A/N: Inspired by the filler episode after the GMG arc in which Laxus and the Raijinshuu go on a job to investigate a town that's being attacked by several thunder storms.

Bad Hair Day

Evergreen looked with disgust at her reflection in the small pocket mirror she took out of her handbag while the train was leaving the station.

"This is a complete disaster," she moaned.

The Raijinshuu had accompanied Laxus on a job to investigate a town that was being destroyed by constant lightning storms. It wasn't the easiest mission they had ever accomplished, but all of them came back of it with no harm and they could quickly take the train to head home.

But the problem was not the mission. Well, not exactly, as if it wasn't that damn mission, everything would be fine. The problem was the context in which they were inserted, which caused the most disastrous thing that ever happened to her.

Her hair was a mess.

When they arrived in the city, the heavy static in the air coming from the lightning storms made her hair all frizzy and untamed, making her look like she had an afro. At that point, she wasn't caring much about the state of her beautiful brunette locks, as they had an intricate task to complete and people's lives were at risk. After everything had been taken care of, however, her hair situation became a pressing matter, specially because it wasn't turning back to normal after the lightning problem had been solved.

"Freed, I need your help," Evergreen cried, sliding her fingers through her poor hair. "Can't you do some magic to turn it back to normal?"

The green-haired mage that was on the seat in front of her only shot her an apologetic look, though. "I'm sorry, Ever," he replied sympathetically. "But I don't know any spells regarding hair care."

Liar bitch. There was no way that shiny straight hair of his was natural.

"I can't show up in the guild looking like this!" she groaned and threw her hands in the air, exasperated. Bickslow, who was sitting near her, opened a wide grin and crossed his arms in front of his chest, with his dolls flying around his head.

"Oh, why is that, Ever?" he teased. "Afraid someone will see you looking like shit?"

"Shut up," Evergreen elbowed the seith mage in the ribs, trying not to blush. She knew exactly what he was talking about, yet she didn't want to admit he was right. Of course being seen in such a horrifying state by anyone would be a nightmare, but that person… She couldn't even begin to imagine what she would do if he saw her like that. Maybe hide underneath the blankets of her bed and never see the light of day again.

Bickslow's grin only widened with her reaction and he darted his guild-marked tongue out.

"Too bad you still have to go, huh?" he pushed further. "Can't wait to see the look on your face when Elfm—"

"Shut up!" she yelled, punching his thigh. Bickslow didn't even flinch, being too busy laughing at her instead. "I'm not going to the guild like this, period."

"But Ever, you know the rules," Freed intervened in the most polite way he could. "Every team member has to report at the ending of a job."

"I don't care, I'm not going," she stubbornly replied.

"But—"

"No."

"Give her a break, Freed, she'll forever be single now."

"I swear to God, Bickslow, I'll grab this idiotic tongue of yours and cut it out with my curvex."

"Ever, you have to g—."

"I don't even know what a curvex is."

"I'll be glad to show it to you, you piece of—"

A large hand slammed the table that stood between their seats, startling the three of them.

"Can't you three assbutts shut your fucking mouths?!" Laxus groaned, his face pale and sweaty due to motion sickness. He hated trains and was excessively grumpy when they had to use them to travel to the cities too far from Magnolia. "Shut up. Shut. Up. I don't want to hear of this bullshit anymore, you bunch of annoying brats. I'll handle Mira, tell her Evergreen has some lady issues or whatever. I don't care. Now shut your damn ass mouths before I shut them for you." The Raijinshuu stared at each other for a moment, but said nothing else. Seeming satisfied by their behavior, then, the Dragon Slayer closed his eyes and relaxed on his seat, not before mumbling to himself. "When the hell did I turn into a single mom?"

.

.

Unfortunately, Fairy Hills was located a few meters behind Fairy Tail, so Evergreen still had to pass in front of the guild on her way home. She walked with her lips pressed tightly together, ready to ran away at the moment those doors opened up. Luckily for her, it was a quiet day when they arrived.

"Ok, so… bye," she hushed to say before Laxus could reach the doorknob and took the path around the building in quick steps.

Evergreen had barely reached the backside of the guild when she had to suppress a squeak as she encountered exactly the one person she couldn't face at the moment, halting at the sight of Elfman piling up what seemed to be empty barrels of beer. He tilted his head towards her direction almost instantly, however, not leaving her time to search for an escape route and go away unnoticed.

"What the f—huh, I mean... hey, Ever," Elfman greeted, scratching the back of his head with embarrassment. If he was the one feeling awkward, then she was the one wishing to be transformed into an ostrich so she could bury her face on the ground and pretend no one could see her. "Hm, so… What's up?"

"I guess you already know what's up… literally," she replied dryly, pointing at her hair, which was adding at least ten centimeters to her body height.

"Is this some kind of… new hair style?" the Take Over mage asked with uncertainty, probably not wanting to offend her. Well, guess what. The universe had already offended her when it put no one other than Elfman Strauss on her way home that day.

"Obviously not," she sucked on her teeth. "It's a long story."

"Oh, thank God for that, it really looks terrible," he sighed in relief and shot her a shiny smile, which made her bite the interior of her cheek. There was no denying that her hair was horrifying, but still, hearing that coming out of other people's mouths was simply humiliating, specially when it was her — ugh — crush.

Elfman didn't need to notice her misery, though. Refusing to lose her dignity, Evergreen lifted her chin up with pride and spoke with confidence. "Thank you for your honesty. I have to go now," and turned away to head to Fairy Hills without looking back.

"Wait!" the Take Over mage reached her in only a few large steps. "I'll accompany you."

She wanted to refuse and come with an excuse about how shocking his boldness to follow a lady to her home was, but finding nothing convincing enough, only sighed and pretended he wasn't there. There were worse problems to deal with at that moment, for example, what she was going to do about her hair. Back at the hotel on the town they went for a job, she tried to wash it normally, but it didn't work. Maybe the static was still high in the air surrounding the town, so she would try again at home. The real problem would begin if that didn't work out. The only other solution she could come up with was to shave it all, buy a wig and wait for it to grow again.

She'd rather die.

"So," Elfman began, trying to make small talk. "Did something else happen on the job?"

"What do you mean?" she sighed, suddenly too tired for that conversation.

"Well," the Take Over mage scratched his head with embarrassment. "You look like you ate poop, so I just assumed there was something else."

This time, Evergreen halted and looked up to stare at him in utter bafflement. Did he honestly think her hair problem wasn't bad enough? Hair meant everything to a woman. Everything. She didn't care if she had to get dirty on a job. She didn't wake up early just to put some makeup on when she knew she had to be ready to chase some bad guys. She didn't even mind going to the town's market in her pajama pants on her days off.

But her hair always looked impeccable. She was proud of her brunette locks, of the way her hair curled up on the ends, of how it framed her face nicely. She liked to thread her fingers through it, to smell the fresh scent of her flowery shampoo, to feel it brushing against her shoulders and back. It was like a trophy she exhibited to the world every day and made her feel beautiful. So yeah, she had the right to sulk about her ruined hair as long as she wanted to.

"If you were me, don't you think you'd have the same face?" Evergreen replied bitterly, but didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she continued to march towards Fairy Hills, leaving Elfman behind.

But the Take Over mage refused to leave her alone to feel sorry about herself and walked behind her, with a humming sound that indicated he was thinking — which was a surprise to Evergreen, since she didn't know dumb animals like him could form a rational trail of thought.

"No, I don't think so," Elfman said with confidence, which she took as an insult. There was no way he could imagine himself in her place. For starters, he had a Y chromosome. "In fact, I wouldn't even be worried about it."

Ready to give him some good ass kicking, Evergreen clicked her tongue with impatience. "You'd be a terrible woman, then."

"It's not that," he smiled warmly, which made her even more irritated. "If I were you, I wouldn't be bothered about what my hair would look like because it's not my best feature anyway."

She stopped again, this time with a brow furrowed in curiosity. "Indulge me then, what's my best feature? And if you say it's my boobs, Elfman, I swear to everything sacred in this world I will end your pathetic existence so painfully you'll wish you'd never existed, then I'll throw your dead body for your sisters to see, but they won't recognize you by your face because you'll be heavily disfigured."

The Take Over mage hesitated for a moment, blushing violently. He looked away, shoving his hands on his pockets, and completely ignored her threat before speaking. "They are not your best feature… though I must say they take the second place."

Evergreen huffed, crossing her arms. At least he didn't seem to be lying; she already knew her boobs were pretty awesome. "So…?"

"It's your smile, Ever," he said after taking a deep breath, shrugging. His bright blue eyes shone when he turned to her. "When you smile, you illuminate the entire room. I literally can't focus on anything other than it when you smile, not even in that forest stuck on your head."

When he looked away again in embarrassment, her heart missed a beat. She felt a funny thing on her stomach, like she was being tickled on the inside, and her body filled with warmth. She blinked once, then twice, still not being able to figure out what was going on with herself. It only hit her after a few seconds of awkward silence, and she wanted to punch herself in the face for being happy with his statement. It was Elfman, for heaven's sake. It was already bad enough her dumb hormones seemed to be attracted by him, she didn't need to fall for him. Not him, please universe.

"This is the cheesiest thing I've ever heard," she blurted out, trying to disguise the turmoil that was happening inside of her. Elfman only shrugged again, smiling at her. She would never admit to herself she apparently wasn't the only one with an astonishing smile.

"Sorry, still being honest."

"Well," she glanced to the opposite direction with uneasy, thankful for finally spotting her home. "Fairy Hills is right there," she pointed the old building with her head and her hair swung in an awkward way, making her regret the gesture. "See you tomorrow."

Hushing to get as far away from him as possible, Evergreen didn't have the courage to look back. She didn't even know if Elfman was still behind her when she finally got to the door, but didn't stop running until she reached the safety of her room, breathing hard after closing the door behind herself. Some minutes passed until she could catch her breath, and letting out a heavy sigh, she approached the nearest mirror she could find, staring at her reflection.

Her face was slightly flushed, though she didn't think it was due to physical effort, much to her dismay. Ignoring the rollercoaster of feelings that was running through her body, Evergreen looked up at her hair, that looked even frizzier if that was possible. It still was an ugly mass of brunette strands and knots, resembling a big under-construction bird nest, but one that would make the nestlings suicide themselves if they had to live in such a shithole.

Weirdly enough, though, it didn't look that big of a problem anymore.