Chapter 23

Back Story

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, and my Ideas

Alumina let out a long sigh as she leaned back against the head-board of her bed, eyes closed her arms crossed and resting against her forehead. Erza wasn't dropping it...! An hour, a full hour, Erza had been lecturing her about getting out of bed. She had been herded back to the infirmary by the red-head, leaving Natsu behind, where she was sure he had gone home by now.

Mira, Carla, and Wendy had come inside not long ago, and they sat on the bed to her right, wearing small nervous smiles as they listened to Erza just keep talking. Juvia was standing beside the bed, hands clasped together in front of her as she watched silently. Alumina was curious as to why they were here, actually, but Erza wasn't ready to stop, in fact, Alumina wasn't even sure if the red-head knew they were even there.

She knew Erza was only lecturing her like this because she cared, but she really didn't need to go on for this long. She had managed to block most of it out, and she could only wait until Erza was done for now.

When at last, Erza was finished, the Requip Wizard sighed and looked toward the four waiting silently, blinking a few times. "Hello there girls, was there something you needed?" Erza asked and Alumina sweatdropped.

So she hadn't noticed they were there after all...

"We came to talk to Alumina, actually." Mira answered and Alumina looked her way, blinking in confusion.

"About what?" She asked and all four exchanged glances quickly, and Alumina tilted her head a little.

"Well..." Wendy mumbled, looking down at her hands. "We noticed it when we brought you back to the Guild after... Natsu..." She murmured and Alumina blinked.

"At first, we thought it was a wound caused by him." Juvia went on and fixed Alumina with a calm blue stare. Her hands unhooked from each other as she gestured toward Alumina's stomach. "But its not."

"You have a pretty large scar there." Mira continued and Alumina looked away, sweatdropping a little. "May we ask, what its from..?" Mirajane asked her gently, blue eyes glittering with sympathy. The rest of the girls in the room were watching her silently, and Alumina took in a deep breath.

Erza looked back and forth between them, then at Alumina. The blonde's reaction hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of them, but this was the first time Erza had heard of this supposed 'scar'.

"Well..." Alumina murmured slowly and her eyes fell closed for a minute. She supposed they would figure it out eventually, why not just let it out in the open? Yes, she had a scar. A large one, one that was left by a rather serious wound she had received not too long ago. "Alright.." She murmured and they perked up.

Alumina lifted her eyes from the sheets of her bed, and fixed her gaze on all of them. Erza circled around to stand beside Juvia, and Alumina let out a long breath as she considered where to start.

"Well... It was about four months ago." She started slowly, "There was a huge Train Wreck, I'm sure you heard about it?" She asked and their eyes went wide. They had heard about it, most people had, it had been in the papers, it was talked about in all the cities and towns for a long time.

No one really knew what happened for certain, all everyone knew was there had been some sort of fault with the tracks, and something in the train's engine had gone wrong. Either way, the train had come off its tracks, and crashed right into a town train station, going at a very high speed.

It was bloody, devastating, horrifying.

After the train ran off its tracks and crashed into the city's station, the engine exploded and set off a chain reaction throughout the entire train.

Hundreds of people had been injured and lost their lives, both those who had been on the train, and in the station. In fact, of all those who had been on the train, less than 10 had actually survived the crash.

This, the Train wreck... That's what had been haunting her dreams for the last few days.

"I... I was on that Train that crashed.." Alumina told them quietly, and they failed at keeping their small gasps silent. "I really don't remember a lot of what happened, it was sort of a blur..." Alumina closed her eyes and folder her hands, pressing her chin into them.

She wasn't really proud of being afraid, or haunted by the whole thing. But she couldn't get it out of her head...

Though she had been able to keep her thoughts away from it for a long while, the memories had only started popping up after... Natsu...

She had to wonder why though... Maybe it was the fire that jogged her memory..? She didn't really know...

"One of the weaker beams in the car broke off from the body of the train, when one of the explosions went off." Alumina murmured. "It went through the right side of my back, and all the way through to my stomach." She couldn't stop herself from shuddering a little at the thought.

Now the pain, of when the metal went through her, that she could remember clearly. That's something she was nevergoing to forget.

"I woke up in a hospital a week or two after it, they had done surgery on me, and it left that scar you saw." Alumina mumbled. "They told me I was the only one in the Train car I had been riding in, that survived." She opened her eyes to look down at the bed, the little fragmented snippets flashing through her head.

"Alumina..." A few of them murmured, but she wasn't listening to them. In fact, all in that one instant the piercing shriek of pain she had let out when the Train crashed, that was the only sound that seemed to reach her ears at the moment, along with the ringing in her ears that had been caused by the explosions going off around the train.

She was looking down at the bed with narrowed eyes, and she must have been frowning because suddenly she found herself being hugged by all the girls that were in the room. She blinked, not really sure as to why they were doing it at first. Then she let her eyes close, and smiled a little, realizing they were trying to make her feel better.

No One POV

"That sounds horrible, Alumina..." Wendy murmured.

"Juvia is surprised you don't seem so concerned by it." Juvia told her.

"Something as traumatic as that should have left quite an impression on you." Erza said.

"But, its made you stronger in the end, even of you don't see it yet." Mira told her and Alumima smiled a little more.

"Thank you.." She murmured. The girls stayed like that for a moment, just holding Alumina, but none of them spoke what was on their minds.

The day of that horrible Train Wreck...

It had been the same day Lucy was killed.

"You really don't have to carry me, I can walk on my own you know." Alumina murmured, eyes halfway closed, with her arms hooked around the neck of the person who was carrying her down the steps, her body pressed up against his chest. She glanced up at him as she said it, and his hazel eyes glanced her way from behind those tinted glasses he always seemed to wear.

"Your still hurt Alumina." Loke argued. "That stunt you pulled yesterday did you no good," he added, frowning the slightest bit. Even if Alumina wasn't going to admit, she was in a lot more pain than she was letting on, and he could tell she was still exhausted.

He did really wish he could give Natsu a piece of his mind for what he had done to Alumina, but he had promised her he wouldn't go after the Flame-Brain. He silently hated himself for agreeing to it, but he couldn't go back on it now.

Besides, Alumina told him the punishment Master had decided for Natsu would be enough to get back at him.

"You won't admit it, but because you snuck out of bed yesterday, you put a lot more strain on yourself than you needed to." He continued, and Alumina looked away, letting her eyes close slowly as she let out a sigh. "And your hurting for it today."

For a minute they were left in silence, until Alumina sighed again, "Fine... Your right..." She mumbled and he allowed himself to let a small sympathetic smile spread across his lips.

"So, are you planning on telling me what this punishment is that Master had planned for Natsu?" He asked, changing the subject. "Or am I just going to have to wait to find out along with the rest of the Guild?" He asked and she smirked.

"Your going to have to wait and find out other the rest of theguys." She told him and he blinked in confusion.

"The guys?" He questioned, coming to the last stair and pausing.

"All the girls already know what it is." Alumina smiled.

"Alumina!"

They both looked toward the rest of the Guild, who were all wearing smiles as they greeted her, and she returned their smiles with her own. "Hey guys." She murmured.

"Ain't that cute?" Cana slurred a bit as she suddenly appeared next to them, leaning against the railing of the stairs with one arm, the other holding on to a mug of beer.

"Aww!" Several of the other woman in the Guild appeared in front of them, and both Loke and Alumina sweatdropped, before Alumina sighed. "Its not like that..." She mumbled.

"I'd kill him if he tried anything with Alumina."

Loke jumped to the side when Ursa suddenly popped out of nowhere, arms crossed over her chest and sending a firm look at Loke, who sweatdropped a bit more when he realized she wasn't kidding.

Alumina's eyes widened, "How the hell did you-?!" She stuttered and Ursa gave her a toothy smile.

"You know, I never tried doing this before now... Its actually not that hard passing through my gate on my own." Ursa said, "I might do it more often." She smiled and then turned an exceptionally scary look on Loke, causing him to shrink back a little. Ursa didn't seem to like the fact that Loke was carrying Alumina, but she wasn't going to make him drop her, out of consideration toward the fact that she knew Alumina wasn't feeling well. "Now Leo, don't you dare try any of that playboy crap on Lumie, or you'll have me to answer to, got it?"

Loke nodded frantically, giving Ursa a nervous smile. They may have begun to become friends again, but Ursa was definitely a bit protective of Alumina, and she was able to scare him if she wanted to. "Got it." He promised.

Ursa seemed satisfied with the answer, and turned to the girls still standing around them. "Just in case I'm not here, can I ask you girls to keep Leo in check?" Ursa asked, and the girls smirked, nodding their heads.

"You got it!" Cana smiled, giving Ursa a small salute. Ursa nodded her thanks and disappeared in a haze of grey. Alumina let her eyes close, letting out a sigh of exasperation.

Why does she assume he'll try the PlayBoy crap on me anyway...?

Her eyes opened a little and she sweatdropped, well... She supposed he had already been flirting with her since they met...

"Glad to see you awake, Alumina!"

"Hope you start feeling better pretty soon!"

The calls were cast out around the hall and she smiled again, everyone was so nice, and couldn't help but smile when she was around them. "Thanks you guys!" She called back. Loke walked toward the bar and gently set her down on one of the stools, before taking a seat on one beside her. Most of the girls followed them over, and Mira smiled from behind the counter.

"Natsu here yet?" Alumina asked and Mira shook her head.

"No, he hasn't showed up yet." She replied and Alumina smiled.

"Bet ya' he's to scared to show up." Bisca told them, "Probably know's Master's got one hell of a punishment in store for him." The comment caused all the woman to start laughing and Loke stayed silent, highly confused as to what all of them seemed to know that he didn't.

Why did the girls get to know anyway?

"Actually, Master sent Gajeel and Gray to go looking for him." Levy spoke up.

"Laxus was sent to go looking for him too." Evergreen put in with a sly smirk. "Just let the Flame-Brain try to get out of this now, there's no way he can hide forever."

As if on cue, the doors were kicked in to reveal Laxus walking in with a hand wrapped around the back of Natsu's shirt, dragging the pinkette in behind him with Gajeel and Gray walking in after, Happy flying beside Gray.

The large blonde man dropped Natsu down in the center of the hall, and Alumina turned around in her stool to look his way. Many of the people inside the Guild went quite, noticing Natsu's nervous expression, and Master appeared walking down the stairs, before heading toward Natsu.

Once the old man stopped in front of Natsu, everyone went silent. Natsu looked to Makarov with a nervous look, a bead of sweat rolling down his face slowly. Master looked serious,

"Alright Natsu, I told you that you would be punished for your actions, and I have decided on a punishment." Master announced and paused, causing the tension in the hall to increase tenfold as most of the Guild leaned in. "For the next month, you are required to serve the girls within the Guild and cater to their every need." Master's hand unhooked from behind his back as he twirled it in the air to the side of him, and a column of shimmering gold Magic started to shine next to him.

"You will have to wear this for the entirety of your serving the women."

Natsu's jaw hit the floor as he stared with huge, whited-out eyes, while everyone else in the Guild burst into hysterical laughing.

What had appeared beside Makarov, was a maid costume.

"What?! There's no way in hell I'm wearing that Gramps!" Natsu argued and Makarov only smirked at him, while everyone else continued to laugh.

"This is your punishment Natsu, you have to do it as long as you are part of this Guild." Master smirked and Natsu shook his head furiously.

"No way Gramps!" He yelled.

Suddenly the entire building seemed to grow darker as Makarov suddenly grew to a huge size, looming over Natsu and fixing him with a dangerous look. Natsu immediately shrunk away, shaking from the look that had been fixed on him, scared to death.

"You will do as I say, Natsu." Makarov growled in a low booming voice.

Natsu nodded frantically, "Y-yes sir..." He managed to choke out. The atmosphere lightened again as Makarov shrunk down again and smiled at Natsu.

"Good." He murmured and turned away. "Your punishment begins now." With a snap of Master's fingers, Natsu was suddenly surrounded in golden light, before it faded and he had been placed in the maid costume, his muffler remaining while the rest of his regular clothes disappeared.

Natsu's face made contact with the floor as he fell on to it, in utter defeat. The guys around the Guild only laughed harder she they saw him in the costume, and the girls smiled wickedly.

"Well then Natsu, don't lay around all day!" Cana called, "We have plenty of chores for you!" She told him with a wide grin, while many of the other girls cheered.

Alumina only sat on her stool, holding her stomach as she laughed. Laughing really hurt with that wound on her stomach, but she couldn't stop, it was just so damn funny!

When at last she was able to stop laughing, she leaned her back against the bar behind her and winced harshly, still smiling though. She was going to enjoy this, but maybe later, she really was tired and didn't feel up to patronizing Natsu too much now, that would have to wait until tomorrow... The other women in the Guild would keep him pretty busy, she was sure.

Beside her, Loke was laughing his ass off, she was surprised he hadn't fallen off the stool yet he was shaking with his laughing so much. "Who... Who came up with that idea?!" He wheezed and she smiled.

"I did." She told him and he looked her way in surprise, his laughing dying away before he smirked at her.

"You have an Evil Side, you know?" He told her and she shrugged, giving him an innocent smile.

"I know."