not as planned

Characters: Romeo Conbolt, Wendy Marvell

Summary: What else could they do?

It had been a pretty good if slightly weird job so far. They had been hired by an elderly nobleman to escort his equally old wife into the Northern Area where the woman had sat on a rock for a while before she had shook her head and returned to the carriage. (The carriage had been the reason why Natsu had happily declined the mission as he had no intention of feeling ill for such a long time.)

Now, they sat at a deserted train station, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, as the wind howled. It was a rather eerie atmosphere – especially since the leafs were twirling around in the storm, too slow, too … lazy.

Romeo shuddered as he remembered the ghost story Mirajane had told him a few weeks ago – the story had started the very same way. It was not a pleasant atmosphere, not at all. The only thing that cheered him up was that they were stronger than the children, the teenagers in Mirajane's story. They would be able to fight back if something were to happy.

"R-Romeo-k-kun," Wendy stuttered as she shuddered in spite of her winter coat. "C-can you make f-fire? I am cold."

He nodded before he wrapped his scarf around her neck. "You need it more than me," he explained before he created a small red flame. "It used to be my mom's."

She lowered her head before she sighed. "I am sorry," she said slowly.

"Don't be, Wendy-chan," he said before the wind blew out the fire. "Stupid," he muttered. "You are still cold, aren't you?" he asked.

"A little," she admitted as lying was rather pointless because she trembled from the cold.

He then wrapped his arm around her. "I am a fire mage," he said with a toothy grin. "We are supposedly pretty hot – that's at least what my dad claims to be my mother's line a few years ago," he added as he rolled his eyes.

She chuckled as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Well, she was probably right," she stated drily.

He blushed as he looked away. "Why didn't Charle come with us?" he asked.

"Oh, she went with Happy and Lily to look for the other exceed," she replied with a small shrug before she leaned against him because he was truly warm compared to the storm around them. She was feeling a little tired because it had been a long day and while it had been no exhausting job, she will felt the weight of the day on her shoulders.

Romeo felt slightly awkward as he felt her weight against his shoulder but it was okay – until he spotted the bulky person in the coat on the other side of the platform. He shook Wendy who seemed to be half asleep back awake and jumped up, wanting to shield Wendy which made no sense because she was so much stronger than him, as he stared at the approaching person – or was it a bear after all?

Then, the bear-person split up into two persons, who both wore long coats. The slimmer one pulled back the hood of the coat and brown curls spilled all over her shoulders. "You okay, kiddos?"

"Cana-nee!"

"You scared us, Cana-san!"

"See, I told you that walking next to each other because of the cold was a stupid plan, Sparky," the card mage scolded as she frowned.

"Shut up and carry Wendy," the blond man said as he rolled his eyes. "We need to get them back to the guild or gramps will throw a fit."