Author's Note: Hello, everyone! It's come to my attention that I've mistakenly been writing Lucy with blue eyes for some time now, a big mistake on my part! I've tried to go back and fix all the errors, but please alert me if I missed one! To the Anon who pointed it out... Thanks (although you didn't have to be so rude about it. I am human, y'know). Just a note to you all, if I do something wrong please correct me, but just be nice about it. I'm an airhead! ^.^"
Category: Mild Romantic Fluff, Friendship Fluff
Characters: Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser, Lyon Vastia
Requested By: Miss_Leechy (Ao3)
"For the last time, would you two please settle down?" Lucy groaned as she rubbed her temples in a pitiful attempt to stave off the headache that was hammering away in her tender skull. For the sixth time in the last twenty minutes, Gray and Lyon were standing up in the train seat tightly clutching the collars of each other's cloaks, glaring so intensely at one another that sparks jumped between their eyes like lightning bolts. Juvia was no help, sitting next to Lucy clamoring for her beloved Gray to pummel Lyon. This mission is going to be a nightmare, she groaned inwardly.
After the conclusion of the Grand Magic Games, life at Fairy Tail had gone back to full-swing, even more busy than before half of the guild had spent six years sheltered in the embrace of the Fairy Sphere. They were constantly being sent on missions, and because the plethora of jobs had the entire guild scattered across the far reaches of Fiore, sometimes they had to form… unorthodox teams. Natsu had been spirited away with Erza and Wendy to hunt some monster or another, leaving Lucy behind at the guild to mope about it- that is, until the Master had summoned herself and Gray to track down and subdue a particularly troublesome band of bandits targeting the peddlers who were traversing the mountain pass now that the snows had melted. He had informed them then that they would be joined by Lyon from Lamia Scale, as he had been monitoring the bandits' movements for some time. Once Juvia caught wind that her darling Gray was going on a mission with her "love rival," she wormed her way into the team… thus bringing them to their present predicament.
"Juvia, my dearest, please come back with me to Lamia Scale and be my bride~! I promise that I will give you everything under the sun and more," Lyon crooned while making heart eyes at the exceptionally disinterested Juvia. She pouted and pushed into Lucy, as if looking for protection. Despite Juvia's incessant fear that Lucy was her rival in love for Gray, they still had a very amicable friendship. Lucy wrapped her arms around Juvia's shoulders with a heavy sigh, not having the heart to tell her that the ice mage's clamor for her affections was not unlike her own groveling for Gray.
"I told you, you stupid bastard! She's not interested! Now will you let it go?" The aforementioned Fairy Tail ice wizard snapped while knocking Lyon upside his pale blue head. Lyon whined loudly and crouched down in the seat, nursing the lump peeking out between his scruffy strands of styled hair.
"Ah, Gray, you are defending me so eagerly~ Have you finally realized your love for Juvia?" the girl sighed dreamily as she clasped her hands together to gaze lovingly at the man. Gray's face turned a pretty shade of carnation pink.
"It's not like that! I'm just not gonna let this asshole cart off one of our best mages!" Though he was trying to prove to Juvia that their relationship was nothing but platonic, she heard only the compliment; a delighted trill spilled from her lips as she wriggled around on the train seat. Lucy could probably reach out and catch the little hearts that were blooming from her body. This is ridiculous, she thought, but mostly in amusement. She was quite used to the unending amount of antics that the various Fairy Tail mages produced, and this sordid love triangle was but one of the many on the list. The three mages continued their back-and-forth as the train clattered onward down the tracks with Lucy not saying much of anything at all. Finally, she decided to have a little fun of her own.
"Ahh, I'm sorry to interrupt your fervent love triangle, but I have to go to the bathroom, so could you let me by, please? Or have you all forgotten that I'm here?" she sighed with dramatic exasperation as she rose from her place beside the window. For good measure and playfulness, she painted an expression of fake sourness onto her features. She planned to just squeeze by them, honestly expecting that her little outburst wouldn't deter them in the slightest, but to her shock, they all suddenly fell into stunned silence and turned to stare at her with wide eyes. It was Lucy's turn for her face to take on a pink hue. "Erm, uh, thanks!" she squeaked before literally jumping out of the train booth to skitter down towards the restroom as fast as her feet could take her.
That was so awkward! She thought in mortification as she darted into the bathroom and all but slammed the door behind her. She hadn't meant to cause a scene; she had only been teasing, after all… Or had she? She walked over to the sink, and her melancholy expression betrayed the truth in her heart. On some level, it did bother her. She envied Juvia and Lyon, having someone that you were so desperately in love with that you were willing to declare it openly and fight for their affections. Lucy wasn't sure what love was. How would she ever know it if she ever felt it? Then, there was something about Gray's response to Lyon's outrageous proposals that just… unsettled her. He was so fervent about protecting Juvia. Why did she have the quiet, selfish wish that she was in her place…?
"Ugh! You're losing it, Lucy!" She whipped the knob on the sink, and cold water gushed forth from the faucet. She cupped some of the crystalline, clear liquid and splashed it onto her face, one, two, three times for good measure. Her cheeks stung with the brisk cold of the water, but it helped to cool the confusing fire in her mind. She was just tired from all their bickering; there was no way that she was really feeling absurd things like that…
"Lucy?" Gray's voice drifted through the door alongside a pair of light knocks. She hastily turned off the water and used the soft towel hanging by the mirror to quickly dry her face, then hurried to the door and opened it lest he think something was actually off. She prepared her best smile.
"Yeah?" He looked taken aback at her apparent cheerfulness, and stood there for a second to prepare a response. That pink shade returned to his face, a barely detectable hint of rose, and cast his gaze away while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Uh, I'm… Sorry about all that craziness in there. That got out of hand. You know we… I wouldn't just ignore you like that. You're a valuable member of the team and guild too." Lucy expected to feel the hot flush of guilt since her little prank had resulted in such remorse from him, but to her shame, she felt the cool trickle of relief flooding her system instead. Lucy smiled softly, genuinely, and reached out to gently place a hand on his upper arm. As her hand curled around the thick muscle of his biceps, she suddenly was acutely aware of its shape and form, making her blush that her mind would even sail to such things considering the atmosphere.
"It's okay, Gray," she said quickly after reigning in her thoughts. "I really shouldn't have said what I said. You three are just having fun."
"No, Lucy," he refused adamantly. Lucy blinked, surprised, then gasped as his hand suddenly flew to the back of her head to pull it forward such that their foreheads were touching. He was smirking confidently at her, a complete contrast to her bewildered, wide-eyed, blushing gape. "I'll promise you here and now. You aren't gonna feel left behind anymore on this mission." The cool, icy fires of his irises blazed into her comparably muted brown ones, dimming as the emotion welled up inside of her. She had been so insistently trying to bury those feelings so as not to upset him, but Gray had so effortlessly seen through her façade. Her face scrunched up as she felt tears actually welling up in her eyes, so moved by his concern for her. She managed to keep them in, though, and managed a quiet yet heartfelt, "Thanks, Gray."
The gravel of the mountain path crunched under Lucy's feet as she carefully traversed the terrain. The mountain pass wasn't altogether terrible, especially since the winter snows had melted fully and left the low-lying area blanketed in rich tall grasses and aromatic wildflowers blooming in pastels, but the incline was still steep and with the numerous pebbles still slicked with cold water lining the natural walkway, she had to take care not to slip. She had already busted her tail at the base of the path and given Gray a great shot up her skirt (and of course Juvia had been none too happy about that), and was not eager to repeat the event. She kept glancing down as she followed the other wizards up through the mountains. When she looked up, every so often she would find that Gray had trailed behind a little and was watching her, as if he were trying to be prepared if she fell again. The thought brought a hazy hue to her cheeks that mirrored the pink bell-shaped wildflowers growing amongst the grassy rubble.
In order to track down their mountain bandits, the team had decided to pose as merchants braving the pass. They had acquired knapsacks and wares from the hiring fabric seller who had been attacked by them. The packs were purely for aesthetic purposes and were filled with very cheap cloths. One wouldn't think that light fabric would be heavy, but apparently enough of it could weigh a considerable amount; Lucy kept having to adjust her pack as it dug deeply into her back to leave sore, red imprints into her skin, and the blistering heat generated by the friction of the heavy fabric rubbing against her clothes left her pouring with sweat. She didn't want to seem weak, though; no one else seemed to be having problems carrying the fake wares, and so she decided to keep quiet about it. Suffer through it. It builds character.
"Lucy?" Once again, Gray's gentle yet adamant calling of her name surprised her. She stopped in her tracks to look at him. He had decided meandering at a distance was no longer preferable, and had migrated right to her side. "You look tired. Do you need me to carry that for you for a while?"
"No, no, no, of course not!" she refused vehemently while waving her arms about. The rapid motions combined with her unsteady posture on the inclined pathway caused her to stumble a bit. Before she could even think of catching herself, Gray's hand snapped out to grab her elbow and steady her. She flushed, mumbling a gratuitous remark and sweeping a bit of her sweat-slicked blonde hair that had fallen from her pigtails from her face. "I'm fine, really! This pack is nothing!" He looked like he was about to say something, but Juvia interrupted whatever thought he was having by jumping over to latch onto his arm.
"Ah, Gray, Juvia is so tired~ Please carry my bag for me!" Gray's face scrunched up in annoyance and he opened his mouth to object. His refusal was drowned out by Lyon's canary-like trilling.
"Juvia, my dear! I'll carry your pack for you!"
"Juvia didn't ask you!" There they go again, Lucy thought with a lop-sided smirk. Juvia and Lyon began bickering back and forth, but shockingly, Gray did not come to the water mage's rescue; instead, he turned to Lucy with an oddly serious expression.
"Really, Lucy, are you all right? I don't want you to be tired if we have to fight for real." Lucy's eyebrows knitted themselves together on her forehead. Surely the situation with the mountain bandits wasn't that big of a deal… right? Then again, the mission had necessitated four mages, some of the most powerful mages around, at that. The fabric seller they had met with had some pretty nasty wounds, too, nearly covered head-to-toe in bandages… And from what she had spied in his little shop, his accompanying merchants hadn't fared well either. After looking at the facts, Lucy was inclined to abandon her pride and rest for a moment.
"Gray, suddenly… I have a bad feeling about this mission."
"Don't worry, Lucy. I'm here with you, aren't I?"
No sooner than those words left his mouth did a confident guffaw echo through the small mountain valley.
"Greetings, travelers! You look so weary with those heavy packs… Why don't we take those off your hands for you?" The four wizards instinctively fell into a back-to-back diamond formation at the appearance of their enemy. Lucy swallowed nervously at the unsettling realization that her uneasiness had not been ill-founded.
They were surrounded.
The man who had spoken and was apparently the leader of the bandits was perched on a ledge about ten feet up the mountainside. His troop of thieves were spread out in a circle around them, either standing on some jutting outcropping in the rock or blocking their exit on either side- about twenty in all, enough to make a small guild. Lucy's eyes narrowed as she fingered the keys hanging in the loop of her skirt, waiting for someone to move.
Gray did first.
"Ice Make, bow!" He shouted as he threw off the pack (and his clothes) and formed the signature incantation of his fist against his palm. Icy magic swirled in his hands before rapidly crystallizing into a sturdy longbow. Gray drew back the jagged arrow notched into the icy bow, his arm muscles flexing with the strain of drawing it back over his shoulder, before he released the projectile at the leading bandit. Lucy barely had enough time to trace the movements with her eyes, and thought for sure that the man wouldn't have time to move, but Gray's ice arrow embedded itself into the solid mountain rock rather than his body. It wasn't just any rock, either; it had seemingly grown up out of the ledge, a towering flat-topped spire that had boosted him up another five feet.
"He's a mage! He must use Earth magic!" Lucy cried as she whipped one of her keys off the keyring and similarly discarded her useless pack. "Open, Gate of the Lion- Leo!" He was always her go-to in a sticky situation. Magic power manifested around the end of the key before pouring out in beams of light around her, and her Celestial Spirit Leo stepped through the cosmic gate to stand in front of her with the same cocky smirk he always wore. He pushed his sunglasses up his face, golden-orange eyes flickering around to size up what competition Lucy was up against this time.
"Lovely to see you again, Lucy. Is that a new outfit?" he purred, turning to her with a lascivious grin.
"There's no time for flirting! Would you get serious?" she scolded him by whacking him over the head. He pouted at her while rubbing the now sore spot in his scalp, then grinned wickedly.
"That's what I love about you, Lucy, you're so strong and independent~!" he crooned before whipping around, golden light blooming at each of his curled fists. "I'll show these losers that it was a mistake messing with my master!" he snarled before diving into the nearest pack of bandits. Gray was shooting arrow after arrow at the earth mage, who was avoiding them embarrassingly easily by hopping from rocky ledge after rocky ledge that he was pulling out of the mountain to serve as his footholds. He wasn't the only mage in the group, either; Lyon was contending with a pair of them to her right while Juvia was dealing with another pack of them behind her. Though they had numbers, the most of them fell within the first ten minutes of fighting and littered the path as unconscious bodies.
Lucy glanced over her shoulder as she felt someone plop against her back. Juvia had retreated to fight back-to-back with her, and was panting heavily with a flushed face. She must be fighting a tough opponent! The aforementioned foe stood across the path amongst his fallen brethren, barely fazed.
"Leo! Come back over here; I need you!" Lucy ordered her celestial companion as she shoved Juvia behind her to face her new opponent. Leo did as bid, dropping the man he had been holding up by the collar of his shirt and debating pummeling further to spring in front of her, looking as sophisticated but oddly suavely bloodthirsty as ever. His hands hummed with the light energy as he balled up his fists and gestured with a nod of his head for the other wizard to come at him.
"Be careful! He's very strong!" Juvia sighed wearily as she slumped against Lucy's back. Lucy couldn't do any physical fighting herself, so she did what she did best- serve as a pillar of support for her friends that could. She braced herself so that Juvia did not fall, but could lean against her and lay her face down into her shoulder.
"Don't worry, Juvia! Just rest a minute. Leo and I will have this taken care of in no time!"
"You said it!" Leo grinned cheekily and sprang at the mage. Their foe was apparently one who could use dust rather than earth itself, and it very soon became apparent why Juvia had been having such a difficult time battling him; he could turn his entire body into a cloud of dust so that Leo's swings had no effect, and would rematerialize right behind him to deliver savage counterattacks. Lucy winced as he took a particularly hard kick to the back, sending him flying back across the mountain path to land a crumpled heap at his summoner's feet. Lucy kneeled down to place a palm on his back while he attempted to struggle back to his feet. "Lucy… I can… Fight a little longer…" He suddenly began coughing and thick red blood splattered across the rough stone.
"No, Leo, you've done enough! Go home now!" she ordered. Leo grumbled something about 'I'll get that bastard next time' before dissolving into bubbles of ephemeral light, retreating to the Celestial Realm. Lucy straightened back up to glare at the man who had given her trusted partner such a beating. "You'll pay for that!"
"How so, Celestial Mage? You can't fight on your own and your spirits are no match for me!"
"Tough luck, pal! I've figured out your weakness!" she huffed before taking another key from her belt. Instead of beginning the incantation, she reached sideways to plunge it into Juvia's body, which naturally reacted by melting into cold water. "Open, Gate of the Water-Bearer: Aquarius!"
"Good idea, Lucy! We'll overwhelm him with so much water that he won't be able to turn to dust!" Juvia beamed confidently and morphed her body fully into water so that Lucy could summon Aquarius. Light spilled through her amorphous body from the key, streaming with the flow of the current before exploding into majestic force. Aquarius jumped through her watery form before landing on the mountain path behind Lucy, and then proceeded to smack Lucy on the back of her head.
"What have I told you about summoning me in this girl's body- and what is this place? Are we in the mountains?" she screeched angrily. Lucy whipped around with a deranged scowl, hands-on-hips and teeth grinding.
"Do you have to be such a bitch every time I summon you?! You know I only do it when I'm in big trouble!" Aquarius jumped forward to slam her forehead into Lucy's, but she had too much pride to let the blow knock her backwards.
"You'd better watch your mouth! I'm this close to leaving you to drown here!" the spirit yelled back, pinching her fingers nearly together for emphasis.
"Look out!" Juvia's scream made Lucy whip around, just in time for the dust mage to shift into form right in front of her with a sharp dagger poised to slit her throat. Lucy's eyes went wide, reflecting the glint of the sunlight across the metallic surface that was plunging towards her jugular. Rather than the cold bite of the steel blade, she felt the breath get knocked of her as Aquarius grabbed her around the belly and yanked her backwards. Juvia, who had comparably less fear of being decapitated, merely turned her neck and head into water and his arm splashed harmlessly through it. Aquarius set Lucy down and narrowed her eyes at the mage, seemingly having calmed down now that she released what a formidable foe she was up against. Lucy scrambled up to her feet.
"Juvia! My hand!" she cried and outstretched her arm. Juvia, in full water form as the dust mage in vain attempted to slice through her amorphous body, arced through the air in a sparkling stream before solidifying beside her and taking her hand. "Okay, Aquarius, Juvia- let's give him all we've got!" Lucy summoned up all the magic power she could muster in her body to help boost Aquarius' water attack that she was gathering in her magic vase, and she felt the whirlpool of frothing water swirling around her as Juvia summoned up her signature vortex move. Just before Juvia released it, Aquarius flung her swirling water into the fray, drastically ramping up the force of the maelstrom.
"Take this- Unison Raid!" the two Fairy Tail mages shouted together as the waterspout burst forth, with the two of them safe in the eye of the storm. The enemy mage blanched and attempted to dissolve into dust and disperse himself, but the sheer volume and speed of the water snatched up all the particles before they even formed a cohesive cloud. The whirlpool slammed into the mountainside and actually drove a deep, circular score into its surface several feet deep; when the water finally lost its momentum and splashed to the ground to be absorbed by the thick, loamy soil, the mage was left slumped over and unconscious in the indentation. Lucy and Juvia beamed and clasped their hands together as they did an elated victory dance.
"We did it! Thank you, Aquarius!"
"Hmph. Just don't summon me to such a dump next time," she sniffed while tossing her hair, but gave her a playful smirk before retreating back through the portal. Lucy turned to smile brightly at Juvia.
"We do make a pretty good team, love-rival," the blue-haired woman joked with a soft grin. Before Lucy could rebuke her for the not-so-tasteful jibe, she exhaled deeply and slumped down to her knees.
"Juvia!"
"I'm okay… I just used too much magic power…"
"Hey, girls, what a move!" Lucy looked up from where she was crouched in front of Juvia to see Gray and Lyon walking back up the path. In the near distance she could see ice formations shimmering in the sunlight intermingled with hard, stony structures, evidence of a hard-fought battle. Lucy stood up to trot over to them, and without thinking, assessed Gray for injuries. He was dotted with a few scraped and bruises, as well as a bleeding laceration on his biceps. Lucy dug into the nearest pack and procured a strip of cloth.
"Here, let me bandage that for you!"
"Oh, what? Erm, thanks," he blushed as Lucy, without waiting for permission, pushed his arm up so she could wind the bandage around the thick muscle of his arm. Even relaxed, it was so thick that she nearly couldn't tie the bandage off for running out of fabric, but she managed to secure it with a small knot. She grimaced as a faint stain of red blossomed in the blue fabric, dying it purple, but thankfully it only marked the length of the laceration and didn't spread much further, indicating that pressure had been applied correctly. Once she was finished, she glanced up to his face to see him looking away uncomfortably with that same blush painting his cheeks.
Thankfully Lyon was too busy doting on Juvia to notice and make fun of him for it.
"Juvia, my love! Are you tired? I will carry you down the mountain so we can find you a doctor!" Juvia reacted by pushing his very close face away, making him fall on his rump in a very uncool move.
"No! Only my darling Gray can carry me!"
"What happened to the earth mage?" Lucy asked Gray with a bemused smile. If they had enough energy to get back to their antics, they were all right.
"He ran off down the mountain path. He gave Lyon and I a pretty rough time of it, even with the both of us, but we managed to wound him pretty badly. I'm sure there's a blood trail we can track him down with. He won't be able to contend with all four of us," he smirked. He went to slide his hands into his pockets, realized he was wearing nothing but boxers, and grimaced. "Goddammit, where are my clothes?"
"Hehehe, they're right here," Lucy laughed and pranced over to where his cloak and pants lie discarded, amazingly untouched considering all the battling that had been going on. As she leaned over to pick them up and her fingers dug into the soft cloth to grab ahold of them, she heard that same callous laugh, only weaker yet more deranged than before. Her head snapped up to see the earth mage standing at the point where the path curved downwards, bleeding heavily from a fist-sized hole in his abdomen and primed to deliver what looked like a devastating move… right at Juvia, who was still collapsed from exhaustion.
"You two thought you had gotten the best of me, huh? Too bad! I'm ending all of your pathetic lives right here, starting with one of these bitches!" Two gigantic earthen serpents blasted out of the rock formations on either side of him and rocketed towards the startled Juvia, who was too weak to even turn herself to water and just attempted to scramble away on her hands and knees, but collapsed onto her belly with a distressed cry. Lyon jumped up to her defense, forming a giant icy bear that roared in anger and lumbered around in front of them, maw open and ready to tear into the earthy snakes' throats. Gray, sprinting across the path with his ice magic churning in his hands, ran up to touch the bear's solid side and apply a suit of icy armor to its stocky body for extra protection. The bear reared up on its hind legs, making the ground rumble with each step, and looked like it would provide plenty of protection for Lucy's comrades.
The earth mage snapped his finger and the snakes instantaneously changed direction, arcing backwards in loop-de-loops to slither rapidly in Lucy's direction.
"Lucy!" Gray screamed so loudly that his voice cracked, sliding in the pebbly pathway to try and get to her, but there was no time. Lucy didn't even have time to summon up a defensive spirit like Aries before the snakes both crashed into her at once. Her agonized scream was lost amongst the crumbling and rumbling of the earth as she was crushed against the mountainside, the shockwave rippling across the two earthen snakes to obliterate them into pebbles. Lucy lay suspended in the crater the blow had made for a moment before her battered body twitched, causing her to fall down flat on her face against the path. She couldn't even appreciate the soft grass that cushioned her fall because the slightest of movements made her nerves blaze with excruciating pain, like her blood had been replaced with burning lava. It felt like every bone in her body had been ground to dust, and the way her body was vibrating with the aftershock didn't help matters. Somehow, a low, whimpering groan slipped from her lips, but she couldn't hear it for the thunderous ringing in her ears.
Yet she heard Gray calling for her.
"Lucy! Lucy, can you hear me? Hey, say you're all right, please!" He had appeared at her side like he had teleported there, rolling her over onto her back. The action made Lucy shriek and writhe about in agony, tearing up the grass with the intense thrashes of her body.
"It hurts! It hurts!" she sobbed pathetically. Lucy hated to be thought weak in front of her guild mates, but dear God, her body hurt so bad that she didn't care. Gray's hands fluttered over her body, not touching her for fear of hurting her further but acting like he wanted to caress her and soothe her. Lyon had Juvia slumped over his shoulder; the situation was now too dire for her to complain, apparently. Lucy could see them staring down at her with deep concern through the tears blurring her vision. Despite the pain still radiating through her, she suddenly felt the desperate need to touch Gray, and so she forced the muscles in her arm to contract enough for her to grab his hand. She hadn't the strength to squeeze it, but feeling his big, warm hand envelop hers sent a soothing flood of calm spreading up her arm into her body, somehow chasing the pain away somewhat. "Nnh…" she mumbled incoherently as her eyes fluttered with the sudden onset of drowsiness.
"Well, well, well. To be honest, I'm shocked she survived that. I've taken down full-grown men with that move," the earth mage tutted from where he was still bleeding out at the end of the mountain path. At the sound of his smug voice, Gray's face contorted into the demonic visage of pure rage. Lucy whimpered lightly as his hand squeezed hers very tightly for a second before he jerked up and whipped around. Ill intent was practically pouring off him in visible foggy waves.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Give it your best shot, you rotten bastard."
"Lyon! Juvia!" Gray barked as he walked out into the middle of the path, far enough away from Lucy so that she wouldn't get caught in the onslaught. The mage, thoroughly weakened by his earlier flashy move, could only muster sending a wave of earthen spikes at Gray, who created a large ice sword and sliced through them like butter. This gave Lyon enough time to bring Juvia to his side, and the two ice mages supported her between them. "Juvia, can you manage another Unison Raid?"
"Anything to avenge Lucy!" Juvia asserted with a determined frown and a sure nod. Lucy found herself smiling weakly. She had half-expected her to say, "Anything for my darling Gray!" The earth mage was angry now and was just carelessly flinging earth boulders at the three mages, but between Lyon and Gray's ice attacks, they might as well have been pebbles with how easily they reduced them to such. Once Juvia had charged up her magic power, with the swirling maelstrom around them, the earth mage realized he had lost and tried to run. Lyon and Gray plunged their hands into the swirling water to freeze it into sharp crystalline forms, Gray's inorganic magic producing hundreds of pointed daggers while Lyon- probably trying to show off for Juvia- sent a deluge of stampeding horses into the watery whirlwind.
"Unison Raid!" Lucy could just barely hear the earth mage's deranged, tormented screams over the torrential deluge of water that blasted into him and sent him careening down the sharp inclined path. There was the distance sound of his crash into the ground followed by a low rumble. Lucy had watched the entire thing as it played in her vision upside-down as she was still lying on her back, but even with the inverted image, their teamwork had been impressive. Suddenly, bitter tears flooded her eyes.
So impressive… They hadn't needed me at all… Gray makes a much better team with them than he does with me… The last thought surprised her so much she gasped aloud. Where had such a premise come from? She had no clue. The tromping of boots against gravel pulled her out of her insane thoughts. She could see Gray's legs approaching in her field of vision, but not Lyon or Juvia's.
"Where…?" she mumbled. His full form appeared overhead as he crouched over her, leaned over opposite of her.
"I sent Lyon and Juvia down there to see if the problem is taken care of for sure. Lyon's still in pretty good shape, so he'll take care of Juvia." He wanted to take care of me… Alone…
"Gray… Do you think… You and Juvia will convince Lyon to join Fairy Tail?" the question came out of her mouth largely without her willing, but once it did, she knew there was no taking it back and decided to wait for the answer with bated breath. He stared down at her incredulously.
"What? What the hell kind of question is that, Lucy?" She puffed out her cheeks and averted her gaze.
"Well… You three make such a good team… I really… Don't have any place in it after all," she whispered. She had thought such feelings had been absolved on the train, but that hadn't been the case at all. They had lingered inside of her like some poisonous wound which had now infected her entire body and prevented her from thinking of anything else. As the silence settled between them, she became increasingly desperate for an answer until she forced herself to look back at him, finding him looking at her in a mixture of amusement and pity.
"You dumbass. I wouldn't form a permanent team with that asshole in a thousand years," he laughed breathily. He shifted around so that he was sitting on his knees at her side, and then very hesitantly reached down to slip his arms underneath her, one supporting her neck while the other pulled her body into him. Lucy didn't hurt quite as much now but her body was still incredibly sore, and so she flinched at the movements despite their overwhelming softness. He settled her into his lap. Lucy wasn't entirely sure why he had done so in the first place, and so a smoldering fire graced her cheeks as she continued to look anxiously up at him. "Why do you think you don't belong, Lucy?" he asked quietly.
"I…" The words faltered in her throat. She didn't want to admit it aloud. I'm jealous… came the finishing thought, and her bottom lip wobbled as she realized how stupidly pathetic that was. I'm jealous and afraid. "I don't… want to… lose you," she answered very carefully. She dropped her gaze because she was again unable to look at him. Gray was pretty dense and she didn't know if he would realize the connotation that Lucy was putting behind those words, but she didn't want to have to admit it aloud. Lucy loved him, and she was terrified that he didn't love her, and that she would be left behind once he realized it. She wasn't going to look at him, but his hand cupper her cheek and forced her to do so. He still had that expression of mixed pity and laughter, but there was an undeniable warmth burning in the dark of his eyes that sent Lucy's heart to thumping in her chest.
"You won't, Lucy. I'm right here with you." Tears flooded Lucy's eyes. He meant so much more than he could express with those words, and she knew it. She choked out his name, overcome with emotion, but he just shushed her and swept his hand over her bruised, scraped face, carrying away her mangled strands of blonde hair. He leaned down to gently kiss the large, dark bruise on her forehead, then the forming bags beneath her tired eyes, then the thin scratch across her cheek. Finally, he softly settled on her busted lip. Lucy's eyes fluttered closed so she could savor the feeling of his mouth pressing against hers. It was tender and intimate, but still so much emotion passed between them that it stole Lucy's breath away nonetheless. He pulled back after a moment, but only just so, and as he spoke, he whispered the words against her lips, "Always."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Wahhhhhhh! Juvia has lost!" came the upsetting wail that jerked every muscle in both Gray and Lucy's bodies. Their faces flew apart to look down the path at the origin of the cry to see Juvia slumped down to her knees sobbing pathetically while Lyon attempted to console her. He wasn't even really flirting, but Juvia perceived it as such and wildly shook her head back and forth as she suffered through her heartbreak. "Juvia can't believe it! Lucy really was a love-rival and now Gray's heart belongs to herrrrrrr!"
"She's taking this better than I thought she would. I half-expected her to try and murder the both of us," Gray laughed under his breath. Lucy gave him a wan smile before turning her attention to her distraught friend.
"I'm sorry, Juvia. I didn't really intend for it to turn out this way…"
"Do not apologize!" she screeched suddenly and looked up from burying her teary face into her hands to point at Lucy, which made her stiffen. "Juvia admits defeat! I lost fair and square, but Lucy has to promise that she will cherish Gray forever and ever! Because if you don't, Juvia will steal him away from you!" Though it sounded mildly threatening, Lucy knew that Juvia was trying to be encouraging of the relationship and root for Lucy in her own weird way. Lucy giggled and reached up to wrap her arms around Gray's neck and lean up to peck him on the cheek.
"Of course! I'll be right there with him, always."