#pauz

A weird lil demon baby taking a well-deserved vacation from defiling the world of mankind.

(okay so- this will not be posted for a WHILE as I want AUW to catch up, buuttt I couldn’t resist sharing a little XD)

     It was warm for a late November day, the air was just crisp enough to be refreshing without forcing Wren to find a jacket. Lovely day for doing something … though supervising a sparring match —massacre— between Erza, Natsu, and Gray was definitely not what she’d had in mind. Gray and Natsu made a show of warming up their punching arms as they stalked out of the guild on either side of the icily fuming redhead. Erza eyed the two boys as they stepped out and formed a loose triangle, “So today it’s both of you at the same time?”

     The two boys grinned wildly —clearly they hadn’t learned from the literal months of abuse they had put themselves through this way— and Natsu stamped his feet enthusiastically, “Just me is enough!”

     Gray shook a fist in Natsu’s direction, “You took the words right out of my mouth!”

     Wren whistled sharply to catch their attention before they could start punching each other again and signed, “Focus! It’ll be two on one, the two of you against Erza. That means no punching each other until one of you has defeated Erza, got it?”

     Gray and Natsu nodded emphatically, already shouting about how they were going to be the one to defeat Erza, not the other boy, and Wren almost missed the sound of a strangled whisper from off to the side under all of their noise. She didn’t quite miss it though, and spared a moment to look around in confusion. There seemed to be no one else in the street though… She narrowed her eyes and decided to deal with it after starting the sparring match. Raising a hand to the sky, she counted down with one whistle, two whistles, a trilling three and then dropped her hand down in the signal to start.

     Both boys sprung forward at the same time with identical shouts of, “Today, I’ll beat Erza for sure!”

     The sound of metal impacting skulls repeatedly never did seem to get any less brutal. Especially since Erza clearly wasn’t even winded. Not for the first or last time, Wren wondered if it had really been such a good idea to let Laxus help train Erza. It had improved her skills with her chosen magic in leaps and bounds yes, but it also made Natsu’s and Gray’s attempts to defeat her even sadder than in the anime.

     A high pitched “eeeh!” Off to the side distracted her from Erza’s taunting question of whether the boys were done already. She almost would have thought she imagined it … if she hadn’t looked over to the tent and crates Master Makarov had set up to stash their extra supplies while the storage unit was rebuilt and seen a collection of very familiar heads sticking out from behind them, watching the chaos.

     She stared. Those couldn’t be who she thought they were. Right?

     Two indignant, completely unsubtle cries of, “What are you doing to the younger me, Erza?” Confirmed what she hadn’t wanted to be true and she facepalmed. Hard. Why. Just …. why? How did they even get here? Wait, dumb question. She glanced over at the younger trio to see that they were all still completely preoccupied by their spat —well, more like Natsu and Gray were trying to recover from their concussions and Erza was subtly gloating—, and hadn’t even noticed the shouting going on just a few yards away.

     Wren slipped away from the arguing trio and discreetly slipped over behind the boxes to observe the older group from behind. It consisted of Erza, Natsu, Gray, Happy, and Lucy all looking as if they’d just stepped out of the anime. Also in their group, to her faint surprise, was a calm blond with shaggy hair and black-rimmed glasses that could only be a teenage Pauz. Pauz was —not surprisingly— the only one who was staying quiet, but even he was too busy watching the mini-trio to notice Wren watching them from behind.

     Older-Erza’s face had taken on a reverent look as she stared at her younger self, “I still remember this day,” she murmured softly, “Get up … stand up … the younger me will say these things…” Older-Gray and Older-Natsu gasped and turned reverent eyes on the scene in anticipation. Wren just narrowed her eyes in confusion. The scene felt oddly familiar … but also didn’t sound like something the Erza she currently knew would say at all.

     Erza drop-kicked Gray and Natsu into the air, eyes flashing with wrath as she roared, “Get up! Stand up!” Thought so. That’s the Erza I know.

     “It’s not like your memory at all!” And that would be the older Ice and Fire duo, showing off their sparkling skills at subtlety and discretion by screaming their heads off at the abashed Older-Erza. How did they expect to not be noticed again? It was truly a miracle that Erza was too busy chasing Natsu and Gray around trying to achieve justice for her missing cake to notice the yelling. Wren made a note to work on the three’s awareness training later, because that kind of volume really shouldn’t have been ignorable.

     At least Older-Pauz agreed with her, shushing the older duo with a mild little, “Gray-kun, Natsu-kun, they’re going to notice us if you keep screaming like that.”

     Lucy giggled from where she was standing in plain view —obviously stealth was never going to be a part of the Team Natsu skillset no matter what changes to the timeline Wren might make—, “Still, everybody seems so cute at this age.”

     Older-Natsu flinched as he watched his younger counterpart barely avoid a vicious kick to the head, “Erza’s always been ferocious. Even when she was small…”

     Older-Gray cringed as Erza finally caught up with the duo, “What, had you forgotten that already?”

     Happy waved his arms and —in a stunning display of discretion that made Wren facepalm— cheered, “Run away, Natsu!”

     Older-Erza shushed Happy, “Now’s not the time for that. We have to find a way back to our own time.”

     “Why? This looks like fun! We should stay for a while.”

     Older-Gray grinned at Older-Natsu, “Good idea.”

     Older-Erza leveled a glare at the guild building, “Idiots, haven’t you ever heard of a time paradox?”

     Happy made a confused noise and Lucy, Older-Pauz, and Older-Erza began to explain the theoretical dangers of time paradoxes and accidental alterations of the future … while Happy, Older-Gray, and Older-Natsu up and ran off, muttering to each other about disguises. Wren watched them go —they still hadn’t noticed her, she wasn’t even in Shadow Form for Pantherlily’s sake— and considering stopping them but … nah. For one, she distinctly remembered an episode —or had it been an OVA— in which this happened. It had been one of the most entertaining ones of the entire show, so despite the years Wren actually remembered it fairly well. Well enough to know that Older-Natsu and Older-Gray running off would work out somehow, so long as they were found before the timer ran out on the spell that brought them there.

     For another, Wren had enough trouble corralling their younger counterparts, she really didn’t need to add corralling their hormonal teenage time-traveling versions to her to-do list.

     Older-Erza, Lucy, and Older-Pauz finally noticed the absence of the idiots and Lucy shrieked, “Seriously? They’re already gone? Even Happy?”

     Older-Erza exploded, “Those guys … I never thought they’d do something THAT stupid! Idiots!”

     Older-Pauz frowned, “It would probably be a really bad idea for anyone in the past to see us … I thought even Gray-kun would know that…”

     Older-Erza nodded imperiously, “Exactly. Lucy! Wear this!” Wren blinked and, yep, Older-Erza had somehow just changed everyone’s outfits into animal cosplay. Lucy shrieked over her bunny suit, then over Older-Erza’s catsuit, while Older-Pauz just sighed mournfully at his floppy puppy ears and onesie-style costume. Older-Erza steamrolled over the protests, “It’s a disguise, Lucy. No one will recognize us now! Now, you and Pauz will go search for the others and bring them back while I decode the book. And remember, don’t let anyone from Fairy Tail see you! Even with your disguises. We can’t have them have any memories of what we’ll look like the future. Just in case.”

     …And the stupidity had just become too much to resist. Wren coughed pointedly from where she was still standing in plain sight, then deadpanned at the girlish shriek that came from all three persons there. Really Pauz? And puberty was so kind to you physically. The three time-travelers stared at her with wide, horrified eyes. Wren deadpanned back. Older-Erza twitched guiltily, Wren merely crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

     Older-Pauz seemed to be speechless at the moment and Lucy was quite clearly freaking out inside her own mind, so it was Older-Erza who coughed and woodenly said, “Hello there … random person I … do not know … at all … can we … help you somehow?”