Author's Note: Had one of those weeks were it wasn't that I didn't want to write...It's just that I didn't want to write this chapter, haha. Well, most of this chapter. The first bit I actually got done pretty early, but I struggled with the rest. One thing that definitely didn't help with writing was all the random fairy tail edits and gifs I've been doing X'D If you're interested, make sure you're either following my main tumblr (joliemariella) or the official tumblr for this fic (one-wish-fanfic) and go check them out!
Make sure to drop a review! They really do help me keep writing, and we're getting so close to the end now guys. Like, unless I wind up inserting more stuff than I currently have planned, there's definitely less than 10 chapters left!
One Wish
Chapter 35: Strangers in a Strange Land
"Where do I even begin?" Lucy asked absently as she braided her hair, the pale strands glittering between her lithe fingers as they caught the light of the coming dawn.
"You could just not," Gray responded flatly in hopes of shutting down what he knew was bound to be an uncomfortable line of dialogue.
The blonde paused in her work to look up at him, a sour smile twisting her wind chapped lips "Maybe, but apparently I need to," she said, arching a brow at him.
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, the ice mage gripped the handle of the rudder more tightly in his hand, his knuckles going white at the pressure "Look, Lucy, you don't-"
"Your objections are noted, now shut up and listen for a moment," the former celestial mage said with a sniff as she tied off her braid with a hairband from her pant pocket.
Gray huffed and opened his mouth to say something anyway, but was cut off by the woman at his side.
"You realize that we all love you, right?" Lucy asked, waving a hand to indicate herself and their friends "Everyone in the guild does. I mean, some more than others, and in different ways, but still, it's love," she said, expression and voice both earnest. The blonde watched him closely as she spoke, taking in the way his eyes flickered across their friends' sleeping forms, to her, and then back out across the water.
"Of course," he admitted finally as the silence stretched between them "But we're family, it's different," Gray insisted.
Lucy snorted, and countered "It's not different, though, don't you see?"
When the ice mage leveled a skeptical look at her, she rolled her eyes and said "Apparently not."
The former celestial mage frowned thoughtfully as she considered how to phrase the feelings in heart. How to make him understand how they all felt? That he was worthy of love, not just given it out of obligation.
"You're right, Gray," Lucy said after a time "The guild is a family," the ice mage looked triumphant for a moment, but it was short lived as his friend pressed on "and yet it's not like a normal family, either. In a normal family, a family you're born into, you're bound by ties of blood to those people. No matter how much you may come to hate them over the years, or how they might betray you...in a painful, twisty kind of way, you'll still love them."
Gray looked at the woman sharply when he heard the pained tone of her voice, giving up on his attempted tactic of ignoring her in hopes that she'd stop talking. The blonde was fiddling idly with the end of her braid as she stared out across the waves with a frown on her pale features.
Instinctively, he knew she was speaking of her father.
"Lucy," he began, then stopped, unsure of what to say. He'd lost his parents so very young that, though he hated to admit it, even to himself, he barely remembered what they had looked like anymore. To his shame, his mother's face had long since been replaced by Ul's, and his father had faded into a few key details that had been too firmly impressed in his memories to forget. His waking mind clung to them like the unraveling threads of a tapestry that had been his childhood. Broad shoulders, dark hair, and large, scarred hands that he realized his own were slowly coming to resemble as the years passed, he remembered clear as day. He also remembered sitting on his father's shoulders as they walked through the market and feeling impossibly tall...
Gray wondered how much Lucy remembered of her own mother, knowing that she had lost her at about the same age that he had his own. Had her mother's face faded from her memories over the years as well? Or, lacking the maternal substitute he had found in Ul, had she been better able to hold on to those memories? Then again, Lucy had grown up wealthy, and no doubt been surrounded by portraits of her lost loved one...but a picture was cold comfort to a mourning family.
The loss of her father was more recent than his own, and the fact that he had died during the seven years they had slept on Tenrou Island was heart breaking. That father and daughter had been permanently parted before they could reconcile when both had so obviously wanted to was nothing short of a tragedy.
Unsure of what else to do, Gray reached out, hesitating only briefly before resting one hand on his friend's shoulder. He knew he couldn't ease her sense of loss, just as no one could possibly do the same for him, but knowing that someone you cared about understood went a long way towards helping sometimes.
She offered him a weak smile of gratitude at the gesture, and placed her warm hand over his cold one while she took a moment to collect herself.
When she had, Lucy cleared her throat and said "Anyways, the point is that you can't choose the family that you're born into. But," and she paused here, tilting her head to catch her friend's eye before continuing "you didchoose us, Gray. More importantly in this case, though, we chose you. We were all strangers to each other at some point, and we didn't owe each other a thing; certainly not love."
Lucy smiled then, and it wasn't weak this time, but warm as the summer sun and seeming to emanate from every fiber of her being. Gray stared at her as the woman turned her benevolent, loving gaze out across the boat to where their friends still slumbered a few feet away. He watched as her eyes turned briefly fierce, and her magic flared unconsciously, lighting the fading darkness like a star. Somehow, the ice mage knew she was thinking of the lengths she would go to to protect the people she had come to love so dearly.
The ferocity faded, as did the light and aura of magic, seemingly without her having even noticed its arrival. She smiled at him again, more gently this time, before speaking once more "You're a person worth loving, Gray. Don't close someone out just because you can't see the reason why at the moment."
The ice mage lowered his eyes, unable to face the depth of emotion in hers at that moment. Feeling more at sea emotionally than he did physically, Gray was quiet for a long minute before finally asking in a quiet, hesitant voice "What...what are the reasons?"
A chuckle escaped Lucy, prompting the man to look at her once more as she said "You tell me, Gray Fullbuster."
He scowled at her, confused, and a little hurt "Did we have two different conversations just now or something?" he grumbled, pointedly turning his attention back to steering the boat.
"No," Lucy replied, voice quiet, but emphatic as she placed a hand over his where it rested on the rudder "But the whole point here is that you need to come to recognize your own good traits, instead of just focusing on your weaknesses. It won't really help if I just tell you," she said, a small, sympathetic smile tugging at her lips.
Gray relaxed a little at her words as his friend gently withdrew her hand again. He hummed indecisively to himself as he struggled internally against years worth of emotional baggage in an effort to do as Lucy asked.
"You don't have to answer now," the blonde told him as he glanced at her, watching as she fought back a yawn "Just...give it some thought, you know?"
"You should get some more sleep," he said quietly "Don't want to leave that lot to freeze."
Lucy glanced at the pile of their friends, and snorted with amusement at the thought before turning back to Gray "What about you? I can wake one of the others, have them take over for awhile so you can sleep too."
The ice mage shook his head "I'll be fine. Get going," he said, jerking his head towards the others.
She hesitated, but another yawn had her flashing an alarming amount of fang, and the woman was forced to resign herself to risking more nightmares.
"Alright," she acquiesced "Make sure you wake someone if you feel yourself getting too tired, though," Lucy said firmly as she got to her feet and poked him in the shoulder "You won't be doing anyone any favors if you sail us back to Magnolia in your sleep," she teased.
"Yeah, yeah, got it," the man huffed good-humoredly, swatting at her hand absently as she grinned at him, then went back to make herself comfortable amongst their friends once more.
When the quiet returned with her absence, Gray wondered how Lucy thought he could possibly fall asleep when their conversation had left him such a riot of emotions.
It was the evening of their fifth day out of Magnolia that their little rag-tag group finally made landfall in Telmare.
Lucy, who had been napping, woke to the sound of ice grinding across stone as strong arms lifted her from the bottom of the boat and carried her ashore.
Blinking blearily in an attempt to clear the sleep from her eyes, the blonde yawned and glanced around, asking "Oh thank the gods, we made it?"
"Looks like," Natsu replied as he hiked up the beach a little ways to get them clear of the water's reach before gently placing her on her feet.
Taking a moment to relish the feeling of solid ground under her boots after so many days at sea, Lucy turned and planted a grateful kiss on Natsu's cheek. She smiled up at him, but was surprised when she was met by a thoughtful frown.
"What's wrong?" she asked, immediately worried.
"You're still having trouble with that nightmare, aren't you?" he asked, expression uncharacteristically grim as he watched her, paying no attention to their companions as everyone disembarked and made their way up the beach.
"I...yeah," she admitted with a grimace as she ran her pale fingers through her wind tangled hair. Lucy looked up at him and gave him a reassuring smile "Don't worry so much, they're just dreams," she insisted "I'm fine."
Natsu's frown remained stubbornly in place despite her words, though, and he asked "You still don't remember anything about them?"
"No," Lucy said and lowered her eyes. It was a bit of a white lie, and lying to him was something that she hated to do, but it was for Natsu's sake. What good would it do to plague him with knowledge of the horrors that had haunted her sleep the last three days? Every time she woke, she remembered more and more of of the scenes that filled her nightmares.
The former dragon slayer watched his girlfriend closely, a skeptical look on his face as she continued to refuse to meet his eyes. He was distracted from asking further questions, though by Happy's arrival.
"Natsu, Lucy! Gajeel and Lily found a stream! We're going to follow it a little ways inland and camp for the night," the blue exceed said as he landed on Natsu's shoulder.
"Good idea," Lucy said, jumping at the opportunity to turn the tide of conversation away from herself "Camping on this beach would be miserable," she added as an afterthought as she took a good look around.
The shoreline they had landed on was not a friendly one that a person would visit for a swim on a hot summer's day. In fact, though it was summer back in Fiore, here in Telmare, significantly further north as they were, it was still early spring. There was a chill to the air that she hadn't felt for weeks back home.
The beach itself was made of pale, round stones, worn smooth by time and the relentless rise and fall of the tide. It was a fairly narrow strip, and as she looked into the distance, Lucy realized that Gray had landed them in a narrow cove surrounded by high, rocky outcroppings, and backed by a thick, dark, evergreen forest. She took a deep breath, inhaling the sharp scent of pine, decomposing undergrowth, and the clash of salt and fresh water.
"Well, come on, we'd better go help," Natsu said, apparently giving up on his inquisition for the time being. He offered Lucy his hand, which she accepted happily, relieved that he had decided to let the subject drop, and they all walked up the beach to help Gray dismantle their boat.
By the time dark began to fall in earnest, the group had found a small clearing in the dense forest close to the stream they had followed up from the beach to camp in. Erza had quickly assigned jobs for everyone in an attempt to make their temporary stay as comfortable as possible. Gajeel and Lucy were sent for firewood, while Wendy and Carla went to search for any edible plants they might be able to find. Gray, Juvia, and the other exceeds went back to the stream in hopes of catching some fish. Erza and Natsu, meanwhile, stayed behind in the clearing to cobble together a shelter using spruce-boughs and scavenged pieces of their ship. Gray offered to simply make them an igloo, but after spending one night sleeping on ice, no one but he and Juvia were very keen on repeating the experience.
Lucy and Gajeel headed off into the forest together, leaving Natsu and Erza to squabble over the best way to construct a lean-to behind them.
"If they have anything built at all by the time we get back, it'll be a damn miracle," the iron dragon slayer grumbled aloud as he stooped and grabbed up a dry looking branch from the ground.
Lucy giggled quietly "That or we'll end up with two completely different shelters to choose from for the night," she mused, doing the same.
The pair worked in quiet for a time, footsteps muffled by the thick layer of pine needles that coated the uneven ground. They didn't stray far from one another, wary of their unfamiliar surroundings as they were. Lucy was just considering whether it was worth the effort of using magic to cut up a hefty looking log when she sense someone directly behind her.
"Hey," Gajeel said, just as she jumped and spun in alarm, arms going up to defend herself automatically, gathered branches tumbling to her feet.
The iron dragon slayer's studded brows went up at the display, and Lucy blushed, quickly dropping her arms and bending to pick up her firewood once more "Sorry, you surprised me," she said, frowning up at him in disapproval.
The dark haired man just grunted, and no doubt would have crossed his arms over his chest if it weren't for the fact that they were currently full of branches.
Gajeel was quiet for a moment as he opened his mouth to say something, then hesitated.
"What's up?" Lucy asked, her own brows going up now as she watched him shift his weight from one foot to the other.
"Are you okay?" he asked finally, crimson eyes flicking to her face, and then away again as he spoke.
"What?" the blonde asked, confused "Yeah, you just surprised me, is all-" she began, only to be cut off by Gajeel's dissatisfied huff.
"No," he growled "are you okay," he asked again, his gaze meeting hers once more, and lingering this time, to drive the point home. Before she could answer, though, he interrupted before she could spin him a white lie like she had Natsu "Lucy, we've all noticed the nightmares, so don't bother denying it. It's not normal, and we all know it. The others won't say anything, what with flame-breath already bloody mother-henning you, but that doesn't mean we're not…worried."
Lucy stared up at the man, wide-eyed with surprise at the admission. He flushed under her regard and tore his eyes from hers again, and staring at a point past her left ear to save himself further embarrassment.
"I-" Lucy began, then swallowed hard at the emotion that unexpectedly welled up within her. Had she really been so obvious? Or were her friends just that observant? Whatever it was, the fact that they were all so concerned for her touched Lucy's heart, and it was all she could do to give Gajeel a watery smile as her eyes threatened tears.
The man blanched at her expression and said "Hell, I didn't mean to make you cry," as he shifted his burden and patted himself down with one hand for something to offer her to wipe her eyes with. Unfortunately, he came up empty handed.
"Don't worry about it," Lucy said hurriedly, dabbing at the corner of her eyes with the sleeve of her coat and waving off his concern "It just...means a lot to me that you guys noticed, I guess."
Gajeel gave her a confused look "Of course we noticed. We were all stuck on a tiny ass boat with you; how could we not notice?"
The blonde laughed, in control of her emotions once more "Well, yeah, but you noticed enough to say something, and I appreciate that," she said with a smile before continuing "Anyways, it's just bad dreams...probably from stress or something. I'm sure they'll stop soon."
As Lucy bit her lower lip, brow furrowing slightly at the brief thought of her nightmares not, stopping, Gajeel watched her closely, then grunted.
"Yeah, well, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it," he said gruffly as he turned away and grabbed up another branch "Dunno what any of us could do, but maybe talking would help or some psycho-babble shit like that."
Lucy smiled at her friend's broad back as he worked before turning back to her own "Thanks, Gajeel."
The man simply snorted and said "Hurry up, the sun's almost gone now."
"Not scared of a little dark, are you, Gajeel?" the blonde asked teasingly as she gathered up a few more branches.
"Oh shut up and give us some light, will you?" he replied grumpily as they began walking back to camp.
In the end, Erza and Natsu were finally able to compromise on a build for their lean-to; Gray's group managed to catch more than enough fish, and Wendy and Carla found a few spring vegetables to augment their meal.
After dinner, a half-hearted attempt was made at making a plan for the next day, but tired from so many days at sea as they were, everyone turned in early without coming to a decision. Erza insisted on setting up a watch rotation for the night before they did, though, and Lucy volunteered to go first.
She promised to wake someone when she began to get tired, but never did. Instead, she spent the night staring up at familiar constellations in unfamiliar quadrants of the sky. Watching the fire had proved too reminiscent of her nightmares. The thing she remembered most clearly was fire, heavy, ash choked air, and Natsu's dead, gray eyes.
No, better to watch the stars and allow their clean, white light to sear away the fear that lurked in her heart. More than once, she wished that she could hear their song, but Lucy found the quiet rhythm of her companions breathing and occasional snore an adequate substitute.
As dawn slowly washed away the starlight with its gentle glow, the blonde set about stoking the fire back to life, then went to find Natsu from amongst the pile of bodies in the shelter.
Finding that the man had somehow wound up at the edge of the group, one elbow in Gajeel's face, and his legs thrown over Erza's, Lucy had to fight back a giggle.
"Natsu, wake up," she said quietly as she crouched beside him and gently shook his shoulder. When that did little more than make him grumble, the blonde leaned in and pressed a light kiss to his lips.
His mouth moved automatically against hers, making Lucy smile as she pulled away. The man's eyes fluttered open sleepily and he muttered "Hey, come back" and pulled her in for another kiss, deeper this time. Judging by the way Natsu's hands began to rove, Lucy got the definite impression that he was rapidly moving towards being fully awake.
"If you're doing what I think you're doing, then fucking stop it right now," Gajeel growled, making them both freeze guiltily "And get your goddamn elbow out of my face."
"Good morning to you too," Natsu said with a grin as he released his hold on Lucy and pushed himself upright, making sure to clip the other man in the nose with his offending limb.
The iron dragon slayer swore and pushed himself upright, sending Juvia rolling in the process "Alright, asshole, lets go!"
"Will you both shut up," came a disgruntled voice from the depths of the lean-to, followed by a hand from the shadows that delivered a sharp smack to the back of both of their heads.
Natsu yelped and rolled away as Erza sat up and stared darkly at the both of them, making Gajeel edge away warily.
"Either one of you will get me some tea, or both of you be very, very, quiet for the rest of the morning, do you understand?" the requip mage demanded in a flat tone that frightened everyone into nodding hurriedly, whether they had said anything yet or not.
Seeing as there was no tea to be had, the group did, in fact, remain very quiet for the rest of the morning to give Erza a chance to wake up and return to her normal, calm, pleasant self.
In the mean time, they hiked through the forest with little more than the clothes on their backs in the direction of the Telmaran capital, Starholm. At least, they hiked in the direction they guessed Starholm lay in. Gray had done his best, with Lucy's assistance, of navigating by the stars in the direction they had been headed when they set out from Magnolia, but both suspected that they had had been carried some distance south of their goal by the powerful ocean currents.
They did, at least, know that they were heading towards a town of some sort, as after a brief climb up the nearest tall tree, Gajeel and Lucy both were able to catch scent of a sizable human settlement when the wind turned in their favor.
Tempers were getting short by the time the sun was beginning its descent once more, but were relieved as soon as they topped a rise that overlooked a broad valley.
"Oh thank goodness," Lucy said, heaving a sigh as she took in the welcome sight of the vast city that filled the valley from mountain's base, to sea's shore in the distance.
"Hello bed and dinner!" Natsu cheered beside her, doing a brief dance with Happy before grabbing Lucy around the waist and swinging her about in his delight, startling a laugh from the woman.
"I'm happy to finally see civilization," Carla said "But is it Starholm, or some other city?"
"Good question," Gajeel said with a frown before shrugging and saying "Only one way to find out, though."
"True enough," Erza agreed with a small smile up at the man before glancing around at their group thoughtfully "Before we go down, though, I think it would be best if we broke up into groups."
"What? Why?" Juvia asking, giving voice to the startled question on all their minds as they turned to look at the redhead.
"A large group of strangers stumbling in from the woods might attract unwanted attention," Erza pointed out "It's a big city, so we might not...but considering this is a covert mission, it's best not to take any unnecessary risks."
"Good point," Lily agreed, then glanced at Carla and Happy before adding "It would probably be best if the three of us stayed out of sight as well."
"What? But I wanna see the city too!" Happy complained from his perch on Lucy's shoulder.
"No, Lily's right," Carla interrupted "We don't know if any exceeds have migrated to this continent…if they haven't, then we're sure to attract attention," she explained "A group of humans wandering in from the edge of town might go unnoticed, but a bunch of humans accompanied by three flying cats the likes of which no one here has ever seen before…"
"Alright, alright, I get it," Happy huffed, cowed by Carla's logic.
"Sorry, Happy. You can hide with me, if you like," Lucy said with a sympathetic smile as she reached up and stroked his ears.
"Okay," the little exceed agreed "But how? You don't have a bag anymore."
It took a little ingenuity, but in the end, they managed to hide all three exceeds well enough that no one would spot them at a glance.
Happy curled up around Lucy's neck under her hair, and the blonde pulled up the hood of her coat on top of that, effectively blocking him from view. Gajeel proceeded to do the same for Lily, though given the volume of his hair, he hardly needed to use his hood, and Natsu (reluctantly) loaned Erza his scarf so she could secret Carla into the city. The redhead's coat had no hood, but with the scarf, and her long hair, they managed to successfully hide the white exceed from sight. Wendy had tried to insist on carrying her friend, but thanks to her small stature, she was unable to pull off the look without looking decidedly strange.
The necessary members of their party hidden, the group partnered up: Natsu and Lucy, Gajeel and Erza, and Gray with Juvia and her 'little sister' Wendy. They all agreed to let Gajeel and Erza take the lead, while the rest would follow at a distance until they were able to find an inn.
"Juvia hates to interrupt," the water mage said, flushing delicately when all eyes turned to her "But how are we to pay for rooms at the inn? All of Juvia's money was lost with the rest of her things on the ship…"
Gajeel slapped his own forehead as the magnitude of this obvious, previously unconsidered, problem struck not only him, but everyone else as well.
"Shit, she's right," Gray swore, frowning at this unexpected obstacle "Does anyone have any money? I know I sure as hell don't."
Everyone proceeded to pat themselves down in hopes of finding some here-to-fore forgotten funds. Lucy found a few jewel in one pocket of her pants, left there from before they had set out days before, and Gajeel produced a fistful of coins. To everyone's surprise, Happy's rummage through his little satchel produced a fairly large bill that smelled of fish and had a few holes poked in it from the wishing star. He caught Lucy's eye from where he had pushed his way out from among her hair, and suggested, through a subtle tilt of the head, that they might use the star to solve their problem.
The blonde quickly shut down this idea, though, with a head shake of her own. This was a problem, but it would be best to save their ace for a more dire need than mere money.
Everyone else came up with nothing, until an idea occurred to Erza.
"I wonder," she muttered, then, with a flash, requipped into another outfit not at all suited to the cool weather. Still, from within its pockets, a few jewel were produced, encouraging her to go through her vast inventory of clothing and armor until, eventually, they were left with a sizable sum of cash.
"Damn, Erza, what were you stashing all this for?" Natsu asked, eyebrows raised as he struggled not to laugh.
"It's just spare change I forget about, honestly," the redhead replied with a rueful smile as she glanced up from counting their funds.
"Good thing, too," Wendy added with a chuckle.
"Indeed. This should be more than enough, in any case, but we'll have to go find a money changer. I doubt they'll accept Fioren jewel at your average Telmaran inn," Erza said with a grimace.
Natsu tsked at this additional task they would have to complete and said "Such a pain. Why didn't Gramps and the princess send us with any money? We're trying to be all sneaky and shit, but that money is still gonna be traceable back to us if anyone thinks to look."
"They did," Gajeel answered with a snort "Problem is, it all wound up at the bottom of the damn ocean with everything else."
"You should have thought to grab it when that storm came up!" Natsu huffed.
"How was I supposed to know a goddamn wyvern was gonna show up and sink the damn boat?" the iron dragon slayer snarled as he rounded on Natsu, red eyes flashing.
Before her boyfriend could reply, Lucy stepped between them and said "Hey, it's no one's fault, you guys. Stuff happened, and we all survived. That's what's important here. We'll make do."
Both men shifted restlessly, then backed down, resolutely refusing to look at one another.
"Come on, lets get down there before all the shops start to close," Erza said into the awkward silence that fell over the group "We'll all be the better for some hot food and a good night's sleep in a proper bed."
"Juvia is so excited she could cry," the bluenette admitted, only half-joking as her words succeeded in breaking the tension and drawing a smile to everyone's face.
"I can't wait to wash this salt out of my hair," Wendy agreed as they started down the hill towards the city.
It took longer than any of them liked, but they eventually found a shopkeeper in the market that would change their money for local tender without asking too many questions.
While Erza and Gajeel negotiated a good rate, the rest of them, still in their assigned groups, browsed the stalls nearby, pretending not to know one another, while still subtly keeping an eye on their friends.
Lucy, with Happy still in her hood and Natsu at her side, lingered by a stall selling a variety of jewelry. The former slayer wasn't much interested, but he feigned it for the sake of the shop keeper not shooing them off to make way for more earnest customers. Their position gave them a good view of Erza and Gajeel, so they were reluctant to move along lest they lose track of their friends in the crowd.
Lucy didn't have to fake an interest in the pieces, in any case. They were all quite lovely, everything seeming to fall under a star theme in one way or another. Perhaps, when this was all over with, if they had any money left over she could come back and get something as a souvenir. How many people could say they had been all the way to the Western continent, after all?
A peculiar scent tickled the woman's nose, making her sniff, and then sneeze into her elbow.
"Gross," Natsu teased, glancing at her with a teasing grin as he picked up a glittering ring that Lucy's subconscious tried to tell her was vaguely familiar in some way.
"Oh shut up," she said with a snort as the scent wafted past again on the breeze, dragging her attention from the ring, to the crowd around them.
Now that she was paying attention to it, she pinned down the frangrance as a mix of cloves and tobacco smoke.
As soon as she had identified it, Lucy decided the scent was unimportant. They were at an outside market, after all, someone was bound to be smoking. Just as she was turning her attention back to the jewelry display, though, a figure caught her eye and drew her gaze.
There was nothing particularly interesting about the man standing across the road, tucked between two stalls and leaning casually against a pile of crates. He was on the short side, tan, with dark, wild hair, and an unshaven face. He wore a wide brimmed hat and a long coat to ward off the cold drizzle that had started to fall an hour before, and he held a cigarette between two fingers down by his side.
What was interesting about him, though, was they way he was looking at Natsu.
Alarmed, Lucy turned to the man at her side and grabbed him by the arm, forcing him to shift position so his back was now to the strange man.
"Put your hood up," she told him under her breath so only he could hear.
"What? Why? It's dry under here," Natsu replied, glancing up at the overhang that was, indeed, keeping the rain off of them as they browsed.
"There's a man staring at you from across the street."
Frowning, the rose haired mage turned to look "Huh? So what?"
"Don't be so obvious!" Lucy hissed, dragging on his arm so he'd turn back around again "And so, he was staring at you like he'd seen a ghost or something," she continued when she had his attention once more.
"Who was it? No one's looking now," he asked, and Lucy glared up at him when she realized he'd gone back to searching the crowd for his stalker. At least he was being more circumspect about it this time, and had pulled his hood up to cover his distinctively colored hair.
"He's standing between the two stalls directly behind me. Shortish, wearing a long dark coat and a hat. Smoking a cigarette."
The former slayer hummed thoughtfully, then said "No one there now."
Now it was Lucy's turn to look, though she did so carefully, slipping her arm through Natsu's and leading them away from the stall so she could get a good look at their surroundings.
Just like her boyfriend had said, though, there was no one there now, nor was the stranger anywhere to be seen. There one second, gone the next. Perhaps he had realized he'd been caught, and run off as soon as her back was turned?
Lucy lifted her nose to the air, but the scent of his clove cigarette was already gone, as though it had never been there at all.
Author's Note: Lol so it's funny. I was originally not going to write the dialogue for Lucy and Gray's discussion, just pan over to someone else watching them have it, but be unable to hear it. Then I kept getting reviews for last chapter from everyone saying how much they were looking forward to it, so I changed my mind and wrote it after all X'D I just couldn't disappoint you guys in the end, lol. Hope you liked it! Make sure to leave a review in any case!