Phoenix

Emi's Trip

"Do you think we could go into town today?"

Laxus looked up from the paper and raised an eyebrow.

"Why? We have food and enough money to last the week."

"I wanted to see if we could go into the flower gardens," Emi sheepishly replied.

Laxus looked back to the newspaper and set it down before stretching. He walked past Emi and up the stairs. Emi gave a pronounced sigh and lowered her head. The lightning wizard reappeared with his cloak.

"Are you coming or not? Go get your cloak."

Emi looked at him in wonder before smiling and rushing over to the couch and fastening her cloak. She skipped out of the house and started to make her way out of the clearing.

"Hey, wait up. Let me lock it first."

Emi turned around to face the wizard and put her hands on her hips.

"Hurry up! I want to see the flowers."

Laxus grumbled under his breath and caught up to her. When they got into town, Emi quickly navigated her way through the people and stood in front of the gardens. She pulled Laxus into the gardens and started talking about the flowers.

"This one is Artemisia," Emi pointed out before jumping from patch to patch. "This one is Hyssop and that one is a pansy."

"Nerd."

Emi puffed her cheeks before pulling him further into the gardens. Laxus put up some resistance, but she kept insisting.

"Isn't this fun?" Emi happily asked.

Laxus rolled his eyes before sarcastically replying, "Yeah. Super fun."

"Look at those!" Emi exclaimed before running off.

"Don't run off!" Laxus scolded, but she was already out of hearing range.

She looked at a patch of moonflowers and smiled. She leaned in and closed her eyes and she smelled them. A smile appeared on her face.

"Excuse me," Emi started as she approached who seemed to be the gardener, "where would I be able to purchase some of the flowers?"

"There's a flower shop over on the west side of town. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for over there. But in the meantime," he said as he pointed over to a cart a few feet away, "you should be able to buy some individual flowers over there."

Emi's eyes sparkled as she thanked the man and skipped over to cart. She asked if there were any moonflowers, and she ended up buying two. After looking around her and not being able to find Laxus, Emi started to wander around. She ended up bumping into Laxus near the back of the gardens.

"There you are. Don't do that," Laxus chided.

"But look at what I found!" Emi beamed as she shoved the flowers up towards his face.

Laxus pushed the flowers back down and continued, "That's no reason to run off. What would happen if you had been kidnapped?"

"Kidnapped?" Emi giggled. "Who would possibly want to kidnap me?"

"Doesn't matter. It could still happen."

"Aw," Emi cooed, "Laxus, you actually care."

He rolled his eyes before grabbing her by her wrist and pulling her out of the gardens. Emi protested a bit before giving up and following him. Once they were out of the gardens, Laxus and Emi started to head back to the house. Something caught the dragon slayer's eye, and he turned to see an ice cream cart close by. He tried to ignore his stomach, but he ended up guiding Emi to the cart.