Home?

Rita was beginning to have second thoughts as she looked up to the guild hall. She gulped in an attempt to swallow down her nervousness. "Maybe I should turn back." she thought. "What If they recognize me from Hargeon?..." Rita asked herself concerned if news of the murder had reached Magnolia, But when she was about to give up on it the shadow wizard then remembered her sisters dying request. "It will be okay...I wan't you to live on. Join a guild I want you to be strong Rita." This gave Rita the motivation she needed to step forward. She drew her hoodie over her head so she wouldn't get recognized preparing if the news hadn't gone down regarding her being a convicted murder. When Rita creaked open the door she didn't see quite exactly what she expected. Everyone seemed so... Happy. Some were brawling, others were getting themselves drunk and all smiling while doing so. She began to cautiously and quietly tiptoe around not trying to draw much attention to herself. Right now she was just concerned with joining and getting out of there, But Rita had failed at blending in and ended up making herself look rather suspicious.

Lance sat alone at a table talking to Lea "Hey Lea, you know who I miss..." Lance asked as he saw a girl walk in out of the corner of his eye and his eyes widened "...Rita?" Lance finished as he got up and walked over to her with a grin "Rita! Your here... but why... how...?" Lance asked confused as he looked Rita up and down "You look a bit older since the last time I saw you in Era..." Lance said as he grimaced and remembered the events at Era. The destruction, The memories of his fight that almost killed him all burned through his mind then the memories of his time in the rebellion base filled his mind the scar he got across his chest, the fight he had with his Lex (Evil Lance's new name) and the time he had met Lea for the first time.

Lea saw that Lance had gotten up to talk to a girl and smile a great big smile as she snuck behind Lance and made her little cat ears pop out, then her full head as she stared curiously at Rita "Dad, Who is she?" Lea asked as she looked Rita up and down. Lance smiled "This is a good friend of mine, Lea this is Rita." Lance answered as he patted Lea on the head. Lea wanted to know more about Rita so she pressed on "Is this mom?" She then asked and Lance's face lit up red "N-no no she isn't!" he stammered then laughed a little a he turned back to Rita and rubbed the back of his head "Sorry about that... Rita this is my "Daughter" Lea..." Lance said being careful with the word daughter.

Leonard was on the bar overseeing the condition of the hall as he would normally do. He has regained much of his self and attained more skills during the year that transpired. And as he sat there on his favorite stool, while holding his favorite glass of liquor he wore a big smile on his face. Like he knew something great is going to happen. Mac, the bartender was curious as to why Leonard was like this. In all the times he would sit there, Leonard never smiled like that, and so he asked him "What's with that face, Leo?" Leonard turned around with his eyes closed and calmly replied "Don't you notice, Mac? It's times like these that interesting things happen. And at the corner of his eye, he spotted a sore thumb, an interesting figure hiding in the shadows with a hoodie on. And with squinted eyes he observed her actions not very stealthy there, huh? he thought.

And as he observed further, the figure was interrupted by Lance which made things more interesting. Lance usually wasn't this excited to meet someone, but he may have gone overboard with it. Maybe I should check this out, I'm not sure who this person is anyway. Might be a threat to guild security.

Leonard stood up and approached the figure silently. Slowly and subtle he stood behind the person, and gave it a pat on the shoulder to get the person's attention. Once he got it he happily said "Hey there, what are you sneaking around for?" while gesturing politely so as to send a message that he is nice and can be trusted.

Rita came to a sudden stop. Her heart began to beat quicker in her chest as she heard a familiar voice. Rita slowly geared her head toward the noise only to become wide eyed with disbelief. Rita just held an hollow and shocked stare when She saw Lance. Rita could not hear a word that Lance said over the pounding of her chest. "How...?" Rita thought "But He is gone." Rita told herself as she zoned out for a second or two.

Rita was just about to speak. when she was touched on the shoulder. She got knocked back into her senses shaking off the little zone out she had. Rita turned to face who had showed up behind her. "Hey there, what are you sneaking around for?" The person behind her asked in a rather friendly tone. "U-Uhm." Was all that she could say backing up defensively. Everything had happened so quick. She had decided to join a guild, Lance somehow was standing in front of her, and another person had showed up. Rita started to get a nervous and shaken up by it all and she freaked out hiding behind Lance. "Uhh- I thought...that uhh maybe..." Rita started trying to answer him, Unable to say any of the millions of words cluttered in her head.

Lance saw that Rita had become a little nervous and Lance laughed a little "I am just glad to have you back..." he said as he turned around and hugged her "You know you don't have to be nervous around me Rita..." Lance said smirking a little as he motioned for Rita and Leo to join him back at the table. When he sat down he stared at Rita with a blank stare "Rita, this is Leo and although he may seem scary he really is a sweet guy." Lance said as Lea sat down next to him "Dad liiiiiiiikes Rita!!!" she sang as she laughed. Lance's face went red "Sh- Shut up!" he stammered as he put his head down on the table in embarrassment and stayed like that for a few moments. Lance hated the fact that he was embarrassed when this kind of stuff came up about Rita. Lance finally lifted his head back up "So, you seemed kind of surprised to see me... why is that?"

Primo looked at Lance then Rita then walked up to them saying,"So,when's the wedding?" Primo meant it agreeing with Lea and then thumped Lance finally letting out,"how many times are you gonna leave then come back? I just don't get it but i do know this..." Primo put up a sign that said boldly in orange:LanceXRita. Primo laughed and then gave Lea a high five as he laughed and then looked at Leo. Primo blinked once at him then went back to laughing as Lea joined."

Rita was joined by Lance and Leo at one of the guild tables she let out a sigh resting her hooded head onto her arms. Rita listened returning the hollow stare firm beneath her hood. Rita gave a glimpse back to Leo as Lance insisted that he was no one to be afraid off. Rita had just noticed the cute little cat eared girl that accompanied Lance when she shouted out "Dad liiiiiiiikes Rita!!!"  Rita turned her head at this "D-Dad?!"Rita thought a bit alarmed that this girl was following Lance around calling him dad. Rita tried not to grin at Lances embarrassed expression, but failed. after a minute Lance was back to his 'normal' self. "So, you seemed kind of surprised to see me... why is that?"

Rita cleared her throat before she started "Because I th-" She said only to get cut off when another one of Lances friends showed up. "So,when's the wedding?" Rita twitched her eye feeling pissed off by being interrupted with such an insignificant statement. When  Primo brought up the sign and began laughing Rita's face grew red, not of embarrassment, but of anger. "Can you please not interrupt me!" Rita growled swiping the sign from him where she snapped it in half over his head. she sent  the remains of the sign to the floor shooting Primo a glare before turning back.

Rita sighed turning back to Lance her hooded face still a bit red from her outburst. "Like I was saying before, Lance..." She said resorting to her tone from earlier. "I didn't think after what happened to you I would see you again..." Rita mumbled "How did you survive Lance?..." she thought replaying the painful memory

As expected, the interaction caused quite a scene and intrigued most of the people around, much like Primo who didn't get much of what was going on. While this was happening, he noticed the girl's eyes glare at him and he only gave her a gentle, kind smile. He couldn't see what her eyes looked like due to the shade of her hood covering her face. Then the events transpired quickly and Leonard wasn't able to do anything except sit among them around the table lied up with the others. It was beginning to appear like a comedy show, especially when Primo pulled out a sign with Lance x Rita written on it in orange. When Leonard saw this, he only smirked and looked down and listen to what was happening. From the sounds of it, it sounds like the girl, whose name was Rita, sliced the sign and returned his attention to Lance with her hood still covering her face.

Their conversation was interesting. The atmosphere became slightly serious, like there was a certain connection between Lance and Rita. It was then obvious to Leonard that they knew each other.

The atmosphere around them suddenly drops into more seriousness. He had to break it off otherwise something might happen to support Primo's claim of Lance x Rita. He stood up and roared out "Drinks for the newcomer! Everyone welcome Rita! Let a party commence!" The crowd replied with a cheerful roar and while raising their mugs. Mac on the other hand simply looked down with closed eyes and shook his head. And with a snap of his fingers, the wine barrels emptied and the mugs were lined up in the longest guild table in the middle along with delicious delicacies. This was all possible with Mac's Cook Magic.

People swarmed at the table and shared what they got from it to each other. Clanks of mugs and spoons suddenly filled the air in merriment while people approached Rita gently, standing beside their table because the seats were full. Politely asking her about her name and magic while they shared and placed their food on the table. This behavior is a rare sight for the people in the guild. But when Leonard is nearby, it's completely normal. The feared he will cut off their fingers again for bad manners. Everyone who was in the guild believed it at first because he dressed the part of a rugged man who enjoys the spoils of war. But deep down he was much as a gentleman as Nightken dressed the part.

While the events went their way, Leonard only gave Rita welcoming look, to make her feel at home. Because he thought maybe that's what she was looking for, and not to recall an event where she must have lost someone close to her.

It was always a good time to wake Simon up from his mid-afternoon nap, or so the universe liked to think. If you asked Simon he would tell you there is only one good time to wake him from any of his naps, never. Simon sat up drowsily from his nest in the guild hall roof, his nest was just a bowl of newspapers and comic books in one of the corner's of the guild's ceiling held together by the power of magic duct tape that served as Simon's home and bed, he looked over the edge of his make shift home and looked at the noisy guild below "eeh.... new person better go greet them. It would be a crime to deny them the privilege of knowing me for any longer then I already have." Simon would jump out from his nest, throw in a trio of front flips before landing on the guild floor with his legs straight and his arm held up to his sides. Three nearby mages held up judging score cards a 10 a 10 and.... 6.6!?!?! Simon shot the last judge a death glare, the judge bit his lip and quickly flipped his card around so it said 9.9 Simon nodded and resumed his business.

Simon was approaching a mob of people who he assumed were gathering to see the new person but they quickly dispersed as Ex-Master Leonard called everyone for food. As they moved Simon got a look at the new member and froze up "Wait is that...." Simon shook his head chasing off the memory, think about Era a year ago tended to confuse Simon greatly. The last thing he remember he was pinned on the ground, heavily injured, by some winged demon things just waiting for them to kill him, and the next he found himself waking up under a tree way outside of Era with all his injuries bandaged up with no one near by. By all accounts it didn't make any sense and Simon thought for a moment he was in the after life at the time. It just really hurt to think about, so he tried to avoid doing so whenever possible. Don't question the miracle right? So shaking himself from his daze he approached Lance and Rita "Oi! What are you both doing here alive? I thought you two got eaten by that black dragon or something back in Era."

1 year ago in era....

NO NO NO! No flash back, too painful.

Present day
"Or something like that."

Lance ignored the urge to kill Primo right then and there but it died off when Rita broke the sign. Lance was just happy to be back and to see all his friends again. As he listened to Rita closely she finally said that he had died. He stared at her in confusion "What... I obviously didn't die because I am right here... I mean my fight with Mary didn't go that far..." Lance muttered as he thought about it then shrugged it off.

Leo then called everyone over to the table and Lance felt uncomfortable as everyone was crowding around but he was fine with it until he got his shirt ripped off. Lance's eyes widened as the huge scar that ran down his chest was now visible but to make sure not a lot of people saw it he put his coat on quickly. Even though he tried to hide it the chances of Rita and Leo to see it were still very high.

Lance noticed Simon coming over to the table and smiled at him until he asked about the dragon. "Dragon what Dragon...?" Lance muttered as his whole mind filled with "My Death? Dragon?" Lance thought as all of a sudden all the memories filled back of Era and Lance shed a single tear "Rita.... thank you for staying alive...." Lance thought as he smiled at Rita and Simon.

Rita grimaced As Leonard stood up onto his feet and called everyone over to welcome her. Being approached by people was one of the shadow wizards absolute worst pet peeves. All kinds of people came by to see her, introducing themselves, asking her name, wanting to know her magic and anything else about her. Her responses to these questions never came out correctly for Rita found herself mumbling "Uhhh Uhmmm Well... Umm"

Rita to occupied trying to lure the massive group away failed to notice Lance loose his shirt for some reason(Still  have no idea what happened to your shirt, Lance...) or Simon trying to get her attention. She looked around her realizing the table had practically become a magnet, as a vast ocean of people surrounded it. Rita was...claustrophobic. Being around so many people made her heart began to accelerated, cold sweat began to run down neck, and her hooded face went red once more as she felt it hard to breath. Rita looked like she was about to do something rash.

Instead, Rita casually slid down her hood, She was fed up with hiding it , Rita wanted more than anything to get to know her 'family' and let them get to know her. If Fairy Tail recognized her as the convicted killer from Hargeon-then so be it Rita decided. She knew what happened then was not entirely her fault and she needed to trust that no one here would look back on it because Rita was here now and just as good a person as everyone.

Rita was starting to get a bit bothered with all the noise What the headache... Rita thought rubbing her head. She looked over to see another wizard pointing at her. His royal blue hair had to be what stood out the most, but his flustered face had stood out more.

"Look, I'm gonna need you to toughen up if you want to call Fairy Tail home. All that soft shit is only going to bring Lance down. This is Fairy Tail."Rita rose an eyebrow at his statement. Are people around here always like this? She wondered."-----I wonder if you're even tough enough." The rookie continued to bear a confused look she had a hard time telling if he was joking or not.

In an instant he was smacked to the ground by what appeared to be a flying cat.   "S-sorry about him, he's a bit reluctant to let anyone new into the family. I'm sure Master Ebony can't wait to meet you----but you're kind of young; even a wizard has to have a family right? Your parents know you've come to Fairy Tail to be around other wizards and learn more magic right?" the winged cat said taking a seat on Rita's head. "I mean, the Rune Knights'll be bangin' on our doors if we just go and harbor a cute lil' runaway like you!"  Rita was starting to like this cat better than his dragon slayer so far as she perked a bit of a smile. She seemed more nervous around the other guild members than the exceed on her head.

"Oh that. Well I did have a family at one point." She started not trying to be sorrowful about it but thankful that she had a family. "I lost them one after the other, but each of them taught me so much I wouldn't of gotten this far without them. Things were not always perfect between us i'll tell you that...But in the end she told me to stay strong." Rita explained to the orange feline on her head. "They were my family then, and they always will be, but I've come here to find my new family that can make me stronger and be there for me like she wanted." Rita finished looking up to him with a smile.

"Goddammit cat! That was a sneak attack! A cheap shot!"  The shadow wizard gave a bit of a surprised expression and turned to see the blue haired mage from before back on his feet."G-Garfield's right though, I----I'm sorry."

"Uhh- no problem." Rita said as casually as she could towards him. "If you ever need anything---let me know." He said generously as he passed by her messing up her hair while he was at it before he went and gotten himself in another brawl for some ones drink.


Rita feelt at home for the first time in forever. Fairy tail was starting to really feel like family to her. "Thanks..." She thought closing her eyes and splitting a smile as she sat back

Lance had gotten kind of worried until Heero had come and had a little talk with Rita then got himself into a brawl. Seeing as Heero was now gone he decided to answer Rita's questions "Yes, people around here are almost always like this." Lance said with a smile then called back to Heero "Hey Heero, being soft doesn't mean I am weak!" he yelled as he laughed and turned back to Rita "So you wanna join and make Fairy Tail your family huh?" Lance asked with a grin as he continued "You should probably meet Ebony then, she is the guild master after all." he finished his little helpful advice and went back to drinking the beer he had gotten.

The crowd amassing near Rita was apparently not a good idea. She was beginning to feel uncomfortable, and since it was his doing he shrugged some of the people off by placing a blade right in front of their table. The sword remarkably acted like a barrier with a keep out sign. But that didn't keep Simon out though, but it was alright for Leonard. Simon was very close to Lance anyway. And judging from their conversation, they were all there, in Era when Acnologia attacked, and Leonard was disappointed with himself for not being able to be there to help. He looked down with a frown unseen.

He shook it off when Heero appeared with quite the attitude, again. The blue haired lightning dragon slayer held two mugs that he downed in an instant. And with his rash behavior, he talked to Rita. Leonard didn't like it one bit and was actually wondering why he was doing it. He had his eyes closed and his nerves twitching as he looked down as he hears him speak. However it all ended when he heard the bang of metal against head. Garfield used the frying pan on Heero, then he clarified everything. This made Leonard sigh in relief as he pats Rita on the shoulder while giving out a warm welcoming smile. Followed by the uttering "Welcome home." with a warm, fatherly tone. As if enthusiastic to see his daughter once again after so long.

Not long afterwards, Heero was able to regain consciousness and cause a ruckus as he would steal the drinks of the other members. There was quite the uproar and he knew Rita didn't like it that much that's why he decided to step in and stop all of it.

Leonard comically slid beside Heero while holding the frying pan. Afterwards, a loud explosion similar to that of a nuclear strike shook the hall when Leonard struck Heero with the frying pan on the head with such power. The rest of the members looked on and then behaved once they realized Leonard had his death eyes on and a faint black aura around him.

With a more formal hall, Leonard turned around and sat back on their table with Rita, Lance, and Simon. "So Rita, do you use Shadow Magic? I just guessed because of the power I feel coming off you. Plus your personality is that of someone who is most probably to wield Shadow Magic."

Before Rita could get around to Lance's question she was interrupted by a deafening loud crash. At the noise the guild hall literally began to shake. Startled, She looked over to where the sound had come from only to witness something she hadn't expected. Heero had been knocked onto the floor while  Leonard stood over him wielding a frying pan and a dark aura. At this the ruckus had died down. The guild was now deathly quiet, but Leonard walked back over and sat back down beside Rita as if nothing had happened and she tried to brush it off too. Rita looked up at him a bit curiously as they were able to guess what magic she used. "...You can tell just like that? Rita responded a bit surprised. "Well yes, I use Shadow Make if that's what you wanted to know"

"Wassup guys, you weren't the ones who destroyed that building. Were you..Because when I find out who that was. They're gonna be baking me a lot of churros." Rita looked over to see someone else who had suddenly showed up. She quickly noticed her icy gaze and had the feeling that she wasn't kidding about the churrros. Churros meant things were getting serious, And Rita wasn't about to get framed for something as huge as demolishing a building so she decided to throw someone else under the bus. "I-I bet it w-was him! Guilty is written all over his face!!!" Rita insisted pointing at Lance.

Everything settled down quietly when he smashed Heero to the floor. The act created a rather formal discipline around the hall which was much more suited for light conversations. "Interesting. Shadow Magic requires a great deal of mental stability in my opinion. I bet you're strong." he replied with a smile to Rita who was trying to brush off the awkward feeling coming off from Leonard's "house cleaning". Well, sort of. "So between you and Lance, who'd win, eh?" he added, nudging Rita while giving her a wink, as if teasing her to brawl with Lance sometimes.

Indeed the mood was starting to be light once again. Normal chatting here and there, until Master Ebony came by and asked about a destroyed building. Now Churros for the guild had a special meaning whenever Ebony would say it. However, Leonard wasn't affected by it. He hasn't gone on a job in months now. But he wasn't sure about Lance though.

Rita on the other hand, was acting strange. She might be afraid of Ebony for reasons he does not know. In order to get her to calm down, Leonard patted Rita on her shoulders saying "Hey there's nothing to be afraid of Master Ebony. Unless of course you were the one destroying them buildings. In which case you didn't, so chill alright?" After that he got up and addressed Ebony "If I may, Master I'd like to see the paperwork. Pretty sure it's from the guys who were out last week. Oh and this is our new sister, Rita." he said in a formal manner and then reaching out his had towards Rita, presenting her to Ebony formally when he introduced Ebony to her.