Mizu-chan- HOLY FLUCKING SHIT! IT'S BEEN TEN MONTHS!
Gray- Oh my god!
Mizu-chan- I know, I know, I'm horrible it's-
Lucy- A ZOMBIE!
Mizu-chan- -_-' I'm not dead... just... really. Freakin. Busy. And also, if anyone's wondering about Graylu week- well, more like about why I stopped part way through, it's because I dropped my computer on the ground and broke it. I can't update from my iPhone, so... yeah.
Gray- That's no excuse for not updating this story before Graylu week!
Lucy- Yeah, you abandoned it for months!
Mizu-chan- I'm sorry! Karma will happen, I'm sure of it! Okay, but for real, I'm really sorry guys, and as a gift, I'm giving you two chapters this time. I'm not sure how good they'll be, but they're done, at least. Uhm. Oh, also-
Lucy- If you want ICB to continue-
Gray- As in, have a sequel, Luce, don't be misleading, Mizu's not giving up on this story-
Lucy- *Ahem* If you want ICB to have a sequel, please go to the poll on Mizu-chan's profile!
Gray- And there are a couple choices for what kind of story!
Lucy- Mizu-chan will be posting the kinds of stories they could be on the second to last chapter of this story, because she doesn't want to give anything away, but we will ask you if you want this to "continue"!
Mizu-chan- Thank you, you two! Okay, so yes, that will be happened on the second to last story, if I don't die of old age before I end it, haha. Okay, enjoy!
"It's getting warmer, Lucy. We're near the bottom." I pointed out to my blonde haired compainion. She nodded and turned back to the slopes again, her brow creased in concentration and worry. I gulped.
"Hey, Lucy?" I asked. She stopped and looked back at me.
"Yes?" She answered, sounding tired. I sighed.
"Do you... do you think Kasumi is okay?" I wondered aloud to her. After a moment on contemplative silence, she half smiled before replying.
"Yeah, I think she is. She's... she's not dead, if that's what you mean. I could tell if that happened to her." She assured me, starting back down the rocky, barely-there trail.
"What if it does happen?" I blurted out without thinking. Lucy froze. I bit my tongue. I didn't want to say it, but then again, we had to consider the possibility. We always had to consider that possibility, as mages. Especially guild mages. Something could turn bad at any moment, and we needed to be as prepared as possible for it.
"If that happens, I swear to god, I will kill the person who did it without a second thought, even if it killed me." She growled. I fell silent in worry as we began moving again. I watched her figure as she moved. Those familiar, dainty hands, the flawless skin. I tried to imagine her as the old Lucy, but I couldn't. She was different now, I had to accept that.
When I used to look at Lucy, twelve years ago, I saw a beautiful, kind, warm-hearted girl.
And now I saw a beautiful, kind, strong, and iron-willed woman.
But it was still Lucy. And no matter how much I loved the one I used to know, I loved the one walking before me just as much.
I opened my mouth to say her name again, so I could ask her if she could see the bottom of the mountain, when she cried out.
I sucked in a breath and watched helplessly as Lucy stepped on a loose rock. It moved under her and I winced as I heard her yelp in pain. Her ankle had twisted badly, and she wouldn't be up and moving much longer. And we had to leave our guide behind, because she could only go a certain distance from their village, so we didn't have their healing skills to help us. We had to stay put for a while.
I struggled down the few feet to her and forced her to sit down on a stable rock. I took her ankle and held my hand over it, creating a thin layer of ice over the rapidly swelling injury. I looked up at her to see her clenching her teeth, trying to hold back a shout. Her eyes were welling up with tears, but she quickly wiped them away. She caught my sympathetic glance and looked away.
"What?" She snapped.
"You don't have to act strong around me, Lucy. I know you're strong..." I started. She kept her head stubbornly turned away. I went on. "And you wanna know something?" I asked. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. I grinned. "I know that this must hurt like hell, and if you wanna cry, I really don't blame you."
As soon as I finished my sentence, her face crumpled. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she silently cried. I added a new layer of ice to her ankle and moved up to sit beside her. My hand moved towards her shoulders, but I hesitated. Would she let me? I didn't want to push her.
I mentally shook my head. I couldn't just wait around any longer. She was in pain, in more ways than one, and she needed comfort. And if she rejected it, fine. But if I didn't try, I'd be the biggest jerk in the world.
I slipped my arm around her shoulders and pressed her to my side. She didn't protest. Instead, she leaned her head on my shoulder and hugged me. I blushed a bit, reminded myself that it wasn't the time to get flustered, and touched her hand with my free hand.
She sighed. "I'm sorry, Gray. I want to... I want to apologize for what I've done." She whispered.
My head snapped towards her. "What?! What do you have to apologize for!? I was a-"
"You were an asshole, yeah, but I was awful too. I shouldn't have run away. Then, I shouldn't have hidden my identity from you. Or Kasumi. I should have at least contacted you to tell you that you had a fucking kid!" She sobbed. I squeezed her tighter and she continued.
"I'm done with it, Gray. I'm sorry! I'm sorry..." She wailed. I ruffled her hair and smiled softly at her when she looked up.
"Hey. I'm not mad. I think you were scared. Don't smack me for that, please." I added quickly. She gave me a watery laugh and leaned up to me.
"I'm not gonna smack you." She murmured. I blinked as she moved up towards my face and pressed her lips gently against my cheek. My face burned, and I knew I was turning red. She snuggled her head into the crook of my neck and went silent. After a minute or two, I felt her breaths begin to even out and deepen, alerting me to the fact that she had fallen asleep.
I laughed softly and turned my head. I kissed the top of her head and moved into a more comfortable sitting position on the flat rock. Lucy stirred a bit, and I stopped moving, trying not to wake her up. She'd been using much more magic than I had, and she was running out of energy. And if we were going to get Kasumi back, we were going to need all the energy we would get.
I ruffled her hair and looked out at the sky. It was late afternoon, and there were beautiful, white clouds streaking across the sky in soft lines. I smiled. How long I'd wanted to sit with Lucy, just watching, just listening. And we had to spend our first moments in twelve years trying to find our kidnapped daughter.
I squinted as I caught sight of a different cloud- no, a plume. A plume of thick, black smoke was rising up from the ground. The treeline of the forest beneath us blocked out the source of the smoke, so I couldn't see it. I tensed up. I had a bad feeling about it, but I wouldn't wake Lucy and urge her to keep moving. I didn't want her to injure her ankle more, and she needed the sleep desperately.
So I waited.
.oOo.
"You should have woken me up!" Lucy grumbled as she picked her way across the rocky landscape.
My brow furrowed. "You needed to rest. Besides," I gasped as the rock I was standing on slipped a little, and I grabbed a stable rock to keep myself from falling. "now that it's night, it'll be safer... I think." I tried to reason.
Lucy snorted and looked back at me. The moon was full and bright, and I could see her annoyed expression. "Because common sense tells you that climbing down a mountain at night is much safer than climbing down a mountain in daytime... sure, Gray." Came the snide remark, before she turned around and started moving again.
I 'tsk'ed and jumped down to catch up to her. "It doesn't matter we're near the bottom anyways, it'll only be another couple minutes." I mumbled, pausing to catch my breath and to look down the slope. The forest was dark and unnervingly quiet. But we had to reach our destination, no matter what.
"Ah!" I was pulled out of my thoughts as Lucy cried out. She bent over and lifted her injured leg off the ground, holding onto a rock with one hand. I clenched my teeth and made my way over to her.
"Are you okay? Do you need to take a break?" I asked, placing my hand on her shoulder.
Lucy hesitated, then shook her head. Her blonde hair was dirty and tangled from the traveling, but her eyes were determined as she looked up and set her foot back down. "No... we need to keep going, we're running out of time to-" She sucked in a breath, and her eyes widened.
Alarm flared in my chest and I took her shoulders. I sat her down on the rock and looked into her eyes. "Lucy, what is it?" I said. Not taking my eyes off of her, I placed one of my hands on her ankle, putting another layer of ice on it, just to take care of it while we were stopped.
After a moment, she shakily raised a hand and placed it over her chest, right in the center. "H-here... I felt something... something... hurt..." Her eyes refocused. "It was Kasumi... I'm sure of it... I-I hadn't felt anything from her in a while, I just knew she wasn't dead, but this..." She gulped and looked down at her lap. "Something's... definitely different... it was just for a second, and then it just... left." She lifted her gaze to mine again. "What's happening to her?" She asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm sorry. We'll... we'll get there, I promise." I said. I turned around. "Here, get on my back."
"Huh? G-Gray, you can't carry me down this-"
"There's no other way, Lucy. I'm not letting you walk down this mountain any further with that ankle. Let it rest, or once we get to the bottom, you won't be able to go anywhere for a while, and we'll only get to Kasumi later." When there was no response, I looked over my shoulder at her. "She's my kid too, and I want to get to her as soon as I can... we won't be able to do that if you don't let me do this." I insisted.
Lucy bit her lip, then wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling herself up onto my back. I stood straighter and shifted her so that she was not going to fall, then began to make my way down the mountain. It was harder, having someone on my back, but in the end, it would make things faster. Besides, I felt that we needed to get to the source of the smoke. Something told me that it was related to all the other happenings.
God dammit...
When was this all going to end?!