A Quest to Reconcile
Chapter One: The Search
Gray tapped his foot on the ground, as he watched his quest partner snuffle threw the various cards on the shelf. They had finished their job early and since they were in the town that had the magic shop with the 'best selection on magic cards', Cana had insisted they make a 'quick' stop before heading home.
"Will you stop glaring at me." Cana growled, "It feels like you're trying to bore a hole in the back of my head."
"We've been here for over an hour!" Gray complained as he tried to convey just how bored he was.
Cana let out an exasperated huff and stalked over to him, grabbing something off of one of the shelves as she went. She shoved the object into the ice mage's chest rather painfully.
"Here, entertain yourself with this." she said before turned back to examine the cards again.
Gray flipped the object around to look at the cover. It was the latest edition of Sorcerer Weekly. Well, that was sure going to entertain him. His first thought was to throw the magazine away in disgust, bu,t his need to quell his boredom outweighed his better taste.
He began mindlessly flipping through the pages until something popped out at him. It was an article on the various independent mages in Fiore. It looked interesting, at least more so than their usual gossip. He let out a sigh, leaned up against the wall, and began to read.
The article was short, giving only a brief discretion of about twenty different mages, none of which Gray recognized until he was near the end of the article. It was then that his gaze fell upon a name that stood out to him like it was written in red: 'Lyon Vastia'
He blinked at the page several times. His rate increased ever so slightly as he slowly read what was written under that name.
'This cool, collected ice mage came here just recently form the North. When we met up with him in Clover he said that he was here on a certain project but refused to disclose any details. What is such a skilled and secretive mage doing here? Is he here to stay and will he join a guild? Only time will tell.'
There was a brief discretion of Lyon which described him just the way Gray had remembered him. There was no doubting it now. His former fellow pupil was somewhere in Fiore.
"Gray, I'm done. Gray? Hey, Gray!"
Gray was jolted back to reality as Cana shook his shoulder violently.
"What?" he blinked, looking up at the girl.
"I'm done." she said, holding up a plastic sack full of freshly purchased cards. "We can go now."
"Um. You go on ahead." he said hesitantly.
"Huh?" Cana raised an eyebrow at him, "Weren't you just harping on me about hurrying up so you can go home."
"I know it's just." Gray racked his brain for a believable excuse, "I read in Sorcerer that there's a conference going on in Clover and I though it would be interesting."
"What kind of conference?" she asked, leaning in closer and squinting her eyes at him.
"It's on the advancement of magic mobile technology." he said, forcing a smile.
"Oi," she sighed, throwing her hands up. "That sounds about as interesting as watching Natsu give a lecture on fire. But if that's what your into then go ahead. I'll just suffer threw the train ride alone."
"Thanks, Cana." he said then hurried out of the shop before the girl could question him on anything else.
"Boys." she muttered before trying to leave only to be stopped by the store clerks hand on her shoulder.
"You are going to pay for that magazine your friend ran off with aren't you?" he growled.
She had to blink a couple times before the comment fully registered.
"Gray!" she yelled, but he was already gone.
A sinking feeling of regret began to grow in the pit of his stomach as the train drew closer to Clover Town. He didn't want to see Lyon again, not really. Just the idea of it made him sick to his stomach. But in that moment, when he saw his name in Sorcerer Weekly he knew that this was what Ur would have wanted him to do.
He pulled the magazine out again and double checked to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He wondered what this project was that Lyon was working on. A thought flashed through his mind that perhaps his senior was in Fiore looking for him, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Lyon was too stubborn for that; he held onto even the most minor things and never let them go. If he hated him and blamed him for Ur's death seven years ago, then Gray was certain that he still did.
He turned to look out the window at the passing scenery. Still, he had to at least try and find him and see if he would accept him. He let his breath fall on the glass, then used his magic to freeze it, causing frost to appear. He smiled at the beautiful patters it made. It reminded him of the way things use to be, when Ur was still alive and Lyon didn't hate him. As much as he loved Fairy Tail he still wished he could go back to those days.
The train lurched to a halt and it was announced that they had arrived in clover. Gray stood up and hesitantly stepped off. He glanced every which way at the people standing around the station as if expecting to find Lyon there.
But of course he wasn't, there was only a crowd of people, eager to get to their destinations. He started asking the station staff if they had seen a spiky haired albino recently, but no one calmed to have spotted Lyon. Maybe he should have gone to sorcerer weekly's head quarts and asked them for more information instead.
He was about to give up on this frequently search when he was suddenly approached by an old man. He was a head shorter than him and had a beard that when all the way down to his waist.
"I heard you were looking for a friend of yours. Some fellow by the name Lyon?" the old man asked in a raspy voice that Gray could barely make out.
"Yes, have you seen him?"
The old man chuckled. "I remember that young rascal. I thought he was going to kill me when I told him the last train had already left."
"Eh?" Gray was a bit taken aback by this. The old man seemed way to calm about having his life threatened.
"I work the last shift you see." the man continued. "That fellow came over just as we were closing up, wanting to get a ride over to Hargeon. When I said he had just missed the last train he got so mad you could see smoke pouring out of his ears."
"That was probably mist." Gray muttered under his breath, but the old man didn't hear him.
"If you do find your friend tell him he needs to learn a lesson in patience."
Gray nodded, "I'll do that. Thanks for your help. Did he say why he wanted to go to there?"
The old man shrugged "Not that I recall. He did have a few odd looking friends with him thought."
"That's all right." Gray smiled at the old man, "Thanks again. Can you tell me when the next train to Hargeon is?"
Once again, he found himself playing investigator as he proceeded to ask every person he pumped into if they had seen Lyon. Hargeon, being a port city, was rather large, and thus there were a lot of places Lyon could have ended up.
"Maybe he was planning on taking a boat out of Fiore." he speculated.
If that was the case he wondered if he would be willing to track Lyon all the way to another country. Would it be worth it? He knew that if he was able to reconcile things with him the it would be. But would it be worth the risk? He decided not to think about that yet and proceeded with interrogating the locals.
Finally, after several hours he found a lead; A young woman said that she saw a man that resembled Lyon going into one of the more upscale hotels. He followed her directions and found himself at an establishment calling itself the 'Sun-shower Inn.' it looked sickeningly high class and snooty. Just the kind of place he'd imagined Lyon would crash for the night. Although, he must have been doing pretty well for himself if he could afford the rooms there.
He went inside and went right up to the desk clerk, a gangly, middle-aged man with a thin mustache.
"I'm looking for someone named Lyon Vastia." he said, getting directly to the point.
"I'm not permitted to disclose information about our patrons." the man huffed, giving him a bored look, "Now if you're not planning on renting a room, I suggest you leave."
"What?" Gray growled, "But he's a friend of mine that I haven't seen in years. You're not going to deny a guy the pleasure of being reunited with a long lost buddy are you?"
"I'm not denying you anything. If you want to search for your friend then be my guest, but you cannot do it here."
Gray had to restrain himself. No, as much as he wanted to throttle this guy, he wasn't going to fly off the handle like Natsu. That was a good way to get himself arrested. Instead, he quietly stepped outside to think about what he should do next. He could scale the building and peep through the windows, but that was also a good way to get arrested.
He growled in frustration and sat down on a bench opposite the hotel. Nothing else came to mind so he divided to just wait here and see if Lyon showed up, while asking people coming out if they had seen him. One person said he had so he guessed he was in the right place. Now all he had to do was wait until he showed up.
It had been several hours since he had last eaten and he should have been feeling hungry by then, but he wasn't. Instead a sickness settled inside of him. The reality of him actually meeting Lyon again was growing more and more likely. It was easy to say that he was going to try and reconcile with the older boy when it seemed like an unlikely occurrence, but now...
The memory of the way Lyon had looked at him the day they parted ways assaulted his mind. There was so much hatred in his eyes. He didn't want to have those old wounds torn open again. He was sure Lyon didn't want that either. There was a high unlikelihood that this would make either of their lives better. His resolve falter and he stood to his feet and began walking away.
If fate decreed that their paths should cross again at some point, then so be it. He, however wasn't going to seek it out; it was too soon.
He glanced at the sky. It was already getting dark; too late to try and catch a train back to Magnolia. He looked inside his pockets; Just enough money for a train ticket and a night at a cheap hotel. He'd have to walk quite a ways in order get to the less classy side of town to find a place he could afford. He breathed a sigh, shoving the money back into his pockets and picking up his pace a bit.
"Ur would understand, wouldn't she?" he wondered quietly to himself.
Maybe he was just trying to reason his way out of something he really didn't want to do. He shook the thought away. If he was going to feel guilty about it afterward, then fine; it would only be a miniscule amount compared to the mountain he was already carrying on his shoulders.
He was mostly staring at the ground as he walked, but something flashed in the corner of his eye that stuck out to him and made his stand dead still in his tracks.
His heartbeat quickened as a rush of thoughts came to his mind. Part of him said he should just ignore it and keep going, and not even glance up, but curiosity, or maybe just the longing in his heart made him turn his head and looked to the opposite side of the street.
There was a boy there, walking in the same direction he was going. He looked to be about a year older than him and had snow-white hair that stood straight up in defiance of gravity.
"Lyon?"
A/N: Did anyone else notice this: In the Galuna Island arc, when Gray first sees Lyon again his face is covered, but Gray recognizes his voice. Now how could this be if they were both still kids when he saw him last? Lyon's voice would have changed since then so Gray would not have been able to recognize him by this. Unless, of course Gray and him met at some other point in that ten year time span. And that, dear reader, is how this fanfiction was born!
