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“Kick her ass, babe!” Bixlow exclaimed, before leaning in for a quick kiss, their visor clinking against the left frame of Evergreen’s glasses.
Evergreen pecked them on the lips, pulling back with a teasing smirk. “Win your own match when it’s your turn, and maybe I’ll give you a little more than a kiss.”
Yukino grabbed Sting and dragged him down the tunnel before he could hear Bixlow’s reply. “That’s none of your business, Sting. Quit snooping.”
“I wasn’t!” he protested, though he didn’t fight against being led away. “They just started kissing!” Then he frowned. “Isn’t Evergreen married to Elfman?”
Yukino sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know, and like I said, it’s none of our business. But just in case she is, don’t go talking about this with anyone, alright? Just leave it alone.”
“Yeah, yeah, won’t say a word.”
Natsu laid across the bench, his head in Erza’s lap, and his legs laid across Gray’s. “How much longer until the matches start?” he whined. “I’m bored!”
Erza flicked his forehead.
“Ouch!”
“It’s barely been five minutes, give Evergreen time to get down to the arena,” she said.
Natsu huffed and rubbed the sore spot on his forehead, swearing he could already feel a bruise forming. “Do you think there’ll be more tag team battles this year? Gods, I wanna do another tag team battle.”
Erza shrugged. “Who knows. It’s been a couple years since we competed. A lot of the formatting might have changed. The elimination was a lot different.” Of course, there had been the year that Fairy Tail had disbanded, and the year after Alvarez they hadn’t competed because everyone was still recovering, and rebuilding Magnolia was far more important. But there had been no reason not to compete this year. Honestly, she had forgotten how much attention the Games brought. Sure, Fairy Tail was quite often the center of news, what with their reputation and standing and all. But the Grand Magic Games were different. They were a media frenzy! Not just news, but gossip media, entertainment, anything and everything under the sun. Already she’d had to dodge two interviewers asking about her former involvement with Crime Sorciere, apparently caring nothing for the fact that they were a completely legal light guild now. Not even that, but they were here. Competing!
“Maybe we’ll get the chance for a team battle together, since we never got to last time,” Natsu said.
“Yeah, so long as Lucy doesn’t get herself kidnapped again,” Gray said.
Lucy leaned around Cana to flip him off. “Fuck you, Gray. That wasn’t what happened.”
“I mean, it kinda was.”
“Well, here’s to hoping that no one goes insane and comes back from the future and tries to kill everyone,” Erza interrupted before they could actually start trading insults.
“We broke the Eclipse Gate, it’s impossible at this point,” Cana pointed out.
“We broke the Eclipse Gate?” Natsu demanded, sitting up so quickly he nearly smacked the top of his head against Erza’s chin. “I broke the Eclipse Gate!”
“You, and a dragon,” Erza reminded him.
Natsu waved her off. “Semantics.”
She scoffed, and nudged his head so he was looking towards the arena again. “Whatever you say. But look. There’s Evergreen. We better cheer loud for her, since it’s her first time competing.”
Natsu shot to his feet, leaning so far over the railing that Erza’s heart skipped a beat, and shouted, “Kick their asses, Evergreen! You’ve got this!”
Erza soon got to her own feet, excited to watch some good fights herself.
Lisanna bounced on the balls of her feet, tugging at Mirajane and Elfman’s hands. “Come on, come on! We’re gonna miss the fights if we don’t hurry! You don’t wanna miss Evergreen, do you, Elf?”
“She’d kill me,” he said with an overdramatic shudder.
Mirajane gasped and slapped his shoulder. “She would not, you big baby! But Lisanna is right, we should hurry back to our seats. Ever would be heartbroken if we missed her fight. She’s been so excited and proud that she made it on one of the teams this year.”
“You’re the one who wanted to come visit with Jenny,” he argued.
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to come! I just wanted to say hello, and tell her I’d kick her ass again this year,” Mirajane said. “Intimidation is big factor of these Games, you know!” She smiled, looking the furthest thing away from intimidating that Lisanna could imagine, but she knew better than to believe her sister’s act. And by this point, Jenny probably did too.
The three siblings rounded a corner, just in time to be bombarded by a group of reporters. Their eyes lit up as soon as they saw the three of them, and the group of them rushed forward, cameras flashing, notepads out.
“Dammit,” Mirajane hissed. “I didn’t think they were even allowing reporters on this floor.”
Lisanna groaned and leaned against her sister. The stupid reporters were crawling all over the arena, and she was getting tired of dealing with them. They all were. She was pretty sure Gray had almost punched one earlier in the day for interrupting him while he was talking with Lyon.
“Elfman! Elfman Strauss!” one of the reporters exclaimed.
Eflman blinked, before pointing to himself and asking, “Me?” He was probably confused over why they were interested in him, when Mirajane was right there. Lisanna knew that would be where her thoughts would have gone.
“Sir, are you aware that your wife is cheating on you!?” she demanded.
Elfman jerked back, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Uh… what?”
“There’s rumors going around that your wife has been seen with another man,” she continued, seemingly not caring at all for the fact that she could be destroying a relationship. “Is it true? Are you two planning on separating?”
“I… uh…” Elfman shook his head. “Huh?”
“Fuck off!” Mirajane snapped. “It’s none of your business!”
But the reporters were undeterred, and instead, turned their attention to her. “Is it true that your girlfriend, Erza Scarlet, has been involved with the ex-con Jellal Fernandes?”
“What!?” Mirajane shrieked.
Lisanna groaned and threw her head back.
The reporters clamored at the lack of a straight answer, eagerly repeating their questions about cheating and who was sleeping with who, just continuing to baffle Elfman, and irritating Mirajane further.
“What are you talking about!?” Lisanna shouted over the myriad of questions that were phrased more like accusations.
“Evergreen Strauss was spotted kissing another man, a member of your guild, no less! Bixlow!” the first reporter said, her eyes glinting with curiosity, “It’s a shame… she and Elfman really did have the cutest relationship.”
“I’m standing right here!” Elfman said.
Lisanna frowned. “Bixlow’s not a man.”
“Well then what the hell is he?” she asked.
Lisanna’s frown deepened. “Well, not a man, for starters… And so what if Evergreen kissed them? Evergreen kisses a lot of people!” She just didn’t understand how this was anyone’s business.
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Mirajane said before the woman could reply. She grabbed Lisanna’s wrist and motioned for Elfman to follow her. “Let’s get back to everyone else.”
“Those fucking vultures!” Evergreen shrieked that night at the inn. “I won my match today, and all that’s gonna be in the news tomorrow is shit about my… my supposed affair!”
“I’m sorry, Ever,” Elfman lamented. “I should have just said it was nothing! But I froze up! And they’re going to drag your name through the mud.”
“Oh, it’s not your fault,” she said while rubbing soothing circles on his back. “I should have been paying more attention. I thought it was only other competitors down by the arena, I didn’t think any of them would have said anything.”
“You shouldn’t have to hide that you’re with Bixlow, too, though,” Erza said, her eyes narrowed in irritation. “They should just leave it alone.”
“Well, unfortunately the media is always going to pounce on things like that,” Mirajane said. “Remember that time me and Jenny kissed for a photoshoot? They wouldn’t let that go for months, and that was for a public photoshoot. This is going to take even longer to blow over because it’s more ‘taboo’ and something they weren’t supposed to catch. That’s just how it goes.”
“It’s bullshit!” Evergreen exclaimed, reaching for her glass of alcohol. “What I decided to do with who is none of their goddamn business!” She took a gulp from her margarita. “Well, fuck them! If they want to meddle in my relationships, they can get a front row seat!” She slammed her glass down and jumped to her feet. “Laxus!”
“Eh?” The lightning dragon slayer looked up from his conversation with Freed and Gajeel. “What?”
“I’m gonna do something, and you’re gonna help me with it!” she declared.
“Oh gods, what is she gonna do?” Elfman asked as she marched away.
Mirajane shook her head. “Gods know.”
“Sting, you prick! I told you not to tell anyone!” Yukino shouted.
Sting blinked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he stared at the celestial spirit mage, her pounding on his hotel room door having roused him much earlier than he appreciated. “Huh…?”
She held up a magazine with a glaringly bright cover, so close to his face that he had to lean back to get his eyes to focus on it. It was a photo of Evergreen and Elfman Strauss, their wedding, Sting was pretty sure. But the headline read: Do Fairy Tail Endings Really Exist? with a small chunk of text off to the side detailing how Evergreen had been caught ‘making out’ (a bit of a strong word for what had really happened, in Sting’s personal opinion) with fellow team member, Bixlow. “Oh shit…”
“Yeah, oh shit!” Yukino shrieked. “Who did you tell!?”
“No one!” he argued. “I swear to the gods, Yukino, I didn’t say anything! Some reporter must have been down there, or some other nosy bastard must have leaked it! It wasn’t me! I didn’t even tell Rogue!”
“Tell me what?” Rogue mumbled as he shuffled up behind Sting, still half asleep as well.
“That we caught Evergreen kissing Bixlow,” he said.
“Who?”
“See! And if I didn’t tell Rogue, you know I didn’t tell anyone else either!”
Yukino hummed, still looking slightly suspicious, but she pulled the magazine back. “Well, I guess there’s not anything that can be done about it now, either way. But hurry up and get dressed. We need to be at the arena in less than an hour. Me and Minerva have been up since six.”
“Don’t act like you were getting ready or anything,” Rogue said as his arms snaked around Sting’s waist. “We could hear you through the walls.”
Yukino gasped, her cheeks turning red as blood. “Y-You could!?”
Sting waved her off. “You’re fine, just barely. I’m sure no normal person could.”
“Oh gods.” She hid her face behind the magazine. “Just get ready so we can head out.”
Natsu threw his head back and cackled as he watched Evergreen grab the furred collar of Laxus’s coat, yanking him into one of the sloppiest kisses he had ever seen. The crowd went completely silent, the kiss being projected on the lacrima screens, as Evergreen had waited for Laxus to win his event before she marched into the arena and grabbed him for one of the most well-timed makeout sessions Natsu had ever seen.
“Well that’s one way to make a statement,” Gray said. “But good for her. Take control of the situation. Besides, she’s right, ain’t she? What business are any of our relationships to them? If she wants to confuse the fuck out of them, best thing she can do is kiss people she’s not involved with.”
“Yeah, ‘cause she’s not dating, Laxus, right?” Natsu asked.
Gray shook his head. “As far as I know, no. She’s dating Bixlow, Bixlow’s dating Freed, Freed’s dating Laxus.”
“Ah. Right.” His smile melted away, and he turned over his shoulder to look towards Lisanna. “Hey, Lis. Mind if I kiss Gray in front of everyone at some point?”
“What?” Gray asked flatly.
“I don’t care when you kiss Gray any other time, why would I care now?” Lisanna asked around the mouthful of popcorn she had just shoved into her mouth.
“Cool.”
“Why the fuck do you wanna kiss me in front of everyone?” he demanded.
“If Evergreen’s gonna fuck with everyone’s heads, I wanna do it, too! Erza’s doing the same thing. Look at her!” He gestured across the balcony, where the redhead in question was holding both Mirajane and Jellal’s hands.
Gray sighed and rested his elbows on the balcony. “Eh, whatever, fine. I think a reporter caught me making out Loke earlier anyways.”
“What?” Lucy jumped up. “That’s gonna come back on me!”
“Does anyone even know you’re dating him? Don’t most people just think you’re dating Juvia?”
“Well… I mean, I guess so, but with my luck, and the way you’re all escalating everything, they’ll figure it out eventually.” She sighed and shook her head. “Whatever. I guess it doesn’t really matter. It’ll all blow over as soon as the Games are over and done with.”
“Is there like a bingo card for which Fairy Tail members are all dating or hooking up with each other or whatever the fuck this disaster is?” Sting asked. “Are they just all dating? Is joining that guild basically agreeing to dating all of them? I finally thought I just had everything all figured out, but then I saw Erza kiss Gray, but I thought Gray was dating Natsu and Loke and maybe Lisanna, while Erza was dating Mirajane and Jellal, but now they’re kissing, and I’m just really confused.”
Yukino groaned and slumped across the table, burying her face in her arms. “I think they’re doing it on purpose. Because none of it is making sense, and at this point, even the gossip magazines can’t keep up with it all.” Day three of the Games, and so far, three marriages had been destroyed, there were supposedly, like, fifteen different couples cheating on each other, four people had come out as some different sexuality, and somehow, it seemed that no one but Yukino had come to the conclusion that Fairy Tail was just screwing with everyone at this point, all because some nosy reporter had found Evergreen and Bixlow kissing.
Minerva stepped over to lean against Yukino’s back, though she used one hand to play with Rogue’s hair. “I know for a fact that Mirajane is only dating Erza. She’s told me herself, so anyone else that’s she kissed or supposedly been ‘caught’ with since this has all started is definitely a joke, or whatever this is to them.”
“Alright, well that rules out Evergreen, Cana, and Juvia as dating Mirajane,” Sting said. He held his hand out, curling and uncurling his fingers. “Someone get me a piece of paper and pen, I’m making a graph.”
“Oh! That’s a good idea!” Rogue said with a nod.
Yukino groaned again. “Can we just leave it alone? It’s not our business! Besides, we’re all kind of dating each other, we should know how much it can suck to try and explain that to people who don’t want to understand or who want to make it weird. That's why we got two different hotel rooms.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like we’re saying anything to them,” Sting argued. “Or speculating about it publicly like these shitty news outlets. Besides, I think they’re having fun with it by now. So come on. Where’s that paper?”
“This is gonna bite us in the ass…” Yukino grumbled.
“Aw hell yeah! I officially broke up Alzack and Bisca!” Erza exclaimed as she waved the article around. “Asca! I’m your new mom now.”
“Okay, Miss Erza!” Asca chirped, while Bisca and Alzack merely chuckled.
“Dammit,” Cana hissed. “And I still haven’t managed to break you and Mirajane up yet. This is bullshit! They just keep treating me like I’m some kind of whore!”
“I mean, you kind of are,” Natsu said as he shoved his empty dinner plate off to the side. “What’s your body count?”
“Depends on if you’re asking for murders or people I’ve fucked,” she said with a smirk.
“Well I thought that was obvious, but now I’m curious about the murders…”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she asked with a grin.
He scoffed, and shoved himself up. “I’m getting more food, then we should probably get to the arena. Tomorrow is the group battle, and I’m fucking excited, but we should get a little practice in. I wanna beat Sting and Rogue’s asses again.”
“Gods, I wish Minerva was competing again,” Erza said as she shook her head. “Battling her was rather entertaining, and it would be even more so now since we don’t hate each other anymore. They should get rid of that ‘no guild masters rule.’ It’s stupid. I personally would love to battle a guild master.”
Natsu hummed in agreement, rushing off to get more food.
“Well!” Cana snatched the gossip article from Erza’s hands. “I’ll add this to our collection. I think Mira’s already working on a scrapbook. Ask Crime Sorciere if they’ve collected any fun articles next time you’re with Jellal.”
Erza snorted. “Sure thing, Cana.”
“Okay, okay… I think I’ve got it,” Sting said as he laid his piece of paper with the various Fairy Tail members’ names scribbled across it, lines connected them into some kind of massive web.
“Oh my gods, you’re still on about this?” Yukino whined.
Sting hushed her, while Minerva and Rogue leaned forward with interest to inspect the piece of paper.
“So Mirajane is dating Erza. Erza is dating Jellal, but also has some kind of relationship with Gray and maybe Natsu, though I can’t tell if I’d call it dating. Natsu is with Lisanna, and also Gray, but Gray is with Loke, who is with Lucy, who is—” he prattled.
“Sting! It doesn’t matter,” Yukino said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “It really, really doesn’t. And if you want to know that badly, we could just ask them. They are our friends, you know?” True, she might really only be close with Lucy, but Sting and Rogue were rather good friends with Natsu and Gajeel, not to mention Minerva’s friendship with Mirajane and Erza.
“Come on, I did all this work,” he complained.
“No one asked you to.” She took his hand, prepared to drag him out of the hotel room. “Come on, let’s get to the arena, you nosy bastard. Minerva, Rogue, come on.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re coming.” Rogue was quick on her and Sting’s heels, with Minerva dutifully following.
She swung open the door, yelping as a camera flashed barely two seconds later.
Sting’s hand slipped from Yukino’s. “Oh, shit…”
“Why are you goddamn reporters in the fucking hotels now!?” Minerva roared, marching forward, her magic bubbling around her. “I’m gonna send you nosy motherfuckers to goddamn Alvarez!”
The reporter’s eyes widened, and he scurried off, fleeing from Minerva as she followed, continuing to shout profanities.
“Something tells me we might have just gotten the attention off of Fairy Tail,” Rogue said.
Yukino sighed and pressed her hands to her face. “This is what you get for being so nosy about Fairy Tail!”
“Well… Unless Minerva ends up killing the guy, there’s not anything we can really do about it,” Sting said. “So let’s just get to the arena, and we’ll deal with it if something comes of it.”
Levy sighed as she watched Gajeel grab Rogue, ruffling his hair and teasing him about the magazine article in his other hand. Levy hadn’t actually read it, but she knew what it was about. The fact that Rogue, Sting, Minerva, and Yukino were supposedly involved with each other. If they were, that was great, she was happy for them! But given how private the Sabertooth members could be about that type of thing, she felt a little bad that this was how it had come out. Especially because she felt it might have been partly their guild’s fault for encouraging all the news outlets with their little game.
“Ah, if they were actually upset, they would have done something about it,” Laki said as she slung an arm over Levy’s shoulders. “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear Minerva chasing that reporter through the hallways this morning.”
“True…” Levy doubted there was anyone who hadn’t heard that.
“Besides…” Laki pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “Even if we might have gone a little… overboard, maybe some people will learn something from our relationships. Maybe they’ll stop being so weird about them. I know me, you, and Gajeel didn’t get as much of a spotlight as some of the others, but—”
“You say that like you wanted more of the spotlight,” Levy interrupted.
“Hey.” Laki raised her hands. “You’re the one who kissed Erza in the middle of an event.”
Blush crept across Levy’s cheeks as she ducked her head. “Look, you think I was gonna miss my opportunity to kiss Erza? No way in hell!”
Laki laughed. “Whatever. Gajeel!” she barked. “Leave Rogue alone and come on! You and Levy are supposed to be in the arena in ten minutes.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” The iron dragon slayer gave Rogue one more head pat, then gave one to Sting as well. “See you bastards in the arena. Maybe you’ll last a little longer than you did last time.”
“Fuck off, Gajeel!” Sting shouted. “I’ll kick your goddamn ass!”
“I’m sorry Sabertooth got dragged into this.”
Yukino looked up from polishing her keys. “What?”
“If we had all just let it go, the reporters probably wouldn’t have gotten so nosy,” Erza said as she approached the Celestial Spirit mage. “And then you four wouldn’t have gotten dragged into it. So I apologize. We… probably shouldn’t have done all that.”
Yukino chuckled and shook her head. “It was bound to come out eventually. Being in a famous guild means you have to get used to that kind of thing. We are a type of celebrity, after all. Besides, you’re Fairy Tail. How else were you going to react?”
“Heh… I suppose. But still, I’m sorry that happened. You should have been able to make your relationships public when you wanted.”
“We’ll survive. Besides, the same thing happened to Evergreen, so the rest of you were just taking focus off her, weren’t you?” she asked. “It was… nice. Even if you went about it in a really weird way. I can admire that. I can also admire you all being so transparent and not giving a fuck about what other people might think. I could stand to learn a little from you. Plus, we can just pay you back by beating you in this final round and winning the Games.”
Erza bared her teeth in a grim smile. “I’d like to see you try, Yukino.”