Cobra heard the wailing before he'd even stepped foot inside the guildhall. He didn't understand how the blonde could go from being mildly unhappy to deeply depressed in the span of a few days. Women and their damn mood swings. He'd only been gone for three days and assumed his side project - which he had named Operation: Save the Star Gazer, though no one would ever hear him saying so out loud – would still be in the same state when he returned.
Instead, he found her looking lonely at the bar while trying to hide behind a content facial expression. Cobra had no idea how none of her close friends had noticed the dark bags under her eyes or the distant look in her gaze, but he chalked it up to them all having the observational skills of a snail.
It was time for him to take a more direct approach to accomplish his self-appointed mission.
Lucy's head whipped to the side when she heard someone sit on the stool next to her with more force than necessary. Seeing who it was, she just looked away with a roll of her eyes.
"Not happy to see me, Star Gazer?" Cobra smiled at the sideways glare she shot him.
"Not particularly." Nosy snake always in my business. I know you can tell I just want to be left alone, so why don't you go away?
"So rude." He pulled her smoothie out of her hands to take a sip from her straw.
Lucy huffed as she jerked the glass away from him. "Now I'll have to get a new straw. I don't want my lips and tongue burning for hours like last time."
Cobra chuckled a little at that, remembering the day he'd convinced her that his saliva didn't contain any traces of his poison. Watching her waving frantically at her tongue as it hung pathetically out of her mouth while she panted in pain had been hilarious. Well, for him it was hilarious. She didn't agree. "It felt like I'd licked a hot pepper."
When his laughter at her expense died down, she asked, "Why have you been bothering me, anyway? You'd think Fairy Tail's gossip queen would be busy doing something other than secretly meddling in my life."
"Gossip King. Get it right. I haven't dressed up as a woman in years and the one time it happened hadn't been by choice."
Lucy gaped at him for a second while trying to wrap her head around that little nugget of knowledge. A small snort escaped her as she imagined Cobra in a dress with a full face of makeup. "Was it Macbeth's idea?"
"Unimportant." He dismissed her question entirely as he pulled her smoothie out of her hands again, smiling deviously when he heard her thinking he could just keep it. After slurping down the entire drink, he said, "I need you to come on a job with me."
Giving him a skeptical look, she asked doubtfully, "Really? You need me, a Celestial Mage, to go with you on one of your solo spying missions?"
"Yep."
"You're lying." Her tone was dryly accusatory, so if he hadn't been listening closely to her soul, he probably would've missed the tiny tremor of hope. She wanted a chance to get away from the guild and everyday life for a while.
"Why would I lie to you?"
Leaning an elbow against the bar, she placed her chin in her palm to tap a finger against her cheek as if she were putting a lot of thought into the answer. "You could be trying to kidnap me again. Maybe you plan to sell me to slavers?"
Putting a hand to his chest, Cobra said dramatically, "You wound me. I promise on my crusty heart, my criminal days are over." Mostly, but he didn't say that part out loud.
The brow she raised in response suggested how doubtful she was.
"Just get your ass to that ugly, twisted tree right outside of town in two hours and I'll give you all the details then." Standing to his feet, he sipped on the straw in the empty smoothie glass one more time, making a noisy slurping sound that irritated Lucy all over again. Plunking it down, he said, "Thanks for the smoothie."
He listened closely to her soul as he walked out of the guild. The flicker of hope he'd heard before was growing into a budding excitement at the chance to have a break from life. Operation: Save the Star Gazer was officially underway.