VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

48. All's Good.

Going back to town in those clothes was, in hindsight, not a good idea.

Arriving in Oshibana in time with the early morning rush was bad enough, but he had to be spotted and recognized, and then people went ballistic. Within minutes there was a paparazzi, and Eir had to wonder if as a mage he could obliterate them, it's my right, I should be able to, oh wait nevermind, that would be murder.

"Solid Script: WALL!"

Ah.

Immediately Eir was encased in a four-sided brick wall made up of four huge W-A-L-Ls in vertical structure. It went up to about as tall as his eye level. Eir looked through the gaps between the letters to find two little girls standing confrontingly before his little barricade, very miffed.

"Hey now! All of you!" the tiny creature fueled with lots of anger yelled out, loud enough for the entire crowd to hear and stop everything they're doing, "If you want pictures, that's 20,000J a shot! Line up!"

"Please submit your payment before doing it," Sherry adds, "or my Rock Doll will remove you from here. Permanently."

Someone sputters.

"20 Grand? You're insane!"

"Don't be stingy! Who even are you children?!"

"Who are we?" Levy and Sherry hissed, angrily brushing their hair aside to reveal not just the Magic Council assigned school coats, but also the Eir pins at their collars. "Who are you?! Leave Eir alone! His pretty is for us to look at only!"

"Yeah, only we are allowed to see off-duty Eir! You go back to Sorcerer and get a magazine!"

They stuck out their tongues and made faces and picked fights with the older ladies and a few male photographers as well– oh darn, there's a whole paparazzi squad out there– and finally, Mest caught up to them in a flash of teleportation, covering them with his Council cape and holding out his arms before him.

"I'm sorry about them, but please put those cameras away. The student privacy policy states that pictures of them are strictly disallowed," he stressed– and in one immediate flash of a second, all of their tools were deactivated by a lacrima jammer.

The frog-faced council helper, who was holding the device, approached with a sigh.

Eventually, they all dismissed, grumbling the entire time.

"Geez, those people are the worst!" Levy huffed.

"Well, it's Love after all," Sherry giggled. "It makes us do some desperate things. I understand."

Eir manages to step out of the little wall cage, approaching Levy and Sherry with a fond chortle at his throat. Mest, however, wasn't taking it as kindly. They had been on an educational field trip to the railway station or the government office nearby, it seemed, and Levy and Sherry were not in fact supposed to be on their own.

"You kids aren't supposed to just run off!" he yelled. "We missed the train! If I didn't notice, we'd all be separated, you little free-ranged disasters!"

"He just called us free-ranged," Levy whispered. "What are we, chicken?"

"This is his Love as well," Sherry says, "he has a very weird way of expressing it, that's all."

"Thanks," Eir spoke up before Mest could yell at them again, and the girls charged into him with a loud call of his name, making him stumble on his still tender ankle and have to grab onto the wall for balance.