Chapter Nine – In Preparation
Three months later
"Listen up!" Makarov yelled over the noise, effectively stopping Natsu from plummeting Gray in the face with his flaming fist.
"What is it now, jii-chan?" the Fire Dragon Slayer complained, huffing as he dropped onto a seat at Erza's pointed glare.
The guild instantly settled down as Mirajane glowered down at them from the second storey in her infamous Satan Take-Over.
"In two weeks, the Grand Magic Games will begin!" the third Master announced.
Cheers of approval rose from the crowd.
"And, naturally, Fairy Tail will be participating," Erza continued. "We will be leaving as soon as the sun rises tomorrow!"
Makarov waited until the enthusiastic responses from the members died down before he declared the teams.
"This year, we will have two teams," he said, "Fairy Tail A will consist of; Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Erza Scarlet, Elfman, and Wendy as the reserve," Natsu exchanged puzzled glances with Gray, "Fairy Tail B will consist of; Gajeel Redfox, Laxus Dreyar," the Lightening Dragon Slayer grunted from his place in the shadows at the corner of the guild, "Mirajane Strauss, Juvia Lockser, Mystogan, and Cana Alberona as the reserve."
Among the shouts of congratulation and excited chatters, the said teams gathered at one table to discuss strategies.
Instead of grinning and exclaiming his catchphrase, "I'm all fired up!" like he normally does when something stimulating happens, Natsu frowned and turned to the scarlet-haired S-Class mage who stood beside Wendy.
(The old geezer disappeared to his office as soon as he finished talking. Coward.)
"Erza, why are there only four people in team A? Not counting Wendy, I mean," the pink-haired Salamander asked slowly.
"I'm sure Master has his reasons," Erza replied distractedly.
Before he could open his mouth and ask her to elaborate, a chair slammed into his face, a by-product of another brawl, completely sidetracking him from his earlier intentions.
"Oi! Watch where you're throwing these things!" Natsu glared at Gajeel—the culprit—, who smirked at him before he was swung to the side by the Fire Dragon Slayer's side kick to the noggin, causing the former Phantom Lord guild member to smash into the bar, a stray spoon smacking (the-not-so-amused) Ice-Make wizard in the forehead, which then caused him to glare at the two and join in, which then caused a chain reaction as the entire league began to fight.
The blue Exceed, who had been hovering near Natsu, cringed away from the flying objects that were threatening to knock him clean out of the sky, and covered his ears with his paws when he saw Erza's eyes flash dangerously as a barrel (probably thrown by a drunken Cana) slammed into her chest plate.
"Enough!" the scarlet-haired mage bellowed.
They all froze and recoiled from Erza's furious glower.
She swiveled slowly towards Natsu and Gray, who both "eep!"-ed and scurried behind a shaking Elfman.
"Hiding is not manly," the Take-Over mage said weakly as the swordswoman's glare followed the Dragon Slayer's movements.
Finally, Erza threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and merely said, "be here by 10," and stomped out.
"Gajeel started it," Natsu muttered, straightening from his crouch.
"What was that, flame head?!" came the indignant shout.
Gray rolled his eyes. "Let's focus on the games, shall we?" he said wearily.
His rival nodded quickly, in fear that Titania may return, and hurried over to the counter where Fairy Tail A and B had re-grouped (minus an angry Erza).
"Maybe Master wanted to reserve the spot for Lucy-san," the Sky Dragon Slayer voiced quietly when the pink-haired man reached them.
Mirajane, Juvia and Cana all tensed, almost as if waiting for the expected explosion from the two males.
However, when the inevitable ceased to occur, they relaxed slightly, but immediately stiffened when Natsu parted his lips to speak.
"Yeah," was all he said, "maybe."
Gray was silent, but jerked his head in grudgingly.
They all exhaled in relief, the white-haired barmaid turning to Wendy and murmuring, "let's not talk about right now, okay?" and smiling when the petite girl nodded.
Carla only watched with her arms crossed, and Happy was looking at his partner worriedly.
Natsu knew what his teammates were anticipating, but it wasn't like that for him anymore.
Sure, it still hurt like hell whenever someone mentioned his blonde mate's absence, but he knew they would meet again soon, could feel the red string that tied them together loosening and tugging them closer.
He'd waited for three months. The long time period proved to be agonizing to the poor Dragon Slayer (the consequences of not claiming a dragon's mate was horrible—as he was kindly reminded by a sniggering Iron Dragon Slayer, in which he responded by pointing out that Levy was still unmarked—but Natsu braved it out, endured the instinct—the need to go on a rampage—to seek out the missing Celestial mage, not caring who he would have to hurt or destroy to reach his goal; he pushed it down and focused on the notion of her reappearance in next to no time), but he could wait for a while longer.
Just a little longer.
But said slayer had no idea what was going through Gray's head.
Despite the Ice wizard's every day offhanded manner and his usual vigor in their fights, the dark-haired man seemed to go rigid whenever Lucy's name was brought up, and though he denied it whenever someone mentioned this to him, his body language gave him away quite easily, his ebony-coloured irises always contracted and his fists would clench.
Natsu and Gray had a truce when it came to Lucy—never to speak of her.
It worked quite well, until some other rambling idiot came skipping along from another guild, wondering where the busty blonde was.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, Natsu felt the tension leave his body as he switched his attention back to the Grand Magic Games, feeling excitement seeping through his very pores (after all, this was who he was—childish yet extremely knowledgeable when it came to nakama and honour, trained in the ways of Dragon Slaying, Natsu was a outlet of pure energy, always on the lookout for for adventure and a good scuffle).
He met the cautious looks of his guildmates (excluding Gray, who was both snickering and in the process of stripping his shirt off) as he grinned, "so where're we going this time?"