Broken Mage

The Heart of Fairy Tail

  Like any other night, the Fairy Tail guild was quiet. It was past midnight and almost everyone had gone back to their homes, except for some who resorted to drinking after coming back from a mission. Mirajane stood behind the bar as she served not one but five shots of alcohol to one of the customers sitting in the corner. Although she looked as if she was about to faint, her hands kept waving to add more alcohol. Each gulp burned her throat but nonetheless soothing. It felt like she was drinking her problems away.

  The girl swatted her blonde hair out of her face and proceeded to rest her chin on the palm of her hand. She sighed. It was time like this where she felt like she could take off her mask. At night, where her teammates were already asleep. She didn't want to burden them, not again. The blonde haired then took another two shots, her cheeks already felt warm and she could feel the alcohol getting into her, making her a tad bit light-headed. The silver haired bar maid approached her with worry etched in her face.

  'Lucy,' she called softly, making Lucy turned her head up towards Mirajane. 'You should go home.' Mira suggested, smiling softly. 

  Mira knew what the answer would be, but she must try. It had been a couple of months since the guild had been reinstated. At first, Mira was surprised by Lucy at the sudden interest to drink alcohol. She had welcomed the heart of fairy tail and served her everything she wanted as Lucy had never shown much interest upon drinking before to which Mira was excited seeing her blonde friend trying something new.

  It started out only light drinking but then Lucy kept coming, spending endless nights and her drinks got heavier and a lot. She started drinking shots of alcohol, reaching the amount of how much Cana drank in a day, in just one night. Sometimes, it increased even more when she just came back from a mission. Mira couldn't help but worried about the heart of the fairy tail. In the mornings, she always seemed fine, laughing, smiling, and scolding Natsu. But when the night came, it was like she was a completely different person. The despair Mira saw in Lucy's eyes each time she took another shot was heartbreaking.

  Of course, Mira had asked, heck, even practically forced Lucy to tell her what was wrong, but Lucy would just smile weakly and told her she was just tired. Mira knew she was lying, but Lucy was too stubborn, so all Mira could do was just making sure she came back safe each night.

  Lucy smiled weakly at Mira, her head swayed as she nodded and told her that she would go home after one more drink. Mira could only sigh and went back to do her chores. Kinana didn't come today, so she had to do a double shift, which meant she couldn't take Lucy home tonight.

  Just then, a huge cloaked figure came up and sat roughly just a couple of seats away from where Lucy was. The guy drummed his fingers to the bar tables before calling Mira to order his usual. He muttered thanks to the barmaid as she served him a beer. The cloaked guy gulped down almost half of his beer and sighed, stroking his blonde hair tiredly. He had just come back from a long mission, it paid nicely—since it was an S-class mission and of course things worked out well. But, recently he felt like he was missing something. He didn't know but he often got this empty feeling and that frustrated him.

  Mira saw Laxus once again drank his beer until there was none left. It wasn't surprising seeing him here, but she knew that something was bothering him lately. With the constant sighs and spacing out every now and then, she could tell that Laxus was dealing with something. Laxus paid for his drink and was just about to get up before suddenly, Lucy—who was walking out of her chair stumbled on her other feet and was about to fell. She quickly reached out to the nearest handle she could find, which at that moment was Laxus' furry coat. Lucy closed her eyes, waiting for the impact but found out that it never came. When she opened them, she found herself held by a muscled figure.