Narrator Person Pov

Surprisingly, their entire group makes it out unnoticed, and don't get dragged back. Silently they trudge back to where the Sabertooth members had originally made camp. They all rested for a while.

Reader's Pov

Sting Eucliffe looks up at me and my friends.

"So, why did you want to leave?" He asks.

"We were bored." Skie states blandly.

"So we wasted our time helping some bored kids?" Rogue Cheney says exasperatedly, "jeez that's ridiculous."

"Please, you need money don't you? That's the whole reason you even moved from your couch." I point out, hating him even more.

"Oh yeah! Your compensation!" Skie exclaims, and digs in her bag for it. Rogue is glaring at me, and me at him, but he doesn't say anything for the dark presence of Ocean so near.

"Here." Skie hands the money to.....Yukimo? I can't remember her name but I think it's with an 'M.'

"Thank you! I apologize for these two, you know how guys are." She smiles at us. Us girls laugh, and I glance at Ocean with my grin still plastered to my face. Our eyes meet and he gains a hue of pink on his cheeks, so he looks away.

"What're you going to do after we make it to the town a few miles away?" The blonde boy asks.

"Well I don't know about Ocean, but this helpless lump can't survive ten minutes without me so we're sticking together." I don't realize Skie's talking about me until she gestures her hand my direction.

"Hey!" I complain.

Ocean snickers.

Skie continues, "But I'm not sure what we're actually going to do Yukino, it's a good question." Oh. It's an 'N.'

"I'm sticking with (Y\N) no matter what." Ocean loyally announces.

"You could come with us." Yukino offers.

"What!? To the Sabertooth guild!? Really???" My silver haired friend squeals.

"Well....Yeah! If you want to." She says.

"Nope. Not if he's in it." I say, pointing to Rogue. At the same time he says, "I'll quit if she joins," and points at me.

"But (Y/N)!" Skie whines, drawing my name out really long.

"No." I say again, my mind made up. This man is an idiot and rude. I will not stand to be insulted like this.

"It is a good opportunity..." Ocean wavers.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO STICKING WITH ME!?" I yell at him.

"Hehe..." He rubs his neck awkwardly.

"What happened to us sticking together?" Pouts Skie.

"Hm...." I look down.

"Well you seem to be at a bit of a three way block. Skie wants to join us, (Y/N) doesn't, and Ocean wants both. What're you going to do?" Sting asks.

"I don't know!" I yell at him.

"Jeez emotional much?" Rogue mutters. Yukino hits him.

"You're one to talk! Which isn't something you do much, what's going on with you?" She demands him to answer.

"Doesn't matter. Can we keep going?" He growls.

"Fine, we'll figure out our own problems." Ocean snaps at him.

For the rest of the trip we walk separated. Sabertooth walking ahead, and us walking behind, discussing our choice. In the end, right as we entered the city Sabertooth resides in, we decided on this:

"We'll join Sabertooth." Skie tells Yukino, when Rogue isn't around to my satisfaction. After an hour of persuading, Ocean and Skie convinced me. I don't have to ever interact with Rogue, or even see him in the day. We can have our own team of three, taking jobs by ourselves, and ignoring the rest of the guild.

Yukino has her concerns though.

"You're taking jobs alone? Do you have strong enough magic power? And ignoring the guild might cause problems!"

"We'll be fine, don't worry. We learned magic by ourselves a long time ago, and can use it successfully. The guild can deal with it." I tell her.

"Hm, if you insist...." She finally agrees, reluctant.

"Yay! Antisocial-ness!" I cheer.

Ocean rolls his eyes at me.

"What? You know I have people! Especially large crowds..." I trail off in response to his 'seriously?' look.

He sighs "Yeah you are really antisocial."

I smile, my point proven.

"Still, at least engage with the people we have met!" He starts up another argument we've gone over already.

"Let me guess, not Rogue?" Yukino cuts me off before I can say anything.

"Exactly." I say, and cross my arms for a dramatic effect. Everyone bursts into laughter.

"What!?" I ask.

"Y-your face!" Skie manages to get out before collapsing into laughter again.

"Grrr." I walk away, going no particular direction, just away from them. By the time I start to pay attention to where I'm going, I'm already out of town. Forest surrounds me. I smile, glad to finally get some peace. I stare up into the sky and walk again aimlessly. The few things that help me feel in complete harmony with life are music and nature.

I sit down on a root at the base of a huge tree. The roots protrude diligently on the surface and twist across the ground, leaving plenty of spaces in between to rest in. I slide into one of these spaces and turn my face to the heavens, letting the filtered light shine down onto my closed eyelids through a web of branches. As I rest and relax, I begin to fade.

I'm used to the fading now, I use it as an asset and a weapon. It happens whenever I want, I use it to blend in and become unnoticed. There are times when inexplicably I fade into the shadows. It mainly happens if I relax and don't have to worry about my appearance, or if an approaching force can prove dangerous. The biggest problem is if my Fade is active and I'm not aware, it's practically void. But I can almost always tell when it enters a stage of importance. The Fade (as I call it) protects me. And I protect it. I don't let anyone know about my Fade, my secret, for they'll be scared. People find these things ominous and unnatural. Not even Ocean-not even Skie-know about it.

I realize almost too late to become alert that my Fade has deepened, to it's protective stage. I open my eyes, sharpen my senses. In the distance I hear voices, coming closer. A male and a female, the latter talking more. As they approach and I can use normal hearing I realize who they are. Minerva of Sabertooth-we only met her today-and Rogue.

I sit absolutely still, worried any movement would give away my location and interrupt their heated conversation.

"And exactly why can't you get along with them?" Minerva demands, standing with her back to me, giving me a clear view of her brown hair and Rogue's face opposite her.

"It's not that I can't get along with them. I believe that we can all be on good terms of only they'd stop being so stuck up and provoking me." He grumbles.

"Don't point all the blame at them Rogue, that's just stupid." She replies, a slightly exasperated edge to her voice.

"Fine it's my fault too. I shouldn't have insulted them." He sulks like a child being scolded by his mother.

He looks up as I watch his expression. It travels up to my face, and it feels like he's looking right into my eyes. I stare back, wide eyed, trying not to move for fear of detection. But still, it's as though he sees me. It's impossible.

"I should apologize. It was reckless of me to judge them so quickly and to be so rude. And also I'm sorry that I didn't respect them at all. If I hadn't talked to them like that then they probably won't all hate me. I won't argue with them when they try to fight with me. Altogether I feel bad and I don't know what happened with me." He eyes bear into mine, every word hitting me with a strength I don't normally feel behind words.

"Uh.....wh...Hm." Minerva is at a loss for words. "Why are you apologizing to me?" She asks defiantly, defensive being a good stance.

"Hm?" Rogue tears his eyes from my face. I breath a sigh of relief, I thought he really did see me.

"Go apologize to them for goodness sakes." She orders.

"Oh right. Sorry." He says, obviously distracted. "Can I have some time alone?" He requests.

"Hm? Yeah okay." She says, and with a sharp turn, she leaves.

Rogue sits down about four feet from me, on a root extending from the same tree.

He sighs. "I know you're there (Y/N), you can drop the shadow."

Skie's Pov

After (Y/N) stormed off like a little kid, Yukino, Ocean, and I went to Sabertooth. If (Y/N) wants to be antisocial then let her. On the other hand, Ocean and I will be friendly.

We get to meet everyone in the guild. The only people we haven't seen since they retreived us are Sting, Rogue, and the exceeds. Actually, I hardly got a chance to meet them anyways really. I was looking forward to getting to know those exceeds, but now I can't find them. I assume they're with their owners.

After another hour of just hanging out, a blonde head struts into the guild.

"Hey Sting!" I call after him, right before he disappears into another room.

"Yeah?" He turns and addresses me. I have this wave of embarrassment, I've had a secret crush on him and Rogue since the Grand Magic Games. But that's gone now.

"Uh, thanks for coming to find us." I smile at him, but not really meeting his eyes.

"No problem, it gave us something to bond over, and we got to make great new friends!" He says cheerily. I turn my head away, trying to fight down the idea of a blush my face has. Sure I don't have any attraction to him personally, but he's still a fairly cute guy, and good looking too.

"Well anyways, I'm gonna go, I just wanted to say that!" I look up at him again - he's at least 4 inches taller than me - and grin. Right before I run back to Ocean, I get a quick glimpse of his blue eyes. My chest is suddenly struck, I feel my heart pounding like the stab of a knife. I stagger, and then continue on my way a little disoriented.

Behind me Sting makes a noise, but I dismiss it thinking that he was probably concerned about my sudden falter. My pride refuses to let me turn, to face the embarrassment, so I stride back to Ocean like nothing happened.

"Hey." He says, then smirks devilishly. "What was that?"

"Shut up." I mutter, looking away.

"Awe do you like him?" Ocean teases trying to get on my nerves.

"Ugh you're as bad as (Y/N)!" I yell.

"Don't want to make a scene in front of your booooyyyyyfriiieeeennnddd." His mocking voice is just the right amount of obnoxious to through me over the edge.

I punch him.

Sorry that took so long! I've been working really hard to make it sound good, so I hope you guys like it!! <3

I have a question. Does anyone have suggestions as to what to refer to you guys as? (ex: Fairies, potatoes, etc.) And, should I change my leaving thing? (This ↓↓↓)

BAKA-CHAN OUT! PEASH ✌