Chapter Twenty-Eight:
He didn't come in for dinner, but thanks to Mavis, she expected that.
He also wasn't there when she finally gave up and went to bed.
In the morning when she woke, the sun was already over the horizon and she had missed a good hour of her training because Laxus hadn't woken her in the semi-darkness. She chose one of their normal morning routines to do, expecting to see him at lunch and get a scolding for being so dependent on him, but he wasn't there either.
Lucy started asking Horologium to wake her in the mornings, and Virgo would join her for morning workouts. From occasional things the maid spirit mentioned, Lucy could tell that Capricorn and Loke were planning her schedule, with Loke structuring the morning and Capricorn the afternoon. She occasionally wished that she hadn't messed up her relationship with Loke so that he would join her in the mornings. Virgo was a good friend and one of her strongest spirits, but it wasn't the same as having her Fairy Tail nakama around. Other than Mavis and Tenrou, Loke was her last tie to Fairy Tail.
Mavis began joining her in the evenings, and Lucy noticed that she was watching her training, because every time she sparred with her spirits, Mavis would hold a strategy discussion that evening. Her illusion magic came in handy as she turned the tabletop into an exact replica of the clearing or wherever Capricorn had her fighting. Now that he was focusing on melee strategies, she fought on varied terrain once she had mastered whatever he was teaching in the clearing. She found herself working mainly with Taurus, who was the biggest spirit she had, working on disabling and disarming.
Taurus was not the only spirit she summoned though. Cancer worked with her for a week to fine-tune her agility. She partnered with Gemini who would randomly transform into one of her former guild mates, although it wasn't like fighting with the true person. Once or twice Loke worked with her on basic melee techniques that Taurus didn't feel comfortable teaching, but she rarely saw him. Lucy understood though. What she had said to him was not something that a simple I'm sorry could fix. She would wait for him and follow his cues.
Mavis waited until Lucy fell asleep before she let her cheerful mask fade away. It had been six weeks since their spar, and Laxus hadn't returned. The First Master had tried to replace Laxus's presence, and she knew that Lucy's spirits were trying as well, but a ghost and celestial beings weren't substitutes for true human interaction.
A golden glow appeared across from her, signaling the arrival of one of Lucy's spirits. When it disappeared, she saw Loke sitting where Lucy had been before. As if she was expecting it, which in a way she had, the First said: "She misses you, you know."
"She misses a lot of people," the lion said lowly, looking at his hands. "Natsu, Erza, Grey, Wendy, Happy, Charle, Mira, Levy, Cana…even Laxus, Bixslow, Evergreen, and Freed. I'm just one of many."
"The days when you've come out to work with her, those are the days she's smiled the most." Mavis commented idly, watching his reaction. "In the mornings, when she comes down and sees Virgo waiting for her, she seems to always be hoping it is someone else, although I don't know if it's you or Laxus she's hoping for."
Loke growled. "She should just ignore him. He's obviously not too attached, despite his talk of wanting to be the next master." His hands briefly gripped the surface of the table so hard that his knuckles turned white before he let go and folded them in his lap.
Raising her eyebrows at his little display of temper, Mavis said: "He has his own demons to deal with, although I am disappointed in the way he has chosen to deal with them." She sighed. "Those two idiots can't realize that they need each other and are just making it harder for themselves."
"You're as bad as Mira," Loke said offhand, glancing up towards the room where Lucy slept. "If she was here, she'd squeal something about blonde haired children."
Mavis rolled her eyes. "He said that too. But what neither of you seem to realize is that what I'm talking about is the two of them healing each other, not falling in love with each other. However, if they do fall in love, I'm not going to stand in their way. If that's what they want, why should I tell them anything different?"
"Laxus hasn't been serious about a girl in his life," Loke said shortly. "She cares too much to be a play toy. You better hope that they don't fall in love, because if they do, she's going to be hurt again. I would guess you don't want that on your conscious."
She looked at him. "And you've been serious about a girl?"
"Just the one," he said softly, glancing up again at Lucy's door. "But we'll never work out. So I'll gladly serve her while I can, and remember her when she's moved on."
"Is it against the laws for a spirit to be involved with his master?" Mavis asked curiously. "We don't have too much information about the rules that govern your matters."
"It's not against the law," he said quietly. "But it's not a romantic love, at least not for me. She's my queen, and I will serve her without pause for the rest of my existence. The worst fate I could suffer would be to be removed from her side. I came so close to it, and it frightened me beyond belief. Part of me is still afraid that if I let myself go back to the place I had been before…before Tartarus, it will turn out to be just a dream and I'll have everything nearly snatched away from me again. If that happened…I don't know if I would be able to cope next time."
"Trusting your entire being to another person is a scary thing," Mavis murmured softly, not really looking at the lion in front of her. "Sometimes you get hurt. But nobody can make you trust again but yourself. And sometimes, trusting the other person is worth the risk of losing it all."
"What would you do Master?" he said suddenly, drawing her attention back to him. "Please, I want your advice."
Shaking her head, Mavis said gently: "I'm not your Master, even though you still bear your guild stamp. Lucy is, if you'll have her. And you have to decide for yourself how you want to move forward, or if you want to stay motionless in the same place. But remember, she's still suffering too. From what I can tell, she truly regrets what she said, and is giving you the space you need. While she wants you to come back, she won't want you to come back only to be unhappy. You are very lucky to have contracted with her. She would do what makes her spirits happiest, even if it hurts her."
Before Loke could say anything, the crackle of lightning was heard outside and the door opened moments later. Laxus stood there, his bag in his hands and a faint crop of blonde stubble on his cheeks. He looked at the pair at the table before heading up the stairs.
Mavis watched Loke struggle to decide what he was going to do. She saw anger, rage, fear, sadness, happiness, and confusion dance across the lion's face, and she wondered how much of it he was aware of. Certainly not all of it.
"Laxus?" came a sleepy voice from overhead, causing the spirit and the ghost to freeze. They couldn't see what Laxus was doing, but they heard Lucy's door opening. "Is that you?"
He sighed. "Yes, it's me. Go back to bed blondie."
"I'm glad," she murmured as the door closed behind her. "I missed you."
Only when they heard his door shut did Mavis and Loke feel comfortable resuming their conversation. "I'm surprised she woke up," Loke said, his voice soft. "He was pretty quiet about returning."
"She's been sleeping lightly since he left," Mavis said. "But you should probably get back to the Spirit Realm before she wakes up enough to wonder why she can feel you here. Unless of course, you want to talk with her."
"Thanks for talking with me Master," he said as the glow enveloped him once more. "And thanks for taking care of her."
"Think about what I said."
"I will."
