Chapter 32

Lyon surveyed his council room from his throne of ice. A few days earlier, it gave him a feeling of power. All these people were helping him so that he could kill the monster. They supported him, and believed in him.

Now, it felt like he was a fugitive in the witness box. You see, he was going to explain how Deliora was not going to be killed.

"So", he started, "I met Deliora's parents."

Murmurs started breaking out throughout the room. One man asked, "My Lord, do you need our help in holding them off while you battle the beast?"

Lyon snorted. "Well, one of them has the superpowered magic called Mother's Love that was enough to defeat Voldemort in Harry Potter, the father could kill us all with a thought, and no, that is not an exaggeration, the uncle could vaporize us all with pure firepower and/or suck us dry of all our blood, the uncle's friend, who used to be my classmate, uses the same magic as me and is a lot scarier, and they also have another demon with them. Oh, and a cat. So, if we try that, we are all dead."

"Then what are we going to do, my liege?" asked a short man who apparently had control over a lost magic, the Arc of Time.

Lyon smiled brightly. "We're going to resurrect Ur!"

The time wizard immediately broke out into a coughing fit. Lyon generously handed him a glass. Yes, it was empty, and made of ice, but it was a glass, nonetheless. And ice was just another form of water, wasn't it?

On the other end of the island, Gray realized that his being late didn't matter, because there was nothing to be late for. Deliora would take just as much time to unfreeze as it- he would have even if Gray had been absent.

Natsu and Lucy were… somewhere. Erza was on the boat with her friends, and had politely suggested that he could leave and let them catch up. Or kiss. Probably kiss. And Zeref and Mavis, well, he was just trying not to look at what they were doing- wait, how? Was that even anatomically possible- HE WAS LOOKING AWAY. They had no sense of privacy! And what they were doing shouldn't be physically possible!

Mavis giggled as she ate another grape using her elbow. Accepting the unspoken challenge, Zeref maneuvered his grape from behind his ear to his mouth with a combination of facial muscles and gravity. Everything was possible with practice, and Zeref had had centuries of it.

Suddenly, they heard an explosion.

A minute ago, Natsu and Lucy had been sitting side-by-side, holding hands. Natsu had leaned in several times, but he still hadn't kissed her. Lucy was wondering whether it was on purpose or not.

Did she wasn't him to? Sure, she wanted him to kiss her, but anything more? Lucy didn't feel comfortable with anything more yet, which was why she had asked about mating seasons. She had read enough books about dragons and werewolves to know that mating seasons typically ended with, well, mating.

She trusted him, and knew he wouldn't try anything she didn't want. More accurately, she was genre-savvy enough to know it.

Lucy was lost in thought when they both heard an explosion from another part of the island.

A minute earlier, Jellal had been telling everyone exactly what had happened.

"And that's what happened. So, guys, Erza isn't evil, got it? And I, uh, I don't think I'm evil, but I don't know."

He looked uneasily at them. They looked at him with blank faces, betraying nothing.

Then they all, sans Erza, lunged at him, magic circles lighting up, with evil grins that told him they were going to enjoy this.

The resulting explosion could be heard for miles.

In the Bloody Fang guild, Beth was in Helena's room. As far as Helena could tell, it hadn't been a conscious decision on her part. Beth had just been scared by the sudden explosion and by the storm that followed, and had gone where she felt safe. Apparently, that was with her.

There was some more thunder, and Beth flinched slightly. Helena gave her a soft smile, and sat Beth down on the bed, her back to the pillows. Then she got in beside her, pulling her down softly so that they were both lying down.

"Do you want me to pull up the blanket?" she asked Beth. Helena herself wasn't that cold, but Beth looked like she needed it.

Beth nodded. Helena covered them both in the blanket and put an arm around Beth, who moved her head away from the pillow and rested it on Helena's shoulder.

They stayed still, just breathing for some time. The storm stopped after a while. Beth didn't move, and Helena surmised that she was planning to stay in her room.

"I wasn't really that scared, you know?"

Helena snorted a bit. Didn't Beth know that she didn't need to put up any show in front of her?

She smiled teasingly. "Yeah, I know. You just really wanted to sleep beside me." She was just a little surprised when Beth nodded. Playing with her impromptu roommate's hair, Helena fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, she was woken up by a squirming Beth, completely by accident.

"Are you having trouble sleeping?"

Beth gave a little start, not having realized that she had woken Helena up.

"Y-yes."

"Are you hungry?"

No, Beth was not hungry. She was just… confused. About everything. About her feelings.

"N-no."

The way being with Helena made her feel like a little kid. How Helena was so caring and kind and motherly. And sometimes Beth didn't know whether she had a crush or a mother-complex, and it would be weird if she had both, but she probably had both and she didn't understand much of it-

"Do you want to talk about something?"

Beth nodded.

"I-I think I like you."

Helena was the calmest person in the guild, who was never ruffled by anything, so she didn't show any outward indication of her hope, apart from a slight raising of her eyebrows. This could be a completely platonic declaration, in which case it would be followed by something like 'I trust you'. Or, it could be something non-platonic, in which case it would be followed by blushing and stuttering.

Beth blushed. "I-I mean, I t-trust you a lot, and I feel comfortable w-with you here."

Well, that fell quite neatly into both categories.

Helena was going to say something when Beth continued, "I-I'm just confused. Sometimes, I feel that way about you, but then sometimes, when you raise your eyebrows like that, or when you pull up the blanket, I feel like, I don't know, like I have a mother-complex? And I know it's weird, like very weird, but I still like you and I know you might not even be gay and I'm so weird and probably crazy-"

"Shh", she said, putting a finger on Beth's lips. That had been quite informative. "It's okay, you don't have a mother-complex. I care about you a lot, and that's the vibe you're getting, okay?"

Then she smirked. "And who wouldn't like you?" She tapped the bluenette's nose. "You're cute. You're shy, you blush easily, you're a perfect hajidere!"

"H-hajidere?"

Helena waved it off. "Never mind. The point is, I like you too, so you don't need to worry about it. Now go to sleep." Helena tilted her head. "Unless you want me to tell you a bedtime story?"

Beth squeaked in embarrassment and buried her head in Helena's chest. She mumbled out, "I can still sleep here, right?"

Helena laughed, and it was a soft laugh, like bells chiming.

"Of course. Unless you're planning to rob me of my innocence, that is."

Beth blushed even more and shrank further into Helena, arms around her neck. Resting her head, she closed her eyes.

She had no trouble falling asleep this time.