The lone male in the small room sighed before reluctantly sitting down in is seat. He rubbed his eyes, slowly becoming ever so distant with the world. He pulled his chair closer to the thin cloth of no color in front of him, and rested his against his arms. Within a few minutes, he could feel his consciousness drifting further and further away from reality. He allowed the land of darkness and memories to consume him.
It was an average day for Fairy Tail; the almost daily fight, the mages walking in and out from jobs, the light smell of booze lingering in the air, and the shouting. One could never forget the voices once they were heard.
Sitting at the bar as usual, Team Natsu and Mira were having a discussion about their most recent job they took. Lucy, however, looked quite frightened to hear Erza's scolding that was destined to be directed at her. She never did give herself enough credit. Gray and Natsu were terrified to hear from the S-Class mage, thus they were acting as kindly to each other as they could get. Happy was acting, well, Happy-like. The ordinary from him. Mira could only stand back and watch the thick tension unravel before her.
"Natsu!" The scarlet woman ordered.
He stood and saluted on impulse. "Yes ma'am!" He answered, almost like it was programmed into his brain.
"You need to think things through and plan ahead! Only then do you attack!" She commanded. Then turned to Gray. "You! Stop stripping in the middle of an attack! It may work as a type of distraction for the enemy, but it also backfires on your teammates as well!"
She turned to Lucy, and the blonde cringed, waiting for all hell to break loose. Erza sighed and turned away.
"Why me?! Say something!" She shouted to the scarlet woman, not wanting a response.
"My, oh my, guess who's back from their job?" Mira sweetly interrupted, attempting to cut through the high tension between the team. When the four, plus Happy, gave her a slightly confused look, she directed their attention a familiar figure walking towards them.
"Ah, Cyri! I see you're back from your job, did it go well?" Erza asked, making small talk with the younger girl.
Her light voice answered, "Yep, I didn't take a difficult one, so I was able to complete it without too much of a hassle. My employer didn't seem to like how long it took, though. Only two and a half days, and for someone with magic like mine, it's difficult to do solo tasks quickly." He pupil-less lavender eyes drifted to the floor, ashamed with herself.
"Nonsense," Gray began to cheer her up. "You have a very unique and special type of magic; he should've been grateful for your help!" He put his hands on her shoulders, brushing away some of her loose white strands of hair.
"I agree; although you may not be very good with long range or head-on combat, you do have a very unique ability." Erza approved of his statement, nodding her head.
Lucy didn't know how to take the situation; she hadn't been with the guild for long, and each time she saw Cyri, it was when the pale girl was reporting a completed job and then only to run off with another one. She had only seen Cyri's magic twice, and even then it was a blur. Literally. It was almost as if Lucy couldn't even see Cyri, due to her speed of attacks. Definitely not suited for solo missions, in her opinion. Plus, she simply didn't know Cyri all that well. Sure, they've conversed before, but Lucy wouldn't consider them as close friends.
Cyri looked back up at them in the eye. "R-Really? Thank you so much, all of you...! It's always so wonderful to have people like you as my friends!" She smiled and giggled softly, before directing her attention over to the unusually quiet Natsu. "N-Natsu-san? Can I talk to you for a moment?" She whispered, only just loud enough for him to hear.
"Huh? Oh, sure Cyri." He began to follow her, only to call out to his team over his shoulder. "Be back in a sec!" As soon as they exited the guild's interior, he turned to the shorter figure in front of him that was having a very difficult time speaking. "Yo, Cyri? Are you okay? You don't look so well..." He leaned down a few inches to examine her face at a closer range.
Her face immediately heated up at his sudden action. "A-Ah, no, I-I...um, I wanted to ask you, um..." She drifted off, took a big gulp of air and continued, deciding to suck it up. "I-I wanted to ask you if you wanted to do something with me someday..." Her voice grew softer. "Like a, um..." Softer. "...a date?"
She came to the conclusion that it was ridiculous to even ask him, and that she probably looked like a fool. Yanking on her average length hair, she covered her face. "No, no! I'm sorry I even asked, i-it was so stupid of me...! I'm so sorry I wasted your time, Natsu-san...!"
He gave her a blank stare, feeling his face slowly heat up. He could hear his own heartbeat grow faster, and wondered if she could hear it too. Then he grinned and pat her on the head. "Of course, Cyri! Honestly, I've been wondering about it myself as well; why I seem to grow silent, or why I feel like everyone can hear the beating of my heart whenever I'm around you. Eventually I came to the conclusion, I had to have at least crushed on you for quite some time. I feel like it's more than that, but I'm not too sure..." He gripped her hand and she looked up to his face. "But for the time being, help me figure it out, alright?"
"O-Okay... I think?" She didn't think he would actually agree, hence why she was in shock and couldn't reply to the best of her ability.
"I'm sure everyone's wondering what happened to us, so let's go back inside and tell them about us!" With their hands still intertwined, he dragged Cyri back through the doors to the guild. As soon as they stepped inside, all eyes were on them, and Cyri felt her face flush once again. Natsu, of course, was oblivious to the attention directed at him.
"What a man! Natsu finally noticed huh? That is a true man!" Elfman was heard across the room, throwing his arms up into the air with energy.
"Hey, what does he mean by 'finally?'" Natsu asked, turning to the red female behind him.
"Learn to read the atmosphere, ash-head!" Gray called out, it being obvious that Natsu was the only one that didn't notice Cyri's feelings towards the days prior.
"What was that, icicle-breath?!" He released her hand an charged Gray. Sparks seemed to crackle between them as they argued back and forth. Everyone in the guild knew where this situation would be headed, thus they prepared themselves to brawl each other.
The forgotten Cyri inched around the arguing morons and back to the smarter portion of the guild; Lucy, Erza, and Mira. Erza decided to tease her a little.
"So I see you finally decided to ask him, huh?" She chuckled before continuing. "The entire guild was beginning to sick of waiting, we were even thinking of forcing you two together."
If possible, even more color rushed to Cyri's face. "W-Was it really that obvious?! Oh my god, I messed up; I messed up horribly. If I can't even keep a secret like that, then I might as give up trying to be a mage." She nearly had tears overflowing from her eyes, and she slouched to the ground.
"Erza...!" Lucy protested, not catching on.
"No need to worry Lucy," Mira intervened, explaining why everything was alright. "Cyri is the easiest to mess with in the guild, so she normally gets picked on like this. This is normal for her. She'll be fine in a few minutes." The older female looked down to the overreacting Cyri on the floor, whom was currently banging her head against one of the stool's legs.
The ongoing brawl around them began to contain flying tables, mugs, and now even some of the members. Makarov gave up trying to control his children long ago, back when he was still in his youth. Now, he only yelled "Damn brats!" every once in a while. One particular, fire-breathing mage was coincidentally flung right onto the female on the floor, knocking them both out cold.
Before Natsu completely met darkness, he swore he saw the old man smile at the new couple on the ground below. Then, just like his new partner, he met darkness.