The Fairy Slayer

Chapter Two - Home

The group of wizards turned to see Evelynn hobbling toward them on her crutches, uncomfortably carrying Lyon's coat. Her leg had been properly splinted and bound and her cuts and bruises had already begun healing.

"Oh, you're up," Mira said. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got trampled by a horde of dragons," she said with a smile.

Suddenly Eva was enveloped by the scent of cinnamon and charcoal as two strong arms wrapped themselves around her. "I thought you were dead," Natsu breathed into her hair.

"Natsu, be careful!" Lucy said, starting to get up from the bench.

"Should you really be up and moving around already?" Lyon asked in concern.

"You know it would take a lot more than a dragon to kill me, Natsu," Eva told him quietly so the rest of them wouldn't hear her. Then she disentangled herself from Natsu, who still remained next to her, hovering. Lucy noted that he was acting awfully peculiar.

"It's alright," Eva told everyone. "I'm a lot stronger than I look and it would take a lot more than Natsu to knock me down."

Lucy, Erza and Mira scooted down the bench to make room for Eva, Mavis had disappeared somewhere, but Natsu sat down and pulled Eva onto his lap, his arms resting around her waist. Now Lucy knew something was up.

"Oh, before I forget," Eva said, turning to Lyon, "I had better give this back." She handed him is overcoat. "And I wanted to thank you for finding me; if it hadn't been for you and your team, who knows how long it would've been until someone else found me."

Lyon accepted his coat and blushed. "I – It was no problem, really." Sherry rolled her eyes.

"Wow, you all look so much more grown up now," Eva said, turning to look around the table.

"A lot can happen in ten years," Grey said.

"But from what I've heard, you all were on Tenrou Island for seven years, right?" Eva asked. "That means you only have three years on me."

"I don't think those three years will have much of a difference where you're concerned, Eva," Mira said with a chuckle.

"I don't know about that," Eva said. "You and Erza aren't at each other's throats, Elfman's at least tripled in size and Makao and Wakaba are old now."

"We heard that!" Makao shouted from across the hall.

"We also got a few new members while you were gone," Grey said. "This is Lucy," he said, gesturing toward the celestial wizard.

Lucy waved. "Hi, it's nice to meet you."

"Juvia's lurking around here somewhere, too," Grey continued, looking around the guild hall.

"Is that her? The one who looks like she might be stalking you?" Eva asked, pointing to Juvia, who was indeed stalking Grey and lurking behind a pillar. Again.

"Yeah, that's her," Grey said. "And Wendy and Carla should be along shortly. Gajeel is around here somewhere, too. You'll know him when you see him; he's kinda scary looking and eats metal."

"Wow, life sure has been exciting while I've been gone," Eva said.

"So you're an S-Class wizard, right?" Lucy asked, leaning forward.

Eva grinned. "Yep! It was just Gildarts, Mistogen and I once upon a time. Hopefully a few new people have managed to pass the test."

"Erza and I managed to scrape by Gildarts and Master Makarov," Mira said. "Just barely, though."