Run and Hide

Verity didn't know how it had happened. One second she was walking peacefully throughout the Worth Woodsea and then the next, she found herself running for her life. Flash back to a few minutes earlier and it would all become clearer. The girl had decided that the last destination she'd visit before her return home would be near Blue Pegasus. After all, she had come close to Lamia Scale so why not visit near the other guild too? Clover town was in East Fiore so she stood by her decision that it did not count as near Blue Pegasus. The nearest place she could go was either Shirotsume or the Worth Woodsea. She liked woods so she had entered it. Usually she found woods were peaceful places. However, this one seemed different. It was more...sinister in feel. She didn't know why but comparing it to the one South Fiore and the one in East Fiore, it was dark. She could feel it creeping through the shadows of the trees, creating ominous vibes as the sun began its descent. And here's where it becomes blurry.

The blonde had decided that she wanted to get the hell out of this creepy forest and promptly turned on her heel. What she hadn't accounted for was that while she had been distracted thinking of the forest, she had also been unknowing surrounded by random beasts. At first she had tried to fight but she couldn't concentrate, instead her thoughts had shifted to asking why. And then memories of her sister came flooding back. If it weren't for her quick reflexes, her arm would have been taken out by some beast's claws. Instead, they grazed her shoulder, immediately causing the blood to flow. Even Vera knew that was bad if they caught a whiff of it. So, with that in mind, she immediately bolted. The monsters begun to give chase and she figured she'd have to bind the wound later.

And presently that was where she was at, running as quick as she could while attempting to wrap a thin white gauze over her shoulder. It was hard to multitask like that and she accidentally crashed into a tree with her injured shoulder. A lance of pain pierced her shoulder and she gritted her teeth. She wasn't exactly sure whether the beasts had stopped chasing her but she wasn't in a good position to check. She stopped to finish binding her shoulder and then a growl from behind alerted her to their presence. Once again, she took off. She ran until she was sure she actually lost them and then she stopped...and tripped accidentally. It was just her bad luck that she had had to trip from an elevated area.

Tatsuma entered worth woodsea for the second time in about as many months. Last time he was here he had fought with Kotone and lost. The thought still angered him, although he was just as frustrated with a number of other events, but what he had learned previously from his experience in Onibus was that getting too distracted and caught up in his thoughts was a good way to get ambushed. He had somehow managed to lose his immunity to loss of focus due to the fact that he has so much going on lately. He opened his ears and listened to the goings on of the forest, only to find himself listening to the sounds of wild beasts chasing something. Whatever it was didn't screech or roar so he couldn't tell what it was, but he took off after whatever it was. Either he could steal the food they were chasing, or he could find some sort of fun training opportunity.

He took off at a dead run, zipping through the forest and following the sounds of snarling and growling as they caught the scent of what he could only assume was blood, not because he smelled it, but because that was what he had usually experienced to be the cause of such excitement. When he finally caught up to the creatures and saw what they were chasing he froze. Verity? For real? Of all the random places he thought he might inadvertently run into her, this was not one of them. They hadn't had a falling out or anything, they were just both kind of free spirits, though he was slightly less so, not that he was going to tell he- wait there were other things to worry about right now.

With new determination he almost literally flew toward her. He couldn't remember his feet touching the ground (they did though he was trying to keep them from doing so), and as he caught up to the beasts. His feet barely made a sound when he ran and he unconsciously used that to his advantage, though he started to see his concern was a little unwarranted as Vera managed to outrun them. Only after she had gotten so far ahead did he notice that the reason for that was the fact that they were slightly distracted by the new male food item they had opted to add to their menu. Some had continued on with single minded blood lust, while others has broken off to come after him. As one launched itself at him he dodge rolled underneath it, never slowing down, but using the head of another as a spring board as he continued to try to chase down Vera.

After getting ahead of the trio that had attacked him, and starting to pass the second group, he watched her trip, and while he at first was tempted to swing around and protect her, he then saw her disappear over the side of a cliff from which he knew not the height.
"S***!" He thought in exclamation of his annoyance at the though of her getting injured from the fall. In a final push he drove forward, jumping over the side of the cliff in a desperate attempt to try to catch her.

Tatsu zipped toward her in a dive as he slid his arms around her and turned so he would be the one to his the ground, though also to face his right hand toward the cliff side. As he did he activated his lightning scalpel spell and drove the electric claws into the side of the rock. At first his hand smashed against rock and his claws were forced out as gravity continued to pull, but he quickly corrected it and managed to slow their descent enough that he they didn't just splatter against the ground, though when they did hit he let go of her so she would take less damage as he rolled a few feet across the ground.
"You know I'm starting to think you did that on purpose." He joked with a smile as he simply dropped his spell and started to stand up.

After looking at his attire he realized that his shirt was partially tattered and his arms, legs, and face were covered in scratches and scuffs. He was so going to be sore in the morning and definitely wanted to go get a massage, and that made a great excuse for the trip to Hosenka town he had been planning.. well that and the need for new clothes.
"So what's a nice girl like you doing in a forest like-" He cut himself off as he grunted while standing up and pulled shards of rock out of his knee. "Like this." He finished.

The land disappeared from under her feet and suddenly the world was spinning the opposite way. A dull throb began to pound in her head where the pressure was pushing against her gravity and the blonde gritted her teeth. The wind whooshed, the sound of falling, in her ears. She needed to stop her fall. And then she felt him, felt him wrap his arms around her, slid under her, use some tool to soften the impact. At first, she relaxed, confident that this person would prevent further injury. And then she realised she didn’t even know who this person was. She froze. ‘WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?’ would have been roughly what she said if yelling with wind in your mouth was possible. Instead, it came out in an unintelligible shrill shriek as the unknown male continued his work.

She struggled against the guy’s grip but heck, he was strong. Suddenly she was feeling some sympathy for the other guy whose circulation in the arm had nearly been stopped completely by her. He finally let loose of her some and she didn’t hesitate to jump out. Also because she wasn’t stupid, she requipped a trampoline underneath her – the one she used all that time ago with Zahn – and bounced safely to the ground. She would have been unharmed had it not been for her shoulder where the wounds had decided to be a pain and reopen. She lay on the ground, wincing slightly when the guy’s voice resounded in her head. Immediately, she grew on the defence. “Wh-“ And then she saw it was her roommate. She dropped her tense shoulders. Okay so it hadn’t been some creepy stalker dude. It was just her roommate. Wait. Her roommate? She sat up to get a good look at him. Of all the places she thought she might him, a creepy forest did not cut it.

He didn’t seem surprise (she still was as shown by her gaping mouth) and decided to crack a joke. Much like eggs, the yolk splattered everywhere because she didn’t catch it. “What? Why would I do that?” she asked, confused expression, before she realised that it was a joke. Riight. He then asked her what she was doing in the forest in a weird way. She looked at him strangely but responded anyway. “I was just visiting the area. Perhaps get some training done at the same time…” She trailed off, lost in her gaze of the forest but she shook it off. “How about you?” she asked back politely before noticing the injuries he had (and clothing damage but who cared? After kind of seeing the person naked she was totally cool with anything less). “Are you alright?” She came closer to him and checked his injuries. Her shoulder was still bleeding but seriously, his took priority especially since he took them for her (although hello? Trampoline!). She requipped the bandages again and tossed it to him. “Here, use that, I don’t have anything else.”

Tatsu looked up to see if they were still being chased. It wasn't like anything suddenly took a swan dive off the top of the cliff like they had, but they seemed relatively safe. As long as nothing else suddenly attacked they would be fine.
"I come to forests all the time. Last time I was here I had a little fight with another dragon slayer and I have work to do so I can repay the favor. Imagine my surprise when I saw you running away." He said as he continued to survey their surroundings, although he stopped when she asked if he was alright. Did that mean she was worried about him? Nice as it was, when she gave him the bandages he looked at her shoulder. That explained the blood he had smelled earlier.
"Thanks!" He said as he stepped closer to her and unraveled the bandages and started trying to wrap her wound as long as she wasn't going to fight him. They were obviously cleaner than the clothes he would have happily torn up to try to wrap her and she really had no idea how big of a deal that was. Of the very few things he had come to like since he had entered civilization, his clothes were one of them. He cared about them so much that he changed out of them when he worked out, so much that he repeatedly traveled to Hosenka Town to buy them, and he was repeatedly risking their destruction and offering them to her whenever it seemed like she needed them, though she frequently turned him down, he had learned she didn't appreciate it so he stopped.

Regardless of the clothing/bandage/importance situation he had quite literally thrown himself off of a cliff for her so if that didn't say "hey guess what you're important" he wasn't quite sure what else to do.
"Are you okay? This forest is usually best if you can keep to the trees if you want to conserve spell power or avoid the local wild life." He said as he worked on bandaging her shoulder.
"So you're going to tell her right? It would be stupid not to? but that means you lose a room mate if she doesn't feel the same way... Is it worth it? Way too much is going on. It's not really important right now is it? Not compared to other things that need your attention. Does she know? Or...? Thoughts flashed through his head, but he ended up spending more time arguing with himself than actually making any decisions.

Her idea of what a person with injuries would do with a roll of bandages was apparently very different from Tatsuma. While he started with the normal person 'Thanks', he followed through with a completely different action. Instead of taking care of his own injuries, he attempted to take care of her shoulder. She twisted her head to shoot daggers at him. "Tatsu, when I give bandages, I usually give them for a better cause. My shoulder's fine," She grumbled. It was true. Kind of. Vaguely. Well at least she wasn't bleeding to death. Nevertheless, she let him bandage her shoulder. She'd just have to find something else suitable to wrap him up. She scanned over the expanse of the forest. Nothing stood out. Just leaves and trees. She might have to resort to using clothes. Since she was unlikely to try ripping his own clothes to use as bandages, she'd have to use her own. She looked down at herself, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

She looked back up at the boy when he asked whether she was okay. "I'm fine, I'd be more concerned about you though," She frowned as she checked him over. He had taken full brunt of the fall so logically, he was more injured than her. Her eyes hovered at his face and her frown deepened. "Are you okay?" She asked for the second time. His eyes showed conflict about something but she didn't know what.

She didn't remain looking at him for too long though, as she went back to her former task of getting a suitable bandage. She was wearing her hair down (somehow she didn't think that would be a great bandage), shorts (walking around without pants wasn't on her agenda) and a blouse with a tank top underneath. Okay. That'd do. She might get cold but whatever. She wouldn't stay that long. Once he was done with her arm, she shrugged her blouse off and handed it to him. "So it's fair, use that as a bandage. And don't chuck it away or whatever else you'd do to it. Use it. Or else the next thing I'm handing you to use for first-aid will be my socks." She smiled briefly before turning to look out to the trees. "You want to climb?" she asked, glancing at him while pointing to the trees. She was referring to him saying that keeping to the trees was safer.

Tatsu looked at Vera like she was crazy.
"Right and when you give them to someone they get to choose which cause is better. I have minor scratches, you're shoulder looks like you got scratched, ergo, you get the banages for you." He said as he looked at her. She asked again if he was alright and he shrugged.
"I've been better, falling off of cliff sides sucks, jumping off of them sucks more, but I'm otherwise physically fine." He replied, suddenly looking away when he noticed she was looking at his eyes. For a moment he wondered if she had heard about what had happened to Fairy Tail.

When she handed him her blouse he smiled for a number of reasons, one because she was taking clothing off, two because she was concerned for him and that gave him hope, and three because he remembered doing something similar and she had shot him down. He looked at it, wondering if she would get mad about him tearing it, but decided to just go with it as he tied his knee, elbows, and used some thin strips to get blood away from his face.

"Well we can climb but if we're going to Magnolia we might want to get back up the cliff face." He said, doubting that they could get there reasonably soon given what was going on. They would definitely want to find a place to set up camp.
"Do you want to just set up camp here and head for Magnolia tomorrow? We may need to talk." He wasn't sure which bit of information to give her first. Telling her that their guild had pretty much been razed to the ground wasn't going to help her sleep any, so he elected to tell her in the morning. He was still debating on telling her how he felt, and he was still debating on telling her that he was planning on going after the guild leader of Shadow Heart, the group that had destroyed their hall and had begun gathering people to keep Fiore leveled from the magic council. He also wasn't sure saying "Hey i'm going to put together a small group of people to help me get to the shadow lord." was going to fly either. Given the things lying ahead he decided to deal with the personal business first if he was ever going to get it out.

Woah. This was new. He was looking at her like she was crazy. That was usually the opposite way round. She rolled her eyes. "Would you like me to physically bandage you up because you desire the 'mummy' look?" She was being sarcastic again. "And besides, the person with the bandage should be the one with the power. You don't give a gift back do you?" She turned slightly away and pouted in annoyance. However, she couldn't keep up the annoyed expression and returned her gaze anyways.

It was curious to see Tatsu suddenly avert his gaze when she looked at him. He didn't do that when she first met him and made a fool out of herself. She did still stand by her decision that he had made a fool out of himself too. Although somehow, he seemed to be gradually getting less psychotic...in fact she had completely eradicated calling him a psycho from her mind mainly because she realised she was using it in the wrong context. The boy wasn't psycho at all. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating because everyone was at least a little psycho and he was definitely no exception but she simply didn't know. What she didn't know, she didn't know either. It was like the answer was at the tip of her tongue (or head) but she just couldn't figure it out. It was annoying to be honest.

When he ripped her blouse, she winced slightly. That was her favourite one. Maybe she should have thought through the situation more. He hadn't been dying. But yet again, she went on her impulse. And apparently she didn't mind that much. Usually that would have been enough to put her in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Maybe she had an abhorrence to people's scratches? That didn't make much sense though. She deduced that Tatsuma was just a confusing person. Probably why she kind of avoided him from the time they got off that tournament isle to now. She looked dubiously at him. "Magnolia? Why would we be going back to Magnolia?" Obviously she didn't know what Tatsuma did. If she had, she would have run back to the guild without second thoughts. "I don't get it," She cocked her head in confusion.

Tatsuma smiled about the bandaging him up like a mummy comment, though for the rest he was prepared with a retort.
"You're right, the one with the bandages is the one with the power and since you gave them to me I gave you the gift of taking care of you." He said as his smile turned into a triumphant grin. He always did have the most fun games of back and forth banter with her. He was set to tell her about how he felt, but she asked about Magnolia.
"It's... I'll tell you in the morning. It's important, but I'm going to go ahead and be selfish because I need it to wait." He said, hoping to disarm that particular grenade. Besides, as soon as they got there he was planning to leave again and he needed to get this out of the way before he left. He was planning on coming back to her, but there was a chance things wouldn't go that smoothly, especially since the Shadow Lord had already beaten Vanix.

"I...missed you." He started, though he mentally kicked himself for leading with that the moment he managed to stammer over the entire sentence. As much as he had experiences with girls those had been fleeting and developing an attachment, of any real kind to anyone but the wolves in the forest near Magnolia since Rhidran left was a brand new thing. Despite his age it had been several years and he wasn't entirely sure how to go about it.
"I hate that it took this long to say this but..." He stopped, the words briefly escaping him as he tried to figure out how best to put it.
"I think I might... well have.." Nope, he was still stammering over it. The more that happened the more he was flustered about what the hell exactly it was that people said in these kinds of situations.
"I care... about you... and I, um... oh the hell with it." He said, finally giving up on using words and deciding to try to use actions to communicate his feelings more effectively. With that he grabbed her around the waist with his right hand and cupped her right cheek with is left hand as he kissed her.

Unlike the first time, it wasn't a simple quick kiss because he was trying to mess with her. He placed as much of his concern, care, compassion, and desire to protect, all of his feelings, into the kiss and let himself release his anger, lust for battle, and desire to avenge slip away in the moments during the kiss. It was the first and probably last bit of peace he was going to have with the upcoming events on the horizon and the morning promising to bring down a crushing, dark, desperate reality.

Vera’s frowned increased further upon being told he wasn’t going to tell her this ‘important thing’ until the next day because he was going to be selfish. “No, tell,” me She tried to insist but he cut her off. She stared confused at him. He missed her? What was this about? “You missed me?” This was strange. She didn’t care what he had to say at the moment. She shouldn’t care what he had to say, but some tiny little bit within her wanted to know. So she kept silent while he tried to blunder on. She blamed her curiosity. It didn’t help that she had entirely no clue what he was going on about. She knitted her eyebrows together. “You might have a stuttering problem?” She tried to prompt him and continue on whatever he was trying to say. She hoped that wasn’t what he was trying to say though. That would be a giant let down. Wait what? Why would it be? Vera shook her internal head. He was probably going to say…that he cared about her? As a friend? She stared into his eyes, confused. “What?” Her voice came out in a whisper as her eyes flickered down to his hand around her waist. She looked back at him. She could feel the rate of her heart beat increasing. What was going on?

And then his mouth came crashing down on hers.

What.

He was kissing her. He was kissing her. And it wasn’t a joke, not like the last time. She stood there for a while, stunned. She didn’t understand.  Why? He didn’t like her did he? She knew she didn’t like him…or did she? It was like her nerves were on fire. By an instinct, she closed her eyes and let herself get swept away in his intensity. She’d never felt like this before. It was terrifying and blissful all at the same time. It was…confusing. Too confusing. She could feel the panic beginning to rise and she started to freeze up. She couldn’t handle this, it was scaring her. Panic overtook her and suddenly she clasped her right hand around the hand cupping her cheek and shoved it away, ripping herself from his grip at the same time. She took several steps back and stared at him, eyes stretched wide. Her heart hammered in her chest. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t…she shifted her gaze to the forest behind her. Run the voice inside her head told her. She bit her lip, trembling slightly.

Run.

And so she did, she turned and ran. Maybe it was stupid of her to run away from someone as fast as him, or someone with super senses, but she couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t deal. The forest began to blur around her as she continued onwards with a single thought – to get away from the inner conflict. She skidded to a halt in front of a big tree and climbed up it, quicker than she ever had before. She needed to escape. Run, hide. That was all she ever did. She rested her head against the trunk and buried her face in her hands. She just didn’t know.

Surprised as he was, he was more surprised about the fact that he was surprised. When they had met she had run when he had spoken harshly to her, and while she had grown quite a bit since then, it still seemed to be her solution to problems or overwhelming issues. It was out of the way, he had "told" her how he felt, and it seemed at though she had rejected him, though it was possible this might be the last time. Still, he had planned to make sure she was safe before she left and he couldn't just let her get to the guild hall without ever having told her what happened. Just as he had done the first time he set about tracking her, though he took his time a little more so that she had time to think and clear her mind.

Tracking her here was a lot easier than tracking her in the city. She left a trail of broken and bent branches, footprints, torn tree moss. It was actually harder in this instance to take time to track her than it was to just walk up to her, though he solved that by walking at a slower pace. Eventually though, he did catch up to her, looking at the tree she had climbed and all the pulled bark and fresh pulled moss at the base from her scrambling up. He wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure what else to say. She had every right to feel however she did about anything she wanted, all he could do was talk and listen.
"I'm.. sorry. I honestly wasn't sure how you would react, but I wasn't sure if I'd have the ti-" He cut himself off as he heard the sound of bushes rustling, then breathing, it wasn't exactly something that just happened without any need for concern in the forest.
"Damnit why does this have to happen now?!?" He thought as he started looking around.

Verity was ashamed. Hide and Seek. The game that appeared to last forever. 17 years and counting wasn't it? Her face remained buried in her knees. She didn't care, she couldn't care. It was stupid that she seemed to still resort to that game. It wasn't even a major problem that involved insults or barbs. All it involved was her not being able to deal with the current confusion she was feeling. Confusion about Tatsuma. She never took another person's opinion and made it her own but she knew there were some pretty bad stuff about him floating around. She also knew she appreciated him as a friend but anything more? She didn't know. She didn't want to think about it. But she couldn't think of anything else. She just needed time alone.

However, it appeared she wasn't going to get that. Maybe if she concentrated hard enough he'd disappear? She remained in her position as he apologised. How could she respond? She was considering staying silent when she heard some rustling. She shifted her head slightly to give her a bitter view. What emerged was shocking to say the least.

It was rainbow, it had wings and it was curious. It peered back at her with wide open eyes. It peeped. She stared back at it. She didn't peep. The bird appeared to shrug its shoulders and wandered on forwards, uncaring and blissfully ignorant of the monsters that could very well tear it to pieces. Of course it could be a monster itself but she wasn't thinking about that now. Instead a bitter feeling started to grow. How she wished she was ignorant and able to ignore all her problems. A childish thought, yes but something she could never let go off. She sighed and steeled herself to look back at the silver-blonde haired boy.

"It's alright...just..." She trailed off not even sure of what to say. It was unnerving looking at him directly and shifted her head towards the trees ahead. "I don't know. Not right?" Her gaze followed the rainbow bird walking casually across the ground. "Don't you ever wish you were like that bird?" She asked, nodding her head towards it. He probably didn't but she certainly did.

Tatsu seriously considered her question. He knew what he wanted to say, but he had things he needed to do, and there was a chance he might never see her again. He wanted to at least get this taken care of before he left.
"I used to travel with a pack of wolves. Back then, things were simple and I didn't have to worry about falling in love, being judged, stupid societal rules, or anything but finding food, surviving, and protecting ourselves and our pack. Since I've joined society it's been nothing but a sequence of events that make less and less sense. The very things the wolves did and that I spent years learning didn't matter anymore and I've had to live in books just to keep up with all the things I don't know. What i know about that bird is that his life is simpler, but it's less fulfilled because he doesn't know what else is out there. I'm glad I'm not like that anymore, mistakes were made along the way, but I'm happy now... or I was. " He didn't say yet what had happened with Fairy Tail, but he thought that it might be best to go ahead and tell her what's going on if he was going to be able to move on. Death was a possibility for him, and he didn't have time to pursue this relationship so maybe this rejection of him was for the best.

"Since I have already been selfish for long enough we don't have to wait until morning. Fairy Tail was attacked, that's why I'm on my way back to Magnolia and why I was trying to get you to come back with me. You don't have to even think about what I was saying earlier or what was going on, but we can't stay here. I need to make sure that you're safe before-" He cut himself off while he decided whether to tell her about the rest of his plan or not, but he finally decided not to in order to keep her from telling Taiga. He didn't need the old man trying to talk him out of it, and he would leave him a letter later.
"Before they start rebuilding without us." He said. It wasn't a great save, but he wasn't counting on her asking too many questions about it. With that he turned, heading toward Magnolia and seeing if she was going to follow, but staying close enough to be able to tell if she was in danger again. Regardless of her rejection of him, he was still inclined to care about her safety.

Tatsu had a point about the bird not having a very fulfilling life. But she guessed that was dependent on what someone viewed as a fulfilling life. As far as she was concerned that bird would be able to live its life and think it be very fulfilling since that was what it was designed for. Had she been in a perkier mood she might have noted that her original thoughts of him being brought up in the wilderness was actually true. It also explained his slightly animal like nature at times too. She sighed and leaned back into the tree once more, eyes closed. She was still confused; she couldn't deny it. She tried to collect her thoughts. Maybe she should start with what she thought about him? Well he was...she couldn't think, it was too hard and she didn't want to if she was honest with herself. She opened her mouth to speak when he beat her to it.

She grew cold.

What.

Fairy Tail was attacked? She stared at him, numb. Her capacity to think clearly was gone. She wanted to know more about it, she wanted to shake him to tell her if he was joking. But somehow she couldn't move. She couldn't speak, she couldn't think. Tatsu's voice drowned out in her head. Fairy Tail was attacked.

And she hadn't helped

He finally finished talking and she managed to swivel her head around to face him. "What?" She asked, a ghost of a whisper. She struggled to make herself louder. "What?" She repeated. Possibly she was interrupting him, she didn't know. Her feelings begun to rush back at her and her tone increased in anger. "What are you talking about?" He moved to head off to Magnolia she suspected and she followed after. Instead of walking beside him though, she grabbed his arm to stop him. "How badly were they attacked?" She asked, the questions now coming back "What happened? Were you there?" Her fingers curled into his arm, unintentionally digging into his skin with her fingernails. She didn't understand. The growing embers in the pit of her stomach began to light up with increasing rage. Her grip grew tighter.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Her eyes burned into his.

Tatsuma looked at Verity for a moment before deciding to answer her question in earnest.
"I was hoping you would get some rest tonight before we had to head there tomorrow. I wanted... He stopped. He wasn't going to get anywhere just saying what he wanted. He had already made his feelings clear and he wasn't about to tell her what he was planning, at least not face to face. She would get a letter just like Kotone and Old Man Taiga. Unfortunately he wasn't planning on having to deal with this today so he hadn't really had much time to think of how he would explain himself like he had originally planned.
"I wasn't sure if you'd actually heard about it and didn't want to bring it up until tomorrow if you had already. When you asked why we were heading back to Magnolia I was more certain, but I wanted to take this chance to... tell you what I tried to say earlier since I may not get another chance. Either way it's this way." He said, pointing in the direction they needed to go and just accepting that she was going to be mad at him. That was nothing in comparison to how mad she would be if she knew what he was doing, but he wanted her to question whether or not she actually would have gone with him if something happened so she wouldn't be upset. This was for the best anyway.
"Anyway once we get there I have something to take care of so I'll be leaving you at the guild hall. Take care of the wolf plushy doll for me while I'm away if you don't mind." He added as he turned to start walking.

Verity didn't know whether she should feel utter disgust at his reasoning or the self-hatred threatening to creep over her again. The former was sounding pretty likeable when compared with the latter. She couldn't bring herself to look at Tatsu so she glared at the floor trying to keep her building anger to the minimum. The more he talked, the more she wanted to throttle him. Pointless, pointless, pointless. What he was saying was absolutely pointless. If his idea of guild protection was kissing somebody instead of telling the-

She didn't even want to finish the thought. She didn't even want to think about what he was telling her. She knew that his kissing her was him trying to tell her he liked her but she didn't want to acknowledge that. She was just...just...she didn't even know. And then he was leaving. Leaving? When the guild needed him? That was fail logic on his behalf. Maybe even Astra was right. She hadn't believed her.

She knew she wasn't thinking clearly. In one part of her she was a pile of jumbled feelings, in another she was burning with self-hatred and finally, in the last part, she felt like she was so confused her head would explode. She didn't understand and she couldn't bring herself to try. It was all too, too strange! And so it was the last straw when he mentioned he had to leave. Verity snapped.

She jerked her head to look at him and tried her very best to bore holes into his head. She wouldn't let him leave without telling her where he was going. At the very least she deserved that. She tightened her grip around and kept alongside his pace so that she was a bit before him. "I'm going to ignore the rest for now. Where are you going?" The only way he wouldn't answer her question would be if he knocked her out or ran off somewhere, too fast for her to catch. She would be madder either way. Somehow she had an instinct that where he was going was nowhere good.

Tatsuma thought about how he was going to answer her question. He couldn't very well just say "I'm going to go face the shadow lord, broadcast the fight on television, probably die, all so I can attempt to unite Fiore in the hopes that my death will ignite the tinder that everyone needs to fight back against Shadow heart". For one it was way too damn long, for another there was no way she was just going to let him dodder on and probably never come back, for another there was no way she was going to just let him go off and risk his life... or maybe, it was really difficult to read her sometimes, but finally he didn't want her to feel like she had anything to do with it or could have done anything to stop it.

Taking all of that into consideration was enough for him to find a way to try to get out of telling her.
"I have errands to run for a favor that I owe." He answered simply. It was an honest enough answer. He did in fact owe a favor to Fairy Tail, and there would be errands involved before he would be able to go tackle the main problem. He wasn't one to lie to Vera and he didn't really want to start now, but he had anticipated that people would have a problem with his methodology if nothing else. There was nothing he could do back at Fairy Tail, no one looked up to him, no one expected him to have been able to make a difference, and many members of not just Fairy Tail but multiple guilds thought of him as something of a monster, the last of which he thought was stupid since he had never raised a finger in any way other than defense of innocent people and the incident that had caused the sudden enmity was brought about thanks to a mission with Lamia Scale where he aimed to kill someone who had been killing others. Despite what was going on with the country, he was about to try to prove everyone wrong though he personally didn't care what ninety nine percent of them thought. This was not the case with Verity, but her reaction had proven enough to him that she was with the majority in thought.
"I planned on leaving you a letter in the apartment when we got back to Magnolia, but you'll know what I'm doing when the rest of Fairy Tail finds out too." He stated simply.

Oh yeah. Like that answer was going to cut it. That wasn't an explanation. That was like saying he had to go grocery shopping for an old person because he knocked them down the other day. Not satisfactory. Verity frowned further. His next sentence wasn't very much better. Oh, so she'll find out with the rest of Fairy Tail. That sounded juuuuust great. Perfect even. Because she wasn't asking in order to get a straight answer, was she? If Verity hadn't looked very happy before, she now looked like a thunderstorm. She glared at the boy, pushing down any other feelings or opinions she had before. "That's such a informative answer," She stated sarcastically, much like when they first met. "I don't ask questions to get answers like that," She raised her aggressiveness a notch. "What 'errands'? What 'favours'?" She asked, crossing her arms and stopping in front of him. "You're not leaving the guild for 'errands' and 'favours' since that's stupid. It's more than an errand isn't it? Some kind of death wish perhaps? I know what other people think of you and I know they generally hate you. I don't believe that you're like what they say but you're not leaving me much choice when you're about to go gallivanting elsewhere without giving me a legitimate reason why," She told him this in a blunt manner, demanding in tone rather than kind.

She took a moment after her mini speech and thought more about what he said. She could tell something wasn't right but she couldn't tell what. She unfolded her arms and fell in beside him once more, thoughtful in expression now. "Why?" She murmured under her breath. What he said earlier was bugging her. That much she figured out. He had said that she'd find out at the same time as the rest of Fairy Tail. Significance? Verity closed her eyes trying to get a bigger scope on what she was figuring out. And then "GOT IT!" She exclaimed, probably a little louder than necessary. She gave a quick glance at Tatsuma before looking forwards again. "If I'm finding out at the same time as the rest of Fairy Tail, either you want to be a national lacrima vision star or you're somehow going to telepathically speak to all of us." So maybe her revelation wasn't that major but she still wanted to know. She gave a frustrated sigh and fixed Tatsuma in a stare again. "Why are you going? I'm not leaving you till you tell me,"

Tatsuma listened and while it wouldn't serve any better for him to try to play word games with the discrepancies in her speech. He started to consider the reality that he was going to have to confess the truth to her. Still what she was saying didn't make much sense. If she didn't believe the things they said then why did she reject him? That factor led him to believe she wasn't being truthful about her opinion on that matter.

He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted to the tune of "GOT IT!" whereupon he listened to the rest of what she had to say, facepalming at about the point she mentioned him being a lacrima vision star, and shaking his head.
"First off if you don't believe what they say then why treat me to the cold shoulder. I mean I guess I could have misread your signals, but that aside, you'll follow me if I tell you, at least this way you won't know where I'm going. I most likely won't be coming back from it so I'm going to pay rent ahead by six months and move out. I mean to do something for the betterment of Fiore, but I'd rather not let the guild know just yet. Why do you care anyway? Didn't you just completely shoot me down and then run away from me?" He asked shaking his head more, all the while wondering what the deal was with her. She acted like she didn't care and then acted like she cared and he didn't care for it... why was he using the word "care" so much.

Despite everything, he wasn't really of the mind that she was doing a whole lot more than assuaging her curiosity.
"If you keep hearing it enough you can probably assume that it's either true or that it's a rumor. Either way you know what you think. I'm heading back to pay the rent, and then I'll be heading out. If you see a girl that frequents the guild by the name of Kotone though, tell her I said that I'm sorry." He added as he walked on, figuring that would give her the information she needed when Kotone went on a tangent about him. With that he walked on.

Verity wondered if she had been giving him the cold shoulder treatment. She hadn't thought so. Maybe she was. Her mood seemed to be all over the place today but she didn't she was to be blamed for that. In fact, she quite rather thought the boy standing with her was the reason for it. However, did it really matter right now? No. So she brushed off his cold shoulder treatment comment. What confused her was him saying she'd follow him if he told her to. She frowned at that statement. She didn't think she would. Unless she was chained to him she didn't think she'd go wherever he went if he told her to. And it didn't even make sense with the other things he was saying. Given the chance, she might have questioned his statement but her attention turned immediately when he said he probably won't be coming back.

"What?" She asked. Grimly she guessed he wasn't being a totally selfish fool. But apparently he thought he was going to die too. For some reason that bothered her. Well probably not just some reason. Even if she didn't like him in a particular way, which she didn't (she'd deny herself a while), she still wouldn't want him to go off and die. He was practically her only close friend in the guild, which was kind of sad to say but the truth nonetheless.

What made her feel slightly guilty was that he seemed to think she completely shot him down and ran away from him. Well... seemed to think wasn't putting it that well cause she had exactly done that. Not intentionally to give him that impression but possible? But wait, did she actually completely shoot him down? She didn't think she did anything that implied that (except for you know, the running off but it was nothing to do with him in her eyes). So she decided to tell him what she actually meant. Although she thought she already did that. Perhaps? No? Screw it. She was confusing herself.

Verity stood frozen for her a few seconds before catching up to him again. Once again, her mood had changed (of course, brought along by Tatsuma). Instead of angry, she was... well she didn't know. Shocked? Scared? Concerned? Possibly all three and more. She grabbed his arm to bring him to a halt.

"Who the hell is Kotone? I don't go around delivering people's messages in case you haven't noticed," What a great opening sentence Verity. She coughed. "Anyways, even if I completely shot you down, which wasn't my intention at all," Wait, what was she saying? That might be bad for her in the long run. She blushed slightly and shook her head, "Scratch that, I didn't mean that. I meant I was-okay I don't know, but the running away from you wasn't anything to do with you. That was me running away from me... kind of," She did things she couldn't explain, she couldn't help that. She took a deep breath "What I'm saying is I do still care for you." Her inner voice decided at this precise moment that she liked being straight forward. Great hint inner voice. "A-and I'm not that dumb so well...I know that you um, like me? And I can't say I don't like you back but I can't say I do either. In fact, I don't know what I feel about you. But," She took a deep breath. "I wouldn't want to lose you which is what you sound like you are doing. So could you please just tell me in a non-dodging the question way, what exactly are you doing?" She had a bad feeling and she could guess what he was doing but she wanted him to tell her. Then, she'd throw speculations at his face and she'd find out one way or another.

Slowly he shook his head. He knew she was being up front with him about her feelings, but he also felt that it was probably so that he would feel more apt to tell her everything. Then again she was typically pretty straightforward when it came to the things she said, and he had never found any reason to think she was lying.
"I'm sorry, it shouldn't matter what your reasons were for running, or what your feelings for me are or aren't. It isn't relevant to why I'm not telling you. The fact is, you still haven't learned to control your emotions and impulses. That makes you a wild card and while normally I love that about you, my reason for leaving demands I don't have any wild cards in play that aren't directly involved with what I'm about to do. You're plenty smart, you'll probably figure it out before I send you the letter. I have no intentions of keeping this a secret from you forever, but as it stands, you don't need to know what I'm doing." He responded, only now realizing how much more she talked to him than when they had first met.

"It's more than like by the way." He added, as he was now past the point of caring what he was saying. "We've been living together, but I don't imagine you know very much about me. I've danced between wanting to part of a group or family, and wanting to be by myself. It's only recently that I've finally made up my mind, that I've stopped pushing everyone away, and by the time that happened it was too late. As you've said, most of the guild isn't exactly on friendly terms with me, neither is Lamia Scale, and I don't even know about Blue Pegasus. This might be a chance for me to make up for some of it, but honestly I don't want anyone who's life I care about involved or aware of what I'm doing until it's too late for anyone to intervene. He finished.

He realized he hadn't readdressed the issue concerning Kotone, but he didn't imagine an apology would have calmed her anyway. She was pretty high strung, and seemed the type to hold grudges forever and ever. Still, he had tried and that was about as much as he was willing to throw out. It was a struggle not to tell her the simple truth. It was good to know that she felt something, regardless of the fact that it was probably not ever going to be the same as he felt anyway. Even with that realization, he found it difficult to lock her out and as annoying as it was he wasn't going to be able to keep finding ways of denying her without her hating him, and he didn't want her hating him just before he went off to fight... Conversely he couldn't quite figure out how she would react to him going off to fight the guy who had taken out Vanix.

As Tatsuma continued speaking, Verity's sense of dread grew. It wasn't because he was saying she was a wild card and it wasn't because he said he didn't want to push anyone away anymore. It was because he was still avoiding her question. The above only served to make her even more nervous as to what he was doing. Especially when he said he didn't want to tell anyone what he was doing so no intervention could occur. To Verity, it sounded like he really did have a death wish. He was right when he said she didn't know anything about him. That was true and it annoyed her to hell. He didn't know her all that well either. At least her past. She was pretty straight-forward to understand once someone talked to her.

"You think you're going to die don't you? Otherwise you'd just tell me straight up." She said flatly. "Is this something about Shadow Heart?" She bet it was. "If it is, I don't see how anything to do with that guild will help you undo any wrong you've committed or gain acceptance. Whatever you're planning, it can't be good. Isn't the best way you can become accepted is to prove yourself by helping them? Suicidal fights and the likes aren't going to get you that. People would think you're an idiot. As you said, you more than like me. So you killing yourself is supposed to make me feel any better? Usually I'd think people you love try and make them happier. Like my sister. I don't think she'd have bothered with killing herself on useless missions." Maybe she was being a little harsh in her words but Vera wasn't known for her subtlety. She realised this and felt slightly guilty. She only had speculations although she had a feeling she was right. Not in anything she had said below things about Shadow Heart but in that he was planning a death fight of sorts to achieve some goal which more than likely, had something to do with Shadow Heart.

Tatsuma had heard enough. Thus far, he had avoided getting angry at Verity or getting cross with her since the first day they met. Today, however, appeared to be different. Besides she had managed to figure it out... For the most part. She was wrong about the suicide part.
"Let me be clear. I'm not heading off to get myself killed, I'm heading off to fight. So far Fiore is divided and people seem to be either cloistered or at each others' throats, if no one takes any risks then nothing is going to change, so I'm fixing that. I'm also a realist when it comes to most things. From how the stories are told our Ace got taken out quickly and he was stronger than I am. I have been training to try to close the gap in strength, but I don't know what the difference is going to end up being so here I am trying to get things started. If I can defeat the Shadow Lord I can turn him over to the magic council and maybe end this whole thing before another war breaks out and countless groups of people die. Even then, if I do get taken out and someone who can beat him steps up to fix this then I still win. If helping and changing Fiore isn't what dragon slayers are for, then we have no purpose except to fill the role of whiny orphans who share a legendary parent who's names people don't even remember. I wanted to tell you how I felt before I left in case... things don't go as planned, not because I plan for things to go badly. " He said coldly, his voice steady and unwavering. It was almost as if he were completely emotionless, though he had to stay that way, especially when having to argue this subject.

Once he had finished speaking her turned to walk away.
"I'm sure your sister would have done this same thing if she thought it would make a difference, regardless of the personal risk. And even though I've never had a sibling, I'm sure that her list of reasons would have you on them, just like mine do. You accused me of going off to kill myself when I can assure you the truth is exactly the opposite. I don't care what people think either, I'm the one I have to atone to, the forgiveness of others is just icing on the cake. Besides, if I come back the hero maybe more people will join Fairy Tail and we can grow our family." He said, looking back to add the last part with a smile, completely changing the tone of the conversation. Still, at least he didn't need to send her a letter now. Plus he had gotten to tell his first crush he had feelings for her, his luck was looking up.

Suicide, fighting someone who most obviously was stronger than oneself. Verity didn't see the difference. He was going to get himself killed and that was final. His answer was also useless. Either he had no sense of self-preservation or he was delusional. She was guessing a bit of both. Nevertheless she was back to being cold. If he thought he could be a fool and think she wasn't going to tell someone he was wrong. She let him start to walk away and turned the other way. She'd tell Ranor, or anyone in the guild. They may not stop him but it was still someone. She wasn't going to let-

Verity froze. Her eyes grew cold. Her sister. He dared to bring up her sister. She turned around stiffly and focused her glare at the floor. Like he knew anything about her sister at all. Her sister wasn't an idiot, her sister would never do anything without telling her. The fact that he even compared himself to her was enough to set her blood boiling. She walked quickly up to him and stopped a metre before reaching him. She drew herself up to her full height and tilted her head up with pride. Icy rage flowed through her veins, reflecting itself in her cold gaze. "Don't say anything about my sister. You don't know anything about her. She isn't an idiot unlike some other people and she wouldn't hide what she was doing from the people closest to her. Shielding them from information just pushes them away further. There are many ways to atone and I think you're just choosing the easiest, most quickest way. You want people to remember you as a hero? Don't do an idiot's deed. I'm not going to tell anyone what you're doing because I think you're going to die. And you know what? If that's really what you think I think I'd be perfectly okay with that. Good luck getting yourself killed," The girl turned around and started walking briskly away in the opposite direction, her emotions more jumbled than before. He was an idiot and she couldn't condone that. What she said was harsher than she intended and she didn't mean it. She didn't care though. Not at that moment. It was true she wasn't going to tell anyone. Let him get himself killed. She didn't care, did she?

-Exit-