The next day proved to be little different than the one before- for Sia at least.

Occasionally she managed to capture a lizardman before Laxus took them out in one-hit. For the most part, he eliminated them before the creatures even got within a dozen feet of their group. As it was, she found little opportunity to practice her magic. Sia had begun to realize that she may have gotten more experience from staying behind at the guild than she was getting standing around watching the blond show-off (he'd ignored her when she'd pointed out that she considered his actions to be as much).

This was the main reason that when they took a break for the afternoon- it would seem that even annoyingly strong fairy tail members needed to eat sometimes- she was highly considering asking Gideon about her simply staying behind when the group set out again. As this went through her mind, she settled her chin on the pile her crossed arms made on the small table she was settled at. Their inn of choice had several tables set outside of the building in case one wanted to take their meal outside when they ordered something from the bar.

Was staying behind the best choice? If something did go wrong, she wasn't all that certain how much experience the others had with the poison the lizardman made. If someone got bit...

"Sia! Sia, where's the Fairy Tail mages?!"

At the tone of Cross's voice, Sia's head jerked up. Her eyes located where he stood, hands clasping his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Sweat covered the boy's skin in a thin layer, his breaths coming in steady, yet shallow intakes.

"I... where are they?"

"Inside," she answered, concern knitting her brow together. "Cross... what happened? Where's Fried?"

Not pausing to answer her question, he pulled his hands from his knees and darted inside. She quickly scrambled to her feet and followed, opening the door as Cross threw his hands wide in the air, a dramatic gesture to match his frantic words.

"--he's fine, but he hasn't woke up yet. Promise, he's not gonna die or anything!"

Laxus, his hands clenched into fists at his side, gave Cross a look that Sia could have easily imagined to have been impaling him.

"Where?"

"Just down the street, the villagers showed me to the place. It's not that far, I can show you!"

Without waiting, Cross spun around and left the building just as quickly as he'd appeared. Laxus followed suit, Evergreen and Bixlow at his heels. When Sia shot Oren a questioning expression, she found him settled at one of the indoor tables in a position to the one she'd just left. His head, however, was buried in his arms. She looked to Gideon, even more put off by the sight of Oren sleeping through all of this. His exhaustion was understandable- from what she understood he'd gotten little sleep the night before and had been dragged out of his bed at the break of dawn to get back to work- but she still had to question how he'd stayed unconscious through the entire mess.

Then again, Sia wouldn't have put it past him to be feining sleep.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It would seem that Fried got bit," Gideon answered, stepping past her to follow the others. "Cross got him to the village doctor quickly enough to be treated with an antidote. We should hurry, there's no telling how this will turn out."

"I'll stay with Oren," Ilias muttered from his seat next to the boy.

Gideon nodded, glancing at Sia before exiting the building. She didn't hesitate to follow him. Within a short time they'd made it to the small house owned by the village doctor, just in time to catch sight of Cross being shoved bodily out into the streets. Sia watched, wide-eyed and more than just a little confused, as Cross leaped to his feet, hands curled into fists at his sides. As she and Gideon nearly reached the door, she caught sight of Laxus framed in the doorway, looking far too angry for her liking.

Cross, however, was undeterred.

"What the hell?" he demanded, taking a threatening step forward. "You kicked me out?"

"We don't exactly need you here," Laxus said evenly, deceptively calm. Sia thought he was known for his temper, but this seemed infinitely worse in comparison.

"I'm not gonna do anything to him!" Cross whined, and the expression on Laxus' face shifted from anger to befuddled disgust.

Sia thought it was Cross' fault for having made such a terrible impression on the Fairy Tail mages with his unrepentant flirting. But that didn't warrant this kind of treatment.

"Cross," she said, stepping in front of the blond, even though she loathed to have Laxus at her unattended back. "You need to calm down. You barely know Fried; let his teammates take care of him. You shouldn't crowd him right now, anyway," she added, seeing the inevitable protest springing to life on his lips.

At that, his shoulders sagged, and he huffed a sigh, trailing a hand down his face. Though he'd dropped the violent stance, his body was stiff with nerves, his muscles wound tighter than if he were the one in venom-induced pain. Sia winced in sympathy. Cross was a good man, when it came down to it; he cared for strangers as if they were his best friends. Well, if they'd caught his interest, at least. And Fried certainly had, from the moment he'd laid eyes on him. So it made sense that he felt so involved in the green-haired mage's life, especially when they'd been together at the time of his attack.

Sia laid a hand on his arm, a small smile on her lips as he glanced down at her.

"You said it yourself," she reminded him, "he'll wake up. Relax."

Laxus was gone by the time she'd gotten Cross to completely settle down, having disappeared some time ago back into the doctor's home. Gideon told her the blond had seemed curious about their exchange, though he wasn't sure what about. Sia didn't really care, whatever his reasons. She could admit to herself that she preferred not having the Lightning Dragon Slayer around, even if she'd never say it to his face. That would be like admitting he was better than her, that she felt inferior by comparison. And Starry Rose mages wouldn't allow that.

"I wonder..."

"Hm?" Sia raised a brow, turning back to Cross.

Oh. Wow. She really did not like the look on his face. He looked as though he had a plan.

"I think there's something I can do for Fried... Something even ol' Laxus'll be grateful for!"

Yup. It was confirmed. She didn't like that look one bit.

_____________________________________________________________________

Oren groaned into his arms, shifting more of his weight onto the table so that he slumped forward somewhat dramatically. Ilias, beside him, shuffled his feet nervously, clearly unsettled by Oren's attitude. At the moment, he wasn't angry or irritated; rather, he felt guilty, something he wasn't all that used to. Guilty because he hadn't actually cared all that much to hear that something happened to Fried, on Cross' watch no less.

Oh, but he was starting to. And that was worse, so much worse, in his opinion. 

Mumbling something mildly self-deprecating to himself, Oren turned his head against his arm, flicking Ilias a glance. The redhead was picking at the neckline of his offensively orange shirt, eyebrows scrunched together in what seemed like contemplation. Oren knew the look well enough to reach out and tap the back of the hand that rested on the table; Ilias jumped slightly, but fixed him with an inquisitive stare.

"Aquila," he said.

Ilias blinked. "Yeah...?"

"I... copied you yesterday. I never mentioned it, forgot you were my second copy."

Realization lit up Ilias' green eyes, washing away the near-constant gleam of worry Oren had grown so used to. He nodded slowly, fingers tapping out a nervous beat against the table.

"So, t-that's where she went..." He didn't seem angry, though it was rare for Ilias to become genuinely pissed off anyway, so that wasn't exactly news. No, what was strange was that he wasn't even bothered. If anything, the brightness in his eyes was due to his stark relief. "I didn't summon anyone after that, because I wasn't sure what happened to Aquila... I'm g-glad she's okay."

"Yeah... I should've said something earlier... Sorry."

Oren internally rolled his eyes. God, did he hate apologizing. It wasn't as though he'd really done something wrong, either. He'd acted on pure instinct when he transformed into Ilias, and it just so happened that in that moment the redhead has summoned his favorite Spirit. So really, none of it was his fault, rationally speaking. So why did he even care?

More importantly, why did he give a damn what happened to Fried?

"Isn't that... natural?"

Oren snapped his gaze to Ilias again, who shrunk back, spooked by the intensity of Oren's eyes. Now Oren... Oren was quick to anger. Everyone in the guild knew that. There was no stopping it, really, only bracing for the inevitable.

"You, uh... said that out loud?"

"...Awesome."

"But... isn't it?"

"What?"

"Isn't it natural to care?"

"I don't know the guy--"

"But he's a human being, like us?"

Why is everything a question with him? Oren thought, irritated at the lilt that caught the tailend of whatever Ilias said. The man was nervous, he knew that, but he couldn't help feeling grated by the inflection; his skin crawled, his fingers curled into his palms. He set his teeth and hissed out a slow breath. Everything bothered him today.

God above, he really was horrible.

He blamed it on the Fairy Tail mages, because that was natural for him.

"Whatever," Oren sighed after a beat of silence, during which Ilias had shifted nearly off their shared bench, apparently terrified of whatever he saw on Oren's face. "Let me guess - you think he's gonna die, right?"

Ilias looked away, green eyes dark again, and that was answer enough for Oren. Releasing another pent-up sigh, he rose from his seat, lifting his legs out from under the table and pressing his hands to the small of his back until a satisfying shiver danced up his spine. The guilt was eating at him in a way he'd never quite experienced before - well, not in a long, long time at least. He needed to do something about it, because he'd be damned if he was going to finish out the week like this.

If something really went wrong and Fried...

Oren bit the inside of his cheek to cut the thought short. He was spending too much time with Ilias, that's what it was. It had to be.

"I'll go see what's going on," he mumbled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket as he skirted around the edge of the table and walked down the street Gideon and Sia had taken while chasing after Cross.

He heard Ilias scrambling to follow him, his feet scraping harshly over the ground in his haste, but didn't bother telling him off for it; instead, slowed his pace while the redhead caught up to him. Ilias eyes brushed over his face but Oren stubbornly refused to turn his head. That hadn't been an act kindness, it just hadn't; it's not like Oren wanted to go see Fried by himself, anyway. He could also tell the others that it had been Ilias who was too goddamn worried about the green-haired Fairy, and that he'd had no choice but to accompany him because the man was scared of his own flimsy shadow. He obviously couldn't be walking around an unfamiliar town alone, without a reliable guildmate to keep watch for him.

Obviously.

While they walked in (somehow) companionable silence, Oren found himself once again contemplating his change in attitude.

Stupid Fairies.

A scowl pulled sharply at his lips, furrowing his brow.

Damn Bixlow, damn Evergreen. Wouldn't leave me alone last night. I barely got any damn sleep because of them. That's probably why I'm so... emotional today. I'm sleep-deprived and out of my mind. Yeah. That works.

He'd just about convinced himself of this when he stumbled to a stop, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of Ilias' arm in his path. Righting himself and smoothing out the wrinkles in his shirt, he cut Ilias a glance, half-curious, half-pissed. The redhead winced at the expression but merely lifted his hand, pointing to the building they were coming up on.

Oren wasn't exactly surprised to see that Cross was being manhandled out of the door, though the fact that was Laxus doing the manhandling was a bit hard to swallow. He seemed the type to have others do his dirty work while he took the glory for things. Regardless, Oren had to bite back his initial question (What the actual hell did he do now?) as Cross hit the dirt. The blond groaned but the smirk on his face was anything but remorseful. It bordered on smug, actually, which Oren would have expected.

Ilias took a small, shaky step back, but Oren remained rooted to the spot, rather interested in what Cross could have done to elicit the Dragon Slayer's wrath.

"I'm going to kill you," Laxus growled. Electricity crackled at his fingertips, arcing through the air as golden sparks.

Cross' smile tipped up a fraction.

"I'm a hero," he said proudly, wiping a hand across the back of his mouth.

"You're dead is what you are!"

"Hey, I was just helping! Doc said the poison had to go, so I helped!"

"By sucking it out of Fried's wound with your mouth?"

Cross, wholly amused and completely self-satisfied, dipped his head in confirmation.

"Worked, didn't it?"

And that's where Oren drew the line. He turned right around on his heel, caught Ilias by the elbow and pulled him along behind him while he silently fumed, his cheeks dusted with an angry scrawl.

He shouldn't have cared. This was proof enough. He hadn't had a reason to in the first place, and now he understood why.

He was surrounded by idiots, Fairy Tail included. And idiots didn't die. Ever. They lived on to spite those that suffered from their moronic antics.

Which was why he had no qualms about leaving Cross to his fate, even as he heard the man's yelp of pain, no doubt from taking one of Laxus' lightning bolts head-on.

Goddamned idiot.