Phoenix

Picnic Bonding

"Why did you insist on dragging me out here?"

Emi giggled at Laxus and pointed to the flowers.

"Because I know how much you love the gardens."

"How many times do I have to say that you're the one who loves it. I'm always dragged here and then you spend hours jumping around."

She rolled her eyes and pulled him over to the fountain. Laxus sighed and closed his eyes when he felt something being pushed into his hands. He looked down and saw a sandwich.

"What are we--"

"We're having a picnic! Isn't that great?"

"Can I ask why we're having a picnic in the gardens?"

"Because I told her she could," a voice spoke.

They both looked to see Princess Hisui standing behind Laxus and smiling. She joined them, grabbing the sandwich that Emi handed to her.

"Lady Emiko, there you are!"

Lector came flying at Emi full speed and ended up knocking her over, causing her and Hisui to laugh. Laxus looked at the exceed and it all came together in her head, so he glared at the white haired woman and went to say something when another voice spoke.

"Lector, you gotta be careful. We don't wanna get hurt before the pic--"

Sting quickly scanned the group, and his eyes darkened when he saw Laxus.

"And what are you doing here?"

"Sting, we're all having a picnic!" Emi shouted excitedly.

"But why--"

Emi frowned at Sting and spoke in a dark tone, "You wanna have a fun picnic, right?"

Sting cowered under her stare and put his hands up.

"Great! Here's your sandwich."

Emi handed Lector and Sting their food and started to happily eat hers. Her and Hisui had started to joke around and talk about the past years. Lector had wandered off to look at the flowers, leaving Sting and Laxus to stare at each other in silence.

"Em, why are we here?"

She stopped talking to Hisui and turned towards the two and smiled.

"Because everyone needs to be able to work together and trust each other. You two are arguably two of the most advanced among the group, and it's important that you're able to work together. I know you have your differences and grudges against each other, but you need to look past that."

Sting groaned and fell back so he was laying on the ground. He leaned up on his forearms when he took in her words. He smirked and looked up at her.

He smugly asked, "You really think we're the strongest?"

"Really? That's what you heard out of all that?" Laxus tested.

"You're one of the strongest. Remember, Natsu and Gajeel were able to beat both of you."

Laxus rolled his eyes and Sting tried to defend himself.

"Actually, Gajeel didn't do anything against me. It was just Natsu."

"Yeah," Laxus laughed, "because that makes it all better. At least I needed to be beat by two of them. You got KO'd by one."

"What did you just say to--"

Emi interrupted the fight by shoving another sandwich in front of Sting. He rolled his eyes and took it before laying down completely again.

"Lady Emiko, look what I found!"