I sighed in frustration from my newly-claimed spot at the bar. It had been three months since Lucy had been gone, a month since Poluchka, Max, and Nab had all found out about Lucy being gone.
Poluchka had pretended not to care, complaining about the fact that that the only human, besides Wendy of course, that she had begun to enjoy was gone, but otherwise kept quiet, agreeing not to say a word to anyone. Of course, I had been able to hear her complaining long after she left the guild and could very clearly hear her hopes for Lucy's health and return.
Max and Nab had been hanging out by the mission board two days later, talking about the most troublesome teams and latest experiences when Nab suddenly stopped. He had looked around and found Team Natsu, but goose bumps rose throughout his body as he noticed the missing blonde.
"Where is she?" he had whispered, immediately gaining the attention of Cana and I.
Max looked at him, rather confused. "Where is who?" He looked over to where Nab was
watching and froze as well before screaming, "Holy Mavis! Where's L-" I had never punched someone so fast in his life. Max went flying to Cana, who proceeded to pull him into a back room by his shirt collar and Nab, who was thrown to the side by Max, flew into Mira, who politely asked him to follow, and when he suspiciously refused, threatened him with Demon Soul. He stopped refusing after that.
Over the next three days, the two boys could be seen next to either Cana or myself as we were the only two continuing to drown their sorrows with excessive alcohol, although Lisanna had joined them one of those days, late at night. With the help of her sister, she cried out her guilt through drunken tears and, despite all of us assuring her that it wasn't her fault, only felt worse that she had accepted Natsu's offer. She had clearly admitted that she had only wanted a relationship like this with him when they were young, but when she had been sent to Edolas and Lucy came in, it was clear to the world that the two belonged together.
Even when she came back, Lisanna said that it was still painfully obvious, despite the switched
rolls, how perfect the two were for each other. One was always teasing the other, blushes and whines flying in every direction as well as orders and punches, but despite all of that, they were always with each other, occasionally threatening to leave, but never following through as soon as their partner began to beg and plead for forgiveness. They were always there for one another, whether over stupid things such as inwardly cheering for each other in guild brawls or in the heat of serious battle where, despite being much weaker than their respective partner, they stayed for each other, risking death just to make sure that the other kept safe.
"So why did you accept?" I had trouble keeping the snarl out of my voice. I mean sure, I felt bad for the girl, feeling all this guilt with no way to relieve it, but I didn't feel bad enough to be completely nice.
A light blush coated her cheeks as she sighed, obviously mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. From what I had seen, Natsu could tire these girls out pretty quickly. "I guess- HIC- I guess that after he had been with Lu- HIC- cy Ashley so long in Edolas, I was hoping tha- HIC- that I would be allowed to have some time with him here as my own- HIC- again before she came…" Selfish depression and hiccups cut her off and she was soon escorted home by her equally drunk sister, who I swear must have been taking lessons from Cana to still be walking with the amount of alcohol she had downed. After that day, I had stopped doubting the sincerity of her sorrow for Lucy's leave, much to Mira's joy.
But today was different, today was tense, anxious, as though all of us were connected through some ominous feeling that something Lucy-connected was going to happen. Now, it could have just been in my head, but the fact that it was nearly noon and Mira wasn't here seemed to signal that something had happened. Cana, who had been grumpy all morning due to Mira's absence, meaning the absence of her alcohol as well, huffed at me as I sat next to her. "Time count?"
"92 days…and counting," I muttered back, slouching over the bar. Levy was on a mission, so I didn't have my usual distraction, and Gray and Natsu had been on their best behavior all day, thanks to Erza being is a horrid mood because there was no cake out yet, so I had no one to fight, and Pantherlily was currently doing his best to avoid Happy at all costs, fairly angry that he had not noticed that his beloved nakama had been gone for so long. For the first few days, my exceed had merely ignored him, but because of his increasing anger on the situation, he had taken to staying away from the guild for longer periods of time in an attempt to resist the tempting urge to torment the obnoxious feline.
She huffed once again and I looked up to notice that Laxus had sat on her other side, a frown deeper than usual on his face. I raised an eyebrow at him and he signaled Cana and I to lean in. "I caught her scent on my last mission-" Cana nearly screamed at him to take her there when I threw my hand over her mouth.
"Let him finish, you drunk!"
She gave me a solid glare after my hiss, but nodded in agreement. Laxus smirked a bit at our exchange, but otherwise continued. "It's fairly fresh, and it was clean, but it smelt…confused, I guess is the best way to put it-"
"What the hell do you mean 'it smelt confused'?" Cana hissed through my hand, which was still covering her mouth, muffling her slurry voice.
Laxus and I shared a look and rolled out eyes, knowing that this conversation would be so much easier with just dragon slayers. "If an emotion is really strong, it changes a person's scent. Gajeel or… Flame-Head over there could probably decipher her scent better than me because they're more familiar with it, so can I continue now? It's kind of important!" Cana glared even harder and I felt a shudder go down my spine. In this moment, I'm pretty sure she could take down Erza… "I'll take that as a yes. So, I followed it around the town for a bit, before coming to the forest. I tried to track it through, but her scent was mixed with a few others."
"How many? Was she safe? Scared?" My blood began to boil. No one better dare touch my sister…
"She smelt fine, but it was about…four, five? I can't tell. There were a few scents that lightly crossed it, so I lost her scent, but followed the others and came up to a guild called-"
"Wolftail." Our group jumped about three feet in the air as Makarov's hiss reached our ears. "I know, this just doesn't feel right without her here, but please stop tracking her. She'd be very angry if she knew that you guys were keeping tabs on her." He sat and took another beer from Lisanna, who had been listening in while filling in for Mira.
"How do you-" Laxus began, but a sudden slamming of the doors effectively silenced the guild. The darkened sky and booming thunder outside didn't help calm us as the one and only Demon Soul stood in the doorway, scanning silently over the guild.
Her eyes met ours and we knew what this was about. "Laxus, Lisanna, Gajeel, Cana, Master. Come with me…Please." Her voice, dark and gravelly, should have terrified the rest of the guild far enough into sobriety to remind them to mind their own business, but, as usual, someone was stupid enough to interject.
"What's going on? Is there a fight?" Natsu jumped up, fists already aflame. Mirajane shot him a look that clearly made his skin crawl, so he went to his back-up plan. He dashed over to Lisanna and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, causing her to freeze up. I could tell that now that she had admitted her lack of emotion and guilt, it was becoming more difficult to stay in a relationship with the Flame-Brain. "If Lisanna is going, so am-"
"Shut it, Natsu," Laxus nearly snarled, pulling Natsu away from his girlfriend without much needed force. "This doesn't concern you." Natsu went to argue but Erza put a hand on his shoulder and he sighed, defeated. Good you lousy son of a bitch…You don't even see how badly you're fooling yourself. Had it been Lucy, you would have fought much harder.
We followed her from the uncharacteristically silent bar, closing the doors behind us but clearly noticing the continued lack of noise from within. She nodded towards the street and we followed, going over bridges and along the stream until we hit… "Lucy's apartment? What are we doing here?" Her scent was no longer tainted with alcohol, so I was surprised that she had been daring enough to break the tense silence.
Without a word, Mira opened the door and Laxus and I shifted slightly into fighting stances. There was a scent in there, not Lucy's. Not Fairy Tail's. "Relax, boys." The Demon waved us inside and we all took a seat, Laxus and I still prepared for battle as footsteps could be heard coming from the kitchen. A young boy, no older than myself, with short, shaggy brown hair and glazed over eyes smiled goofily at us as he entered, plopping himself down onto the floor across from us without hesitation. "Everyone, I would like you to meet Alex, Lu- Lucy's new…" She clenched her teeth, fighting back obvious tears. I noticed Alex looking up at her in worry, but ignored it, more focused on Mira herself. "One of Lucy's new teammates."
Sorry this took me so long, Minna. School's been very imposing on my personal time and my only means of wtiting was broken, so I had trouble getting back to this story, but I should be updating again soon. Thank you everyone who reviewed but if you have any questions, feel free to PM me. It's a lot easier to answer them that way!
But quick question for the next chapter:
Do I continue with the guild's update, or go to Lucy and see how she's holding up?
Oh, and major NaLu coming up in a few chapters, so please excuse the extreme lack of it for now!
~The Infamous Smiles of Mona Lisa
