Fairy Tail: Next Generation - Volume I

Chapter 3: A New Team

Within the inner city of Magnolia was a quaint and somewhat messy apartment. It had a remarkably pleasant layout for the price, and was comfortable for the owner--Nashi Dragneel. She had lived there alone since she turned 18, and it happened to be the very apartment her mother had lived in for many years before hand. The same disturbingly creepy landlady--now deep into old age--still kept a firm hold on the apartment, crawling up poor Nashi's back whenever she was a bit late on the rent.

However, Nashi's financial struggle was coming to a close. She only struggled paying for the rent for a few main reasons. To start, she spent most of her money on food. She was a hungry gal. Another, while she did plenty of work, the pay was always cut thanks to a few buildings being burnt to the ground by her own hand. The final reason was due to her being incapable of remembering the days the rent was due, and if the landlady didn't come banging on her door in the middle of the night with a pitchfork in hand and howl in her throat, she may never remember to pay it on her own.

So Nashi chose to enlist Marigold, a newcomer, to help her pay the rent. She seemed organized enough, and also desperate enough to take any housemate she could get.

Though she had claimed to live in a tent and various alleyways for months before running into the Dragneel's in Fitlyn Ports. This surprised Nashi, as the well-groomed gal just didn't seem like the type to hop train carts and live as a hobo.

Nonetheless, the new guild mate was crashing on Nashi's couch, still as a stone as Nashi laid sprawled across her own mattress, the sheets tangled somewhere between her legs and around her torso. Nashi didn't snore, but she did breathe heavily. She liked to excuse the noises in her sleep as "methods of life insurance, in case you thought I died in my sleep". However, her family would always claim her breathing was so loud in her sleep, they'd rather have Nashi actually die in her sleep.

Nashi's astonishingly messy bed was pushed up against the wall. A few wrappers and chip bags tucked between the mattress and the drywall, she always kept her body in the oddest shapes, like she was a puzzle piece trying to awkwardly squeeze into the wrong spot. She awoke to the obnoxious sound of a bird chirping out her window. She lifted her head off of her flattened pillow and combed her fingers through her relentless bedhead.

She turned to her window, it was cracked open with the sun beaming through the pulled back curtains. She looked out her window, shoving it open with a quick thrust and perking her head out. The sun perched up in the sky, flat in the center with a disgusting snarl, reminding Nashi how much of a slacker she was.

"Wow, it's already noon..." She said to herself, crossing her arms over the window frame as she smelled the summer breeze slip into her room. The set of men who'd always ride their boats in the canal waved to Nashi, chuckling at the greeting.

"Afternoon Nashi!" They bellowed playfully. "Nice bedhead! You just wake up?"

Nashi scoffed, waving her hand out like a wet noodle. "Yeah! Yeah! I was up late with my new roommate!" This was true, the two had been chatting on to endless hours about absolutely everything and absolutely nothing. They'd told each other stories, tales, adventures, and Nashi had come to know everything useless about Marigold, from her middle name to her cup size at age 15. As the men on their boats drifted out of sight, Nashi turned her head to Marigold, spotting her still on the couch in a peaceful slumber.

She fumbled off her bed, lazily walking towards Marigold on the couch in a misshapen step. Nashi sat herself down on the arm of the couch, right above Marigold's head. "Wow, she's a good roommate! No snoring, not too early of a riser. Didn't keep me up at all." Marigold was most definitely a sound sleeper, she wore a stoic expression on her face, laying in a still fashion with little visibility of breath. Then Nashi suddenly found her sleeping habits unnatural, and then the though crossed her mind.