Lazy Days

When Alex returned to his house, he found Carla and Wendy playing in the pool to kill some energy before bed. Seeing his hot tub bubbling away looking lonely with nobody in it, he quickly changed to some swim wear and practically cannonballed into it.

His antics having drawn their attention, Carla and Wendy made their way to the hot tub.

"Alex! You're back!" Wendy yelled happily as she entered the pool.

"That was fast, we were told you had taken another S-class quest" Carla commented curiously.

"Yeah I did. It was quite a bit easier than we thought it was gonna be, so most of the time was simply spent on travel" Alex replied.

"That's Great!! Are you going to leave again?" Wendy asked, her excitement dying at the thought.

"Not right now, I figure I'll laze around town for a while. Get some R&R in while I can" Alex said with a smile, as he slowly sank further under the water.

Wendy and Carla chuckled at his display and they all started talking about nothing in particular. After about an hour of relaxation, they left the pool area to have dinner and sleep.

Alex woke the next morning at his usual time, his internal alarm clock not letting him sleep longer than 6-8 hours. He met the girls for breakfast after their morning routines.

Eating in comfortable silence he wracked his brain for what to do today. Not coming up with anything productive he decided to ask the girls if they had any plans.

"I was thinking of taking my first quest from the guild" Wendy said shyly. "We spent most of our time in the library learning about the country and any monsters we might face, so we wouldn't be caught off guard" she continued.

"Smart! Good thinking, I'm impressed." Alex said as he gave a side long look to Carla. The exceed just smiled as Wendy practically beamed with the praise.

'Looks like I have a plan of what to do, I can shadow her for the first couple jobs to get her used to the interactions' Alex thought.

"Alright, that sounds like a good idea. If you'd like, I can be your senior member that comes along on your first couple jobs. I won't do anything to help unless you're actually in trouble so you will still be 'on your own'." Alex said after some thought.

"Really! That'd be awesome!" Wendy cheered while jumping from her seat.

"Wont it ruin the experience for her? If you are with us, the customers will naturally defer to you." Carla added in.

"Naw, once we leave the guild I will enter {Stealth} and just remain out of sight. It will be entirely up to the 2 of you and I will only intervene if your lives are in danger. That means you will still have to fight your own battles alone, I'm not above letting you suffer some pain for experience." Alex said with a 'Smile'.

Wendy and Carla shivered at that look and both subconsciously remembered the training he put them though. They agreed to his proposal and the three started for the guild.

When they entered the guild, all three where momentarily stunned by the serious air of the place. The guild hall was rarely ever serious, and it was kind of off-putting.

Alex noticed a very familiar red-head and instantly had an idea as to what was going on.

'She's already back, so it means she got them before they got too far away. What a shame, I wanted them to return with a giant puppy. ...or at least a wicked rug.' Alex mused.

Wendy and Carla though, had no Idea what was going on and quickly joined the crowd around the stairs near the masters office.

When Alex got a little closer he could hear the muffled voice of master Makarov yelling about 'Guild Etiquette' and 'punishment for breaking guild rules'.

The sound of his chuckles drew the attention of the crowd. "Hey Red, easy hunt?" Alex asked with a smile and a small wave to Erza.

"Indeed, I caught them at the train station. Seems they had a hard time getting Lucy to join, but she did eventually. Also, I have a name." Erza said in her usual tone.

"Eh? What's wrong with 'Red'? It fits nicely if I do say so myself." Alex said with a hand on his chin looking deep in thought.

"Be that as it may, I would still prefer if you called me by my name." Erza replied in her same tone.

"Fine... Party pooper" Alex mumbled.

"What will happen to them? The master sounds furious." Wendy asked with evident concern on her face.

"They will be punished in accordance to guild policy for breaking guild rules. Thankfully I stopped them before anyone got hurt, so it shouldn't be too terrible." Erza answered with a smile to the little girl.

'I get a scowl and she gets a smile! It's not fair!' Alex thought internally, he chuckled at the thought of actually saying it to see if he could get a reaction out of the red-head, but thought better in the end.

He did a quick once over of the guild before joining Cana at the bar where Mira was playing hostess.

"I'll have what she is having" Alex said as a greeting while pointing to Cana's bottle of wine.

"Coming right up Alex." Mira said with her signature smile.

"You ready for another competition?" Cana asked with a predatory smile.

"Ha, maybe later. Gonna be heading out with Wendy while she does a job and I can't be plastered for that" he replied.

She just stuck her tongue out at him and took a long pull right from the wine bottle.

Alex laughed as he took a drink of his own wine. The three of them made small talk for a while until Wendy showed up to the counter with a job poster in hand.

"Alex! Carla and I found job we want to try." Wendy said excitedly.

"Nice! What's the job?" Alex asked, matching her excitement.

"It is to retrieve an Heirloom a merchant lost on his last trip through the pass of Mt. Hakobe. It says they were attacked by a group of Vulcans and had to abandon their wagons. When they went back to the wagons, they were ransacked and the heirloom was gone." Wendy said while looking at the request.

"Choosing a fighting quest right out of the gate, I like your style!" Alex said with a wink.

"Well.. Um, I don't wanna fight but fighting monsters is different than fighting people. And I want to get stronger so I can join you on your missions." Wendy said, her shy speech slowly turning determined at the end.

Alex laughed light heartedly while patting her head. "You've got a ways to go yet, but it's a step in the right direction." he said with a smile.

Their little discussion was broken up by the appearance of a totally depressed looking trio. Natsu, Happy and Lucy looked like they had all of the life drained out of them as they slowly shuffled to the guild exit, not even acknowledging the myriad questions thrown their way by the other guild members.

Alex and Cana chuckled good-naturedly at the trio before Wendy, Carla and himself also left the guild.

Once outside, Alex addressed the duo. "You know the drill, from here on out you're on your own. I want you to treat it like I'm not here. As far as the job is concerned I'm not."

"Okay!" Wendy said, as she clenched her small fists. Carla just gave a nod and as if it was a signal, Alex disappeared from their senses completely.

"Wow! It's always soo impressive seeing that" Wendy said with shining eyes.

"Indeed it is child, now we should get going. We have to talk to the client first before heading to the summit." Carla said, getting them back on track.

It took the rest of the day and half the next one for Carla and Wendy to finish their quest.

Alex spent his idle time watching them and their fighting styles to see if he could help them improve on anything when they got back to town.

He was very impressed with the young slayer, she didn't pull her punches and only slightly hesitated on the first encounter.

He wasn't worried that she would get hurt, Carla was watching her back and Alex knew all too well the durability of Slayer Wizards.

When they set up the tents for the night, he dropped {Stealth} to join them for dinner.

They found the heirloom mid morning the next day and didn't waste any time leaving the mountain.

Alex casually played with his {Stealth} domain as they walked. He would pull small critters, that got to close, into his domain.

It was wildly amusing to him to see the look of alarm on Wendy and Carla's face, when the Squirrel they had been watching would suddenly disappear.

It took a couple animals just vanishing before they realized Alex was messing with them.

They made good time to the client and didn't waste too much time on pleasantries while completing the job.

They were thanked profusely and paid, before being seen off by a very happy customer.

When they were out of eyesight of the client, Alex dropped {Stealth} and joined them.

"Not bad! You two handled that whole affair flawlessly" He complimented.

"Thanks! It was actually kind of fun!" Wendy beamed with the praise.

"Yes, It was as easy as I expected it to be" Carla said plainly.

"You see anything about the job with your magic?" Alex asked curiously.

"Only at the end. I was able to use it to see what cave the item was going to be in. The fact it didn't activate on its own, let me know we wouldn't be in danger though." She answered as calm as ever.

"Huh.. That's pretty handy for retrieval quests." Alex said while nodding his head.

They continued towards the guild while making small talk, and Alex telling them the only thing he could see that needed any real improvement was simple experience. Experience was easy to get, just required time and effort.

When they made it back to the guild, they could hear that it was as rowdy as ever.

Upon entering, they noticed Natsu and Gray fighting as usual.

Only this time Gray easily had the upper hand and was toying with Natsu. That fact pissed Natsu off and he was slowly getting 'fired up'.

Alex joined Ur and Master Makarov at the bar where they watched in amusement at the spectacle.

"Hey Ur, when did you guys get in?" Alex asked in greeting.

"We got to town this morning, but only came to the guild about an hour ago. Needed to get sorted out first" Ur replied with a smile. "Almost immediately upon entering the guild, Gray was attacked by the pink haired boy and they have been fighting ever since. It's been very amusing so I've let it continue, although they could use some better insults." Ur continued.

Alex and Makarov laughed at her words, both knowing the truth in them.

"How did Gray increase in strength so quickly? It was just a couple days ago that they were even and now he's got the total upper hand". Someone in the crowd said to a peer.

"I don't know, but it is plainly obvious that he is toying with him" his fellow answered.

"What have you been up to since we spit up?" Ur asked Alex curiously.

"Not much, just drove my boat up the river to see if I could and recently been shadowing my little sister on her first official quest" Alex answered good naturedly.

"Speaking of" he continued, turning toward Wendy. "Ur, this is my adopted little sister Wendy and her partner Carla. Wendy, Carla. This is Ur, Grays Master and magic teacher".

"I-It's very nice to meet you ma'am" Wendy said it a small voice. "Greetings" Carla said simply.

"It' very nice to meet you as well, little one. Do you practice this guys strange magic too?" Ur said with a smile.

"uhh no, I'm not really good with any other elements but wind" Wendy said while looking at her feet.

Ur just laughed lightly while turning back towards the fight. It seemed like Gray had noticed them and had started getting serious. Now that he was trying he made quick work of Natsu by face planting him into the floor boards.

"HA! With this power, I could probably beat Erza now!" Gray said as he stood up.

"Be careful what you wish for, I don't think you're quite there yet. Red is stronger than you think!" Alex commented offhandedly.

"Besides. You have a lot to work on with your own magic" Ur commented.

"Did you decide on what to do from now on?" Alex asked Ur curiously.

He didn't know how jarring it would be to basically lose 10 years of your life and not have any worldly possessions, but guessed it wouldn't be fun.

"Not yet" Ur let out a sigh. "I rented a hotel room for the next couple days so I could get my Bearings, but haven't made any plans past that". Ur said, looking a little unsure.

"Well you're more than welcome to stay in one of the guest rooms at my place, the house is huge so we probably wouldn't even notice" Alex offered.

"Thanks for the offer but I wouldn't want to trouble you more than I already have." Ur said after a moment of hesitation.

"Wouldn't be a bother at all, I wasn't lying when I said the place is huge" Alex commented absently.

He wasn't going to force her, and only offered because he was quite literally the reason she was even in this situation.

"The pool is AWSOME too!" Wendy piped up, adding her own opinion.

There was a moment of silence in the guild at her words. "Since when do you guys have a pool?" Gray asked curiously. "Actually, I didn't even know you had a house" he said as an afterthought.

"You didn't ask" Alex replied to both questions.

"How come you haven't invited me over for a pool party Alex!" Cana said drunkenly as she dangled an arm around Alex's shoulder to hold herself up. "I thought we were friends!?" she slurred with a cute pout.

"Well, you are always welcome to come have a pool party, though I'm not sure I'd want to invite anyone else to that party" He replied with a wink as he drew his arm around her waste. Cana just laughed as she took another drink.

"You don't have to, but the choice is there is you want it. I'll not try to force you" Alex said turning back to Ur.

"Thank you" Ur replied simply.

"Now that I think about it, where did 'Cold Emperor Lyon' get off too? I haven't seen him or the odd trio here." Alex asked, sweeping his eyes around the guild hall.

Ur and Gray chuckled at Lyons self imposed title before Gray answered " The "Cold Emperor" and his subjects are doing some shopping at the market".

"Hmm.. You'd think an emperor would have someone for that" Alex said with a smirk.