Today was quiet.
"Too quiet." Mumbled a shifty-eyed Grey from the bar stool he currently occupied, his eyes carefully scanning what he had come to call home, otherwise known as Fairy Tail.
Today was not starting out well for the ice mage; the overall silence was leaving him on edge and the Ice-make mage could not put a finger as to the reason why. He just could not relax despite how peaceful it was in the guild that day. Any normal human being would have relished the short moment of 'cease fire' but Grey was not a normal human being, he was a member of Fairy Tail; 'chaos' was in their middle name.
'Fairy 'chaos' Tail?' Grey tried it out in his head before shaking his head at the silly and off-topic thought, taking a sip of his drink that Mirajane, the white-haired bar maid, had handed him a few minutes ago upon his entrance.
Mirajane returned to the ice mage, noticing his stiffness and sketchy glances to and fro, "What's wrong, Grey?"
The ice mage eyed Mira before responding, "I'm not really sure."
Mirajane frowned, picking up her towel and a wet dish from the rack before returning her attention back to Grey, "You don't know?"
"I don't know. It's probably nothing but...does everything seem too peaceful to you? Is there something happening that I don't know about?"
The Takeover mage's eyes widened, realizing what Grey was talking about. She was usually quite observant, having a nice hawkeye view from the bar, but she had also seemed to miss this fact, "Now that you mention it, the guild does seem quiet this morning."
Mirajane joined Grey in his scan of the guild, eyeballing everyone and everything in their attempt at discovering the cause of the rare moment of silence. Unlike Grey though, it did not take the white-haired woman too long to realize what was missing, "Where's Natsu?"
Grey slammed his palm down against the bar, causing his drink to spill over as the boy stood from his stool, "Yea! Where is that punk?! He hasn't shown up at the guild all day. What's keeping that pea-brain?"
The ice mage eyed the guild to double check that, in fact, the pink-haired buffoon was actually not present before returning to look at Mira, hoping for an answer, "Hmmm," she tapped her chin, having disregarded her bar duties for this new matter of importance, "I haven't seen him yet today."
"What's the problem?"
Grey immediately cringed at the sound of a familiar deep female's voice. His normally cool composure disappeared as the ice-mage stuttered, "H-Hi Erza."
Mirajane smiled to the red-haired requip mage before responding, "Well, we're wondering where Natsu has been all morning."
Erza frowned, glancing around the guild, finally realizing that she also had not seen Fairy Tail's favourite Dragon slayer that morning. But it was not long before the red-haired's eyes widened in remembrance, "Oh, I believe Natsu said something about going to Lucy's place."
"Lucy..." Grey mumbled before he clued in, "Oh the new chick? I thought he went there yesterday though."
Mirajane smiled suddenly, "He did? Hmmm, I think our dear Natsu has found a new friend."
Grey sat back down on his stool, thinking about what Mira had just said. Natsu making a new friend? It was not unheard of; yes, the guy was relatively clueless when it came to social cues but having known Natsu for quite a few years now, Grey knew the boy was fully capable in the act of 'making friends'. But something about this new development bothered him. He had not had the chance to really meet the new girl-Lucy, was it?-properly and the fire mage was suddenly spending almost every waking moment with her. Lucy had only been officially a part of the guild for a week or so and Natsu was already claiming to be teammates with the blonde Celestial mage. Grey frowned, why did he suddenly feel weird?
"Well I'm glad to see Natsu getting along with someone since..." Erza frowned, realizing where the conversation was headed towards. The requip mage glanced towards Mirajane, who had stopped what she was doing, looking deep in thought, "I'm sorry Mirajane."
The takeover mage's head snapped up at the apology, her face holding a content smile towards her friends, "It's okay Erza. It's been a long time but I'm glad that we're all finding happiness again; Natsu included. I'm looking forward to getting to know Lucy more."
Grey could not help but smile warmly at the two grown women he saw standing before them. Like Natsu, the ice mage had known these two since they were all immature little dweebs. But especially in Erza and Mira's circumstance, the recent passing of Mira's little sister, Lisanna, had had positive consequences on their relationship in the end; the two women had become quite close.
'Misery really does need company...' thought Grey as he sighed. "Well that flame-head better show up eventually; he's never around anymore."
Mira sent the ice mage a knowing smile, "Is somebody lonely?"
Grey paled, looking like a deer caught in headlights as he swung around to Mira, "Wh-what the-?! Never! I couldn't care less about that pea-brain. Who needs that loser...if anything, I'd like them to show up so I can personally thank Lucy for taking him off my hands."
With that, the teen swirled back around on his stool, deciding to leave the conversation all together, as he walked away; unfortunately missing the knowing smiles being sent his way.
The white-haired mage's smile grew as Grey exited, then started thinking about it more, "I'm surprised Natsu has taken such a quick liking to Lucy. I wonder if our little Natsu's got a crush...?"
It was Erza's turn to sputter, turning read in the process, "You...you mean...?"
The bar maid beamed, deciding to poke fun at her old friend, "Oh Erza, you know what I mean. With the way things are going, we could be seeing little Natsu's running around here anytime now. Wouldn't that be fun?"
The requip mage decided that Grey was a genius before also leaving Mirajane to her own devices, not being able to last too long when it came to the topic of 'love' and all that it had in store. Mirajane was not done though. Her eyes began to changes shapes, mimicking heart shapes at the thought of little blonde fire mages running around the guild.
If anyone looked close enough, they would see the smoke that was clearly coming from the bar maid's ears as she continued to day dream over her new matchmaking victims...
A few miles away a clueless Dragon slayer sneezed.
"You sick?" Asked Lucy.
Natsu frowned, shaking his head, before sending the blonde one of his trademark grins, "Nope, dragon slayers don't get sick Luigi!"
"My name's LUCY idiot!"
A/N: Hope you liked my drabbly ramblings! R&R!
