Phoenix

Crying

"I'm leaving for a job. I'll be back soon," Laxus called from the front door.

"What a coincidence. I'm leaving on a job as well."

Laxus hummed before asking her to elaborate. She spoke of a rather simple request that an older woman had asked her to do. She was asked to gather different flowers for her granddaughter's wedding. Emi was also asked to arrange these flowers for the centerpieces. Emi liked going on these sorts of jobs. She knew she could never handle a wizard's job, so she tried to keep herself busy with jobs that she could accomplish. This mostly included deliveries and decorating, but she was able to still get payment from the clients.

In return, Laxus briefed Emi on his job. He was to help transfer a prisoner to the Magic Council for an arraignment. This request came from the Magic Council themselves, as they knew that the wizard was not someone to be intimidated by a criminal.

"Are you sure you're feeling better? It might be dangerous."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be alright. Besides, this guy's gonna be in chains the entire time."

As Laxus was entering the forest, he heard Emi call out to him.

"Don't you let that guy hurt you. I'll kick your ass if you do!"

Laxus looked over his shoulder to the woman before waving her off.

"Yeah and don't let any flowers make you bleed again. I'll kick your ass."

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"Oh my," an older woman gushed, "you're a total natural at this. Look at all the arrangements! They're absolutely beautiful."

Emi looked away and slightly blushed. The woman was the one who put in the request, and it warmed Emi's heart to see that the woman was pleased with her efforts. Emi turned back to the flowers before picking up her favorite arrangement. The white haired woman presented the flowers to the older woman to ask for her approval.

"This one is a mixture of blue larkspur, snapdragons and myrtles."

The woman carefully took the vase from Emi and spun it around.

"This is it," the woman declared, "This is the one we will use. Absolutely amazing."

Emi beamed with pride as she started to make copies of the example bouquet that the woman approved. After about two hours, all the flowers were arranged in perfect groups. Emi helped the woman bring the flower arrangements with her. The older woman thanked Emi before handing her the reward and heading back to the wedding location so she could set it up.

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"So you're telling me this guy had the balls to attack a wizard saint?"

Laxus was currently talking to Yajima for a briefing on the prisoner. The Magic Council member told him that this man, Klide, had attacked Jura of Lamia Scale. Klide had been easily beaten and turned into the Council a couple days ago. Laxus was now there to help transport Klide to the official holding chamber.

Laxus yanked the prisoner by the back of his shirt and threw him into the other carriage. Klide complained about how Laxus was being "too rough" with handling him, to which the dragon slayer responded by saying that he could make it worse if he kept complaining. The ride was mostly silent. Laxus's attention was somewhere else, thinking over what his grandfather had said. Why was he being allowed to go back after everything he did to them?

They were almost at their destination when Klide suddenly stood up and threw himself out the window. Laxus quickly jumped out of the carriage as well and landed right beside the prisoner. As Laxus was going to pick him up, Klide came at him with a small knife. Laxus dodged his swings and kicked him in the gut before roughly tossing him back into the carriage. Laxus looked at the prisoner with annoyance when he felt something warm on his cheek.