THE NECKLACE
-Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail-
_ AngeL .. † 0201-0212 †
He motioned her to come nearer and she obeyed. It's just another peaceful day; no mission, no fights, and no Gray.
"You smelled like candy today," he told her, his right arm wrapped on her shoulders while her head's resting on his chest. A light breeze blew on their faces and the grass felt cool underneath them.
She answered with a smile and her gaze followed the butterfly that fluttered by. She held his right hand and called his name.
He looked at her and smirked. He love how she calls his name, her sweet voice is like music itself. "Yes, Lucy?"
The blond celestial mage looked at him and smiled again, "I love you…" she whispered.
He smiled back and kissed her lightly on the lips, "and I love you more…"
"Say, Erza, have you seen Lucy?" Gray was panting when he entered Fairy Tail.
"No." The armored mage who was eating her blueberry cheesecake simply answered back. The ice mage scratched the back of his head while his mind was busy thinking for a possible excuse why Lucy is not around 'coz he's not used to her frequent absence.
He had looked for the celestial mage in her apartment but she was not home. He had searched the whole of Magnolia in vain. Where in the world is she? He looked around for Natsu but he's not to be seen either and decided instead to sit on one of the bar chairs as he was now exhausted. He felt confused and a bit irritated. "Maybe she's on a date?" Erza put his dreaded thoughts in words.
"With whom?" He murmured back, his irritation now evident in his voice but the armored mage just shrugged. It's not the likes of Lucy to hide something from them especially if it's a boyfriend. But her being gone almost after every mission, her dreamy eyes, far-away look and flushed face all seemed to be pointing in that painful fact. Painful fact.
The dark-haired mage clenched his fists and pounded the bar table. "Damn!"
"Juvia feels that something's bothering Gray-Sama," the water mage sat beside him with a flushed face. "Have you seen Lucy?" he turned to Juvia and the handsome ice mage sweat despite of himself. Holy shit, why Juvia of all people?
The water mage looked down to her hands that were gripping her skirt, "Gray-sama's looking for Lucy. Lucy shall not be forgiven!" and her tears flooded the guild.
"Erza said we'll go on a mission tomorrow," Lucy told him with sad eyes. The sun was setting and they're now walking back to her apartment.
His gaze was always glued to her so he immediately noticed the blond's sad expression. "And what's so sad about it?" he hold her hand as they walk by the river.
Lucy blushed and tightened her grip to his hand, "well… I… Uh… I was kind of looking forward to spending the time alone with you tomorrow."
He can't help but grin and hug her making her blush even more. "You got a handsome boyfriend there, Lucy!" a man on a boat called as he floats by.
"With or without them it doesn't matter," he brushed her rosy cheek as he speaks. "What matters is that we're together, right?"
She looked at his eyes and laughed. "Of course!" and the celestial mage hugged him back.
"It's already evening so she must be at her apartment now,"Gray thought. For the whole day Lucy hasn't stepped on the guild and it worries him.
The lights were on when he arrived at Lucy's apartment. Just as I thought. Gray smiled and jumped on the window. "Lucy?" he called but the celestial mage was not in sight. Instead, his gaze moved to the direction of the bed and the blood starts to boil inside the ice mage's body. "Natsu?"
The fire wizard was lying on Lucy's bed face down and had opened his left eye as Gray nears him. "Sup, Gray?" he mumbles.
"Don't 'sup, Gray' me flame brain!" Gray growled as he pulled Natsu out of Lucy's bed. The pink-haired mage has fully awakened when his head hit the floor. "What's your problem jerk?" he scowled back at Gray.
The inevitable clash between the two mages had been ensued if not for Lucy stepping out of the bathroom wearing only a pink towel. "Gray! Natsu!"
Gray looked at her, then to Natsu, then to Lucy again and back to Natsu. Then an understanding hit him, "am I interrupting something?" he asked in bewilderment as he clenched both his hands.
The two both gave him a questioning look, "huh?"
"Lucy, where've you been the whole day?" Gray can no longer control his jealousy, "I've looked for you everywhere! And Natsu's not around too!"
"I've been sleeping here all day!" Natsu protested.
"That's stupid! I checked here this afternoon but you're not here either!" Gray defended.
"Why are you looking for me?" Lucy asked, trying to divert the topic.
Crap! Gray was caught red-handed "I… Uh… I-I…"
"What?" Natsu pushed.
"I looked for you to inform you that Erza said we'll go on a mission tomorrow!" The ice mage answered and relief washes over him. "Same goes with you, flame brain!"
"Your effort's in vain 'coz we already know that, jerk!" Natsu snapped. "What? How?" Gray stared in disbelief. "Lucy told me earlier and she was told by Erza!" The fire wizard answered.
Lucy hadn't had a good night's sleep last night due to Natsu and Gray. They've been punching and kicking each other even while asleep and Happy crashed in on the middle of the night. "Natsu left me alone the whole day!" Happy cried so Lucy has to calm him.
While on the train going to their mission, Natsu had been knocked by Erza due to his transportation sickness and Lucy was peacefully sleeping on her seat and Gray was sitting beside her. The ice mage wanted badly to lean Lucy's head on his shoulder but he's afraid that Erza and Happy might discover his secret.
Out of nowhere appeared Loke. He wrapped his left arm around Lucy's waist while his right hand held the blond mage's head and buried it on his shoulder.
Gray jumped up from his seat and pointed Loke, "Hey! What are you doing?"
The handsome lion laughed. "Is it wrong to visit my guild mates for a while?"
"That's one thing but do you really have to be that close to Lucy?" the ice mage flushed with jealousy.
"I just want to protect her head from being bumped to something hard," Loke looked at him and adjusted his blue square eyeglasses. "I just want to protect my owner."
Erza gave Gray a sit-down-and-shut-up stare. The ice mage crossly obeyed and shot a killing stare to Loke. Golden-haired Loke on the other hand diverts his gaze outside the window. He could smell Lucy's shampoo and tightened his hold to the celestial mage. "She owns me…" The lion mumbled.
The village where they arrived to has its own legend. In the outskirts of the said village is a large sakura tree surrounded by a fence wide enough that no matter how strong the wind blows, the fallen flowers won't reach outside the fence. Now, the legend says that if a person walked by or stand outside the fence with something that represents somebody, the person will know if they (he and the owner of that thing with him, it doesn't matter if it's hand-held or not) are destined for each other if a wind blows and shower him with the sakura flowers. If the flowers don't reach him then they're not meant to be.
"I would like to visit that tree…" Lucy told them after they arrived at the inn where they'll be spending the night.
"We could do that after we completed the mission," Erza agreed. But I don't have anything that he owns…
"I'll pass," a sleepy Natsu mumbles. Gray looked at him and smirked. "I think I'll go and check this 'legendary tree'", he said.
Lucy's eyes were dreamy. "We must finish the mission soon," she thought to herself.
The mission was a complete success. Just before the sun sets, Lucy, Erza and Gray headed to where the legendary sakura tree is and were amazed by its beauty even from afar. The ground inside the fence was all pink thanks to the fallen flowers but only very few can be seen outside the said barrier.
The three stood in awe when suddenly out of nowhere a wind blew and showered them with pink petals.
Gray felt a thin, blue cloth inside his pocket and smiled. It was Lucy's ribbon and the celestial mage doesn't even notice that her ribbon is gone.
Erza on the other hand was perplexed. She doesn't have anything with her that represents him and yet the petals also showered her. Could it be that the legend is wrong? Then the wind blew her long scarlet hair and she smiled.
"The legend is true…" she whispered.
And the three wizards headed back to the inn with a smiling face and heart.
"Gray I found your necklace in my pocket!" Lucy handed the necklace back to the ice mage.
"What's it doing there?" Gray asked while scratching the back of his head. They were now on a train going home.
"Don't ask me 'coz I don't know either." Lucy huffed. But the ice mage knew the answer so he smiled.
"Lllllucy's meant for Gray!" Happy announced. "How'd you say so?" The celestial mage gave the cat an annoyed look.
"'Coz you went to the sakura tree with Gray's necklace in your pocket and you said you've been showered with flowers," Happy answered.
"Maybe. But I don't think so…" And Lucy turned her gaze outside the window with a grin on her beautiful face.
"So how's your visit to the legendary tree?" he asked the blond mage lying on his lap.
"It was so pretty," she answered lovingly. Lucy sat beside him and he kissed her. A long passionate kiss it seemed to go on forever. "You should have come." The celestial mage finished her sentence.
With his hand he brushed her face and they kissed again. "So what did you brought to that tree that represents me?" he asked tenderly.
The celestial mage took out something from her pocket and showed him.
"Your key…" Lucy smiled.
Loke the handsome lion adjusted his blue square eyeglasses and smiled back.
oOo END oOo
This is my favorite story that I've ever written.
It's really, really, really hard to choose between Loke and Gray! Hiro Mashima why would you give us this agony?
Then in the end it might end up to be Natsu x Lucy … The default pairing..