"Oh would you hold still!"
"Mira that hurts like hell! You're pulling it too tight!"
"Quit it, Lex. It's just a bandage."
Mira had finally managed to corner Lex in the guild hall so she could change her bandages again. Ever since the first time she'd helped with them Lex had been avoiding her like the plague. She couldn't imagine why…
"Mira! It's a bandage, not a corset!"
"Hold still! It's only tight because you've been squirming so much, silly."
The rest of the guild is looking at her pityingly. At some point in time they had all felt the horror that is Mira playing nurse.
By the time she finishes with Lex she looks sick, hunched over the bar and breathing shallowly. Gray doesn't look much better, but at least he's used to Mirajane's motherly tendencies. He sits down beside Lex and pats her back sympathetically.
"You'll learn soon enough that it's best to just hold still when Mirajane tries treating you. It isn't quite as bad then."
All Lex can do is wheeze in reply. She highly doubts keeping still would have changed anything. Mira is terrifying when she's smiling sweetly at you and practically squeezing you to death. Heck, that was probably scarier than the look Erza gave her when she went to get them from Galuna.
"Hey, why don't we take a job? I think we've recovered enough to get out again."
Lex makes a little breezy noise that Gray takes as a yes. He goes to the request board and starts looking around some. Mirajane smiles happily.
"Oh! I forgot the log book in the storage room. I'll be right back."
The moment Mirajane leaves the room Lex hastily rips the bandages off, breathing deeply for the first time in the last hour.
"I don't care what you pick! Just get me out of here!"
She's out the guild doors in seconds with Gray traipsing behind soon after. He hands her a flyer and a new roll of bandages. She gingerly rewraps herself, her entire waist still sore from Mira practically squishing her organs out of her body.
"What is it?"
"Something about a shop owner trying to get back a stolen book."
"Great, maybe we won't have to come back for a couple of days…"
They walk through Magnolia together heading to the little magic book store. Lex can't help feeling a little self-conscious as people continue to stare.
"Do they really have to look at us like that?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with that…"
The women are all mostly giving Lex this weird, grumpy frown. The men are all acting fairly normal but the ladies are creating this bizarrely uncomfortable air about them. Gray just shrugs and they continue onwards.
The guy who runs the magic book store is a lanky old balding man wearing glasses as thick as the base of a soda bottle. He also spits when he says words with an "s" or "p" sound in them, which isn't exactly helped by the fact he stands a bit too close to them when he speaks.
"It was a very significant piece of Nessy Swallow Spiller's works, The Silver Swapping Sequence! Books like that are surprisingly unusual, you understand. I shouldn't wholesale it after its reappearance, instead I'll save it! No person ever desired to purchase it previously regardless."
Gray slowly wipes his face. Lex had managed to sneak out of the spit zone before he started talking, since he was focused on Gray.
"We'll find it. Who stole it?"
"That dastardly, suspicious salesman Chester! He runs the Sage Supplier on East Spinster Street."
Gray coughs and pulls his shirt off; using what few dry spots he can find to clean off his face. At this point Lex desperately hopes he abandons that shirt somewhere.
Usually they would ask more questions, but Gray was running out of cloth to dry off with. They head out with only the name of the guy under suspicion and the name of the book to go on. The Sage Supplier is a modernized magic store a few blocks away. Chester himself, also an old bald man, harrumphs grumpily when they arrive.
"Buy something or get out."
Gray shoves Lex front of him. He is NOT doing the talking this time.
"Hello…do you happen to have a book called The Silver Swapping Sequence? I really need a copy."
"I don't have anything like that."
"Are you sure? It's by Nessy-"
"Look, I already know McCarthy sent you. Tell him I don't have his darn book! And tell him to leave me alone! I'm not a thief!"
He kicks them out of the store. Lex sighs and turns to Gray.
"Now what?"
"I guess we should try and get back in and have a look around."
"Won't breaking and entering…"
She trailed off, staring at someone as they walked by. A boy, probably about fifteen, is walking past them with his nose in a book. She elbows Gray to get his attention.
"Does that say Silver?"
"Yep."
"Is that the book?"
"Maybe?"
They approach the boy slowly. He takes one look at them and takes off running, forcing the two to chase him.
Lex goes into her shadow and rushes after him as Gray freezes the ground, causing him to slip and slide into the wall where Lex was waiting for him. He looks at the two of them in panicked fear and quickly flips to a page in the book.
"CHENJURINGU!"
Lex and Gray stop, suddenly feeling weak and lightheaded. They drop to the ground abruptly on top of the boy, pinning him. The boy in question is too weak to free himself, so he starts yelling for help. Bisca and Alzack, who happened to be nearby, are quickly on the scene.