A Flugel's Gacha

After an intense shower and a nice breakfast, Levy and I headed to the guild together. Her hand held onto mine, making my face turn red. I definitely wasn't used to holding hands with girls, especially not where so many other people could see.

"Do you want me to stop?" Levy asked me, clearly noticing how flustered I was getting.

"N- no, it's fine," I told her. "I'm just… You know… A bit introverted. I only train and talk to others in the guild and go out on missions along with the occasional library trip. So, walking in public like this is… Just a bit… Embarrassing…"

"Oh, I see," she looked considerate. "I never saw you as an introverted person, just focused."

"Maybe both," I told her. "But… You're my girlfriend so… I need to get used to public displays of affection like this… More accurately, I want to be able to boldly grab your hand in public places and show you how much I care where others can see. I just… Might take a little time before I'm used to it."

She smiled and nodded. "Alright… We'll hold off for hugging your arm until you're ready then."

"… Now you're just teasing me on purpose."

"I'm glad you're a smart one," she laughed.

"Any thoughts for a Team name yet?" I asked her.

She hummed and shook her head. "Not really, I'm open to suggestions."

I hummed in thought… Well, Flugel's were angels… And Levy enjoyed books… So…

"Angel's Tome?" I suggested.

She looked considerate. "That's… Not bad, but not exactly great for future proofing. Given I know other girls will come to you in the future, we should have a name that is more all-encompassing."

"… Team Convergence?"

"… Are you just grabbing words from a Thesaurus?" She asked, her voice tinged with amusement.

"… Maybe," I glanced away.

She snorted and giggled. "Luckily, I don't actually mind that name. Meeting together at a point… Convergence…" She tapped her chin. "And you would be the point we'd be meeting at… Yeah, it's not actually a bad name by any means."

"… Well, when you phrase it like that, it sounds kinda perverted," I told her.

"The name doesn't need to be fancy, you know," she smiled. "Some teams are so lazy they just call themselves after one of the team members and call it a day."

… That really explained why it was Team Natsu.

"Team Ragnarök," I finally decided.

"Ragnarök?" She tilted her head. "That sounds… Ominous. What's that?"

"Ragnarök is the name of a great event within an old mythology," I told her. "A cataclysmic event involving creatures from every realm and plane of existence, battling it out not for glory or victory, but for survival. In our case, it's meant to be used as a 'gathering.' People of all kinds of life teaming up for a common goal."

"Ragnarök," Levy repeated. "Ragnarök… Hm, I like it!" She smiled. "Then we'll be Ragnarök from now on."

I smiled, glad that she agreed… The name was a bit of a cop out and I had twisted its meaning and been intentionally vague… But hey, it was a good name. And as they say, if it ain't broke then don't fix it.

The two of us arrived at the guild and made our way inside. Eyes turned to us, some nodding as if they expected what they saw, while others widened in surprise as if they hadn't foreseen this development.

Jet and Droy were nowhere to be seen. If I had to guess, the two were at home lamenting about the end of Team Shadow Gear and trying to think of ways to convince Levy that she shouldn't leave the team and instead stay with them… Probably by way of harassing her until it got them kicked out of the guild.

Nozomi and Lucy were also missing… Ah, that was right, I had seen Romeo before I'd chased after Levy. And Macao had left about a week ago in order to do a job thanks to his son being an entitled brat and demanding his dad go do one… So, Nozomi and Lucy must be going to deal with that.

Levy and I made our way to the bar and took a seat. Mavis looked at us both with a smile, but I could see that her smile looked sad…

Ah, right… She must have thought that, since I was with Levy, that she didn't have a chance anymore.

"So, I guess congratulations are in order," she said, her voice cheerful but twinged with sadness.

"Thank you," Levy said politely. "I plan to enjoy it for as long as I can before he gets any others."

Mavis nodded at her words before she paused. "Others?" She asked, trying to sound casual, but there was no hiding the hope in her voice.

"We talked about it," Levy explained. "And I know that him getting a harem is sort of inevitable, and he seems to be leaning in the direction of wanting one. So, we talked about it, and we just agreed that I'm his first girlfriend. I'm sure he'll have others in the future."

"I see," Mavis said, her mood noticeably better. "Well then, I'm glad for the both of you!" She told us, and this time I could tell she meant it completely and totally.

I still wasn't quite sure why it was Mavis liked me so much, but I certainly wasn't going to complain about such a nice and cute girl wanting to be with me.

"Moving on though, are you alright Levy?" Mavis asked. "I know yesterday was a big blowup and all…"

She sighed. "Yeah," she nodded. "I think it needed to happen. I was just so tired of dealing with them, their coddling and stifling of me. If I hadn't snapped yesterday, then I don't think I would have ever snapped. I would have just kept dealing with it for the rest of my life."

"Oh, dear," Mavis gently pat her hand. "I'm glad you found the courage to finally break free… Don't worry. If the two step out of line, then Master won't hesitate to kick them out. We're meant to be a family, after all."

Levy smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I know… Oh, right!" Her eyes lit up and she grabbed my arm. "Please write down that Ash and I are joining a team!"

"Oh, congratulations," Mavis nodded and pulled out some forms from behind the bar. "What's your team's name?"

I decided to speak up here. "We talked about it, and we decided on going with Team Ragnarök."

"Ragnarök…" She murmured. "Can you write that for me? It sounds a little strange."

I nodded and wrote it down for her, including the two little dots above the 'o'.

"Hm, what are those dots for?" Mavis tilted her head.

"Oh, I know," Levy smiled. "Those generally imply an accent inflection. It's not as common nowadays, but it used to be normal with ancient languages. Basically, it just means that the letter is pronounced a certain way."

"Oh, I see," she nodded. "Right, I'll get this all filled out and Team Ragnarök will be ready for business," she smiled. "Since Ash is a B-Class, your team will also start at B-Class, keep that in mind for the future."

"Got it," I nodded and looked at Levy. "Do you wanna take on a job now?" I offered her.

Her eyes lit up. "Really?" She asked. "And you'll actually let me fight and test myself?"

"I promise, I won't interfere unless I am genuinely concerned that you may be seriously injured or I fear for your life," I told her.

Her smiled widened. "Great! Then let's go!" She grabbed my hand. "We'll be back in a little bit, Mavis!"

She chuckled. "Take your time," she told them. "No need to rush, after all."

I just waved at Mavis as Levy dragged me to the board, and the two of us began to look for a job together.

"How about… Clearing out a pack of wolves?" Levy asked. "D-Rank, but it might be a good starting point."

"That one is a bit too easy," I told her. "For normal humans it might be difficult, but you're a mage. You could just use 'Cage' with your letter magic and trap the wolves, thus making them easy pickings, it won't test you the way you want it to."

She nodded in acknowledgement of that. "Then what about… This mission?" She pointed. "B-Class, clearing out some Vulcans?" She suggested.

I blinked and stared at the notice board for a moment. "That's the job Macao took a week ago," I told Levy. "Since it's been a week, they must have sent another request in."

"Hm…" She frowned. "Macao can handle it," she nodded. "There's no need to worry about it, we'll leave it to him."

Wow, such faith in Macao… Granted, the guy managed to beat 19 Vulcans on his own until the 20th caught him off guard and managed to take over his body. That was pretty impressive given Macao was severely out of practice in terms of being a mage.

"How about this?" I pointed at a job. "C-Class, which is your personal ranking so it's definitely in your wheelhouse. It's a job to clear out some Salamanders, something you already know the weaknesses of too. It might not test you in difficult ways but, at the very least, it will help you understand where your current skill level is when fighting with an advantage."

She hummed in thought before she nodded. "Okay, sounds good," she agreed.

I nodded and took the job down from the board, making my way over to Mavis who was just finishing up the paperwork for our team.

She smiled at us as she saw us approach and slid over the papers. "Here you are! Just need both of you to sign, and then you'll officially be a Team!"

"Great," Levy smiled and took the pen from Mavis, signing her name with a flourish before she gave the pen over to me.

I took a breath and wrote my own signature, just a simple 'A.C.'

… Huh, my initials were the same for air conditioning. I hadn't thought about that.

… Shit, why was it now- when thinking about my name- I kind of wanted to have the initial 'D' from One Piece in there?

[Gonna be King of the Pirates?] BB asked rhetorically.

'Fuck yeah, I am,' I responded almost childishly.

She just snorted in amusement.

"Right, that's all done!" Mavis smiled, gathering the papers. "I'll hand these over to master for filing, but you're officially Team Ragnarök! Congratulations!" She smiled. "And I can see you've already got a job."

"That's right," I nodded and placed it in front of her. "C-Class job. A group of Salamanders is causing issues near Yonju Town. Their main export is rice, so they're afraid that the Salamanders might burn down the rice fields and cause their main export to go out of business."

"Oh dear," she frowned. "That certainly isn't good… But it's also unusual, Salamanders shouldn't normally be in that area. You'll have to remain vigilant; something feels off about this mission."

"We will," Levy promised her. "No unnecessary risks."

"Good," Mavis nodded. "Alright, Team Ragnarök is cleared for this mission. Be safe both of you, I expect you to come back unharmed, understood?"

"Understood," I nodded with a smile.

"Got it," Levy also nodded alongside me before she grabbed my hand. "Let's go, Ash."

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks and I nodded, waving goodbye to Mavis as I followed Levy out of the guild.

"So," she hummed. "How do you wanna get to Yonju Town? Is a train fine? You are a Dragon Slayer, so do you suffer from Motion Sickness like Nozomi?"

"I don't know, I've never ridden in a train," I told her, allowing my transformation magic to dissipate and revealing my wings and halo once more. "After all, I can fly."

She looked at my wings and then looked at me. "You know, it's really easy to forget you're not human sometimes," she told me. "You should have your wings out more, they're so pretty… Why don't you…" She paused. "Oh, right… Introvert."

I just smiled, feeling a bit embarrassed… I really hated being stared at, it was the main reason I learned transformation magic as soon as I arrived at Fairy Tail. Maybe my wings and halo made me unique but for me, who was both introverted and ordinary, the symbols of uniqueness only made me feel uncomfortable. Especially with how people gawked at them.

"Right, then we can fly there?" She asked, excited. "Oh, I've always wanted to try flying! Oh, but won't the wind cause a lot of fluttering?"

I shook my head. "I know a bit of Wind Magic; it won't be a problem."

During the month I took off in the build up to canon, I decided to finally take some of Mavis' earlier advice and learn the four basic elements: Wind, Water, Earth, Fire. I was only at the Initiate level with the latter three, but I was at innate with Wind. Enough to form a 'bubble' of air around me to stop my clothes fluttering or the wind rushing in my ears when I flew.

"Great!" She smiled. "How do we wanna do this? Should I climb on your back?" She blushed. "Or do you want to carry me like a princess?"

"Let's go with princess carry," I blushed too. "At least, until I get some practise in with using my wings when carrying others on my back."

"O- Okay then…" She wrapped her arms around my neck. "R- ready!"

I gulped before I crouched down and scooped her up, lifting her up in a princess carry… She fit so snugly in my arms, so comfortably… Fuck, I couldn't help but think about her soft her skin was, events of both the morning and previous night were starting to fill my mind.

"I- I'm not heavy, am I?" Levy asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Not at all," I told her quickly. "Well then, let's go," I flapped my wings, and we took off into the sky, heading for Yonju town.

"… So…" She murmured. "What stories can you tell me, since you know about that Ragnarök thing?"

I just smiled… I didn't know many actual Norse stories… But as a man who had played God of War 4 and God of War Ragnarök, I certainly had some stories to share.

"Let me tell you about Thamur, a Giant and a Stone Mason…"