candor's bony shoulders. I expected him to step away; he didn't move an inch from her side, something she seemed oblivious to. "I get it," she said, raising a hand - open palmed - in her best placating gesture. The same one she used when she was trying to convince Natsu she hadn't just mocked him. "He's don a lotta shit, and I'm not expecting you to forgive him, acknowledge him or even like the damn kid. God knows I don't."

He scowled at her, muttering incoherent curses beneath his ragged breath.

She flicked his forehead without skipping a beat.

"I'm not asking for any of that," she went on, offering the smallest of smiles - which, sadly, was still more than enough to make my heart constrict with an undue amount of vengeance. "I'm really not. I just want this brat to have a second chance. Cause, ya know, you gave one to me and Luce, and you didn't know anything about us. Sometimes, I think if you knew everything, you'd be too disgusted to look at me."

The words were on my lips, something to comfort her, to assure her nothing she said would change my opinion of her (which I was sure could be said for Levy as well) - but I just couldn't say them. As much as I wanted to, comforting her wasn't something I was capable of at the moment. It wouldn't be fair - to her or me, I wasn't sure.

Maybe to both of us.

"...A second chance?" Levy asked quietly, her thoughtful gaze shifting to Candor's emotionless facade. His eyes flicked up to meet hers, only for a second, before they fell to the cobblestone path once again.

"...She thinks I'm not the hopeless cause she originally thought me to be," he murmured, the bitterness of his voice barely audible over the irritation. What Winter found redeemable about him was beyond me.

"Yup!" Winter gave us all a brilliant closed-eye smile that had me slumping in defeat. I really needed to rethink my infatuation with this girl. "So, how about it? Any chance they'll take in ruthless little strays who've skipped down the path of evil?"

"Your theatrics bore me."

"Screw you too, little brat, screw you too."

And there it was. The first time I saw it.

You had to look past the obvious snark and bickering, but it was there, plain as day and just as radiant. There was chemistry between these two, a sensation not unlike warmth flowing between them.

When Winter smiled, Candor looked away, not out of spite, not out of embarrassment, but because he felt undeserving.

Like I did. Exactly like I did.

I just wasn't sure if I liked him better for it, or worse.