DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima.

Chapter 4:

"It's not funny," I repeated as I glared at Natsu. He was on the verge of letting out, yet another hysterical laugh. But upon seeing my expression, he promptly kept his mouth shut.

We were on the guild now and discussing what had happened. All of them just listened to me as I gave them a recount of my day. Natsu and Happy immediately found the hilarity of my current situation and it did nothing but frustrate me more.

"So you think the necklace is the reason for all of this?" asked Erza.

"It must be, Erza," Happy answered. "Lucy's cute, but not that cute."

I sharply turned to Happy. "You're not helping." Happy raised his hands in surrender, making me turn back to Erza. "Anyway, what else could it be? Everything was fine when we came back yesterday. And this morning when I went to the guild, nothing even happened."

Erza pursed her lips. "Have you ever taken the necklace off since you wore it?"

I nodded. "I only take it off when I have my baths. The rest of the time I wear it."

"And nothing strange happened since this morning?" Erza continued.

"No, I don't-

"You said it was getting warm," Gray said. We all turned to him. "When I met you in the bar, you said that the necklace was getting warm."

"I did feel a burn on my skin and when I touched the necklace it was hot," I admitted. "But that doesn't explain why those men were acting like..." I frowned. I didn't even want to finish that sentence.

"Like they were in love with you?" Gray finished for me.

I felt heat on the back of my neck as I tried not to cringe. The thought of that was making me feel very uncomfortable. And just the idea of it was ridiculous. Sure, it was nice to be wanted. But it wasn't real. There was no point in having those feelings in the first place if it weren't of the person's own volition.

I let out a breath. "What do you suppose we should do now?"

"It's difficult to make any decision without knowing what that necklace is really capable of doing," Erza stated. "We need to do some research into this."

"Why can't we just ask that Maul guy?" Natsu piped up. "I mean, it's his necklace and he probably knows all the stuff that's happening to it."

"He's travelling, Natsu. And he didn't really say anything about where he was going." Happy answered.

"And if he does know about this, why didn't he tell us before he gave us this job?" Gray glanced at me, before turning to Erza. "I agree with you. It's better to consult someone about this."

Erza nodded. "Natsu, you'll be with me. We're going to ask around if anyone has any idea about-or related, to this kind of magic." She turned to me. "You need to consult books on this one. So you and Gray should head out to the library."

We all nodded. I felt a sense of relief that we were doing something about this.

"We'll meet at Lucy's apartment tonight to share all the information we gathered and talk about our next movements," Erza continued.

Gray and I made our way to the library at the guild, which was empty until we came in. I walked over to the small orb located at the corner of the library. I tapped it and letters started to pop out. I was thankful that we installed this equipment 2 years ago. It made finding books faster and convenient for us.

I pursed my lips as I stared at the letters. There were a lot of books here and I didn't know where we should start our research. I began to type the word 'necklace', only to delete it immediately. That was too vague, and I was sure that there would be at least a hundred book results about that.

"Try seduction magic," I heard Gray say behind me.

"I'm not seducing anyone."

"You're not, but that necklace sure do." He gently pushed me away from the orb and began to type. I crossed my arms over my chest as I glared at him.

"You should let us do this for you," Gray said. He turned his eyes to me. "You're already burdened by what this necklace does, so you should take a break and let us do our part to help you."

My heart warmed. I was really lucky to have these guys as my friends.

He returned his eyes to the orb. "Besides, we all agreed to do this job. It's unfair if you're the only one going through all the trouble for it." He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the book results that the orb provided. He clicked his tongue. "Apparently, seduction magic is a type of magic that people seemed to be really interested in studying. We have 178 book results for it."

I reached down my pocket and pulled my Gale-Force reading glasses. It allows me to read any book at a faster pace. "Glad I brought these along then."

Gray smiled. "Alright, let's get to it."

Gray and I took turns in reading all the books that we found on seduction magic. And I tried to keep myself from blushing at all the things I was reading. Most of these words are really graphic, describing every detail explicitly. It didn't help that some had actual images of how seduction magic works.

The general idea I got from these books was that seduction magic dated back to ancient times. It was a type of magic that conjures sexual passion or romantic love. Seduction magic was used for love spells and even love potions.

I was learning a lot about this type of magic, yet I was still far from finding answers about this necklace. Sure, it did sound like those men were seduced. But I always thought seduction magic only works in spells and potions. And so far, I haven't read any equipment or tool used to embed that kind of magic.

I closed the book I just finished and shut my eyes. We spent our entire afternoon reading and despite that I was wearing these glasses, I still felt tired. I turned to Gray and a smile graced my face. He had his arms crossed, sprawled on the book that was lying in front of him. His head was turned to the side, resting on his arms. His eyes were sealed shut, his soft breaths were the only sound in the room.

"I think we could continue this tomorrow." I took off my glasses and pocketed them. I returned my eyes to Gray. "You look like you're having a great sleep."

I looked at the grandfather clock beside the orb. We still have time before we meet the others at my apartment. I let out a yawn before crossing my arms and laying them on the table, copying the sleeping mage beside me. My eyelids felt heavy and I didn't try to fight off sleep when it finally made its presence known to me.

It wasn't long before I heard a voice calling my name. At first I ignored it. I was having a great rest and I still didn't want to wake up. I relaxed when it finally stopped. I felt something touched my hair, and it was comforting. I snuggled closer to the warmth of that hand. It suddenly stopped and I let out a groan in protest. I thought I heard a soft chuckle, but I paid no heed to it as the hand began to stroke my hair again. I breathed contentedly, but that was cut short when I felt a burn on my neck.

And this burn was different. It actually felt like my skin was on fire. I began to sweat and groan in pain. My breathing was becoming erratic as my heart started to beat rapidly. I felt the pain on my neck intensify. It was like someone was writing on my skin with a hot welding rod.

I finally opened my eyes and let out a gasp. My vision was blurry, and the worst part was all I could see was red. I closed my eyes and opened them again, finally focusing on my raven-haired teammate. His eyes were filled with worry.

"Gray," I breathed out, feeling relief washed over me.

"I'm here," he whispered as he pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around me.

I willed myself to breathe. The pain was gone now and I finally stopped from shaking. I felt the necklace and it was cool. There was no fire and no burning. It was all just a dream. I should take control of myself because all of that was just a dream. I let out a huge breath, finding that I felt calmer now.

"Are you alright now?"

It was then that it finally dawned on me that Gray had his arms wrapped around me, and was running his hand up and down my back to calm me. I loosened myself from his embrace, turning to look at his face, which was etched with curiosity. My face flushed when I realized that I was currently sitting on his lap, with his hands now resting on the sides of my waist.

"I, uh, yes," I managed to get out, despite the lump forming in my throat. I let out a small coughed. "I'm sorry for this, by the way."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "It's not everyday I get to sit on your lap and you letting me."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, before he smirked. "If you want to sit on my lap so much, you could've just asked me."

And just like that, all the awkwardness vanished. I didn't see the point of worrying about what Gray would think about all of this. I let out a small laugh as I wrapped my arms around my friend again. I felt his body relaxed, his breath synching with mine.

"What happened?" I heard him ask, his breath tickling my ear.

"It was a bad dream."

"Hmm," He strokes my hair. "You looked like you were in pain."

I closed my eyes. I didn't want to be reminded of that again. "It was nothing, Gray."

He didn't say anything more as he continued to brush my hair. And I found that it was lulling me back to sleep. The grandfather clock chimed, breaking me from that spell.

I disentangled myself from Gray, finally standing up. "Do you want to grab dinner before we go to my apartment to meet with Natsu and Erza?"

"Sure," He stood up, walking over to the orb and pushing a button. The scattered books on our table began to float and made their way back to the shelves. He turned to me. "You're buying, right?"

I frowned. "Why do I get to buy you dinner?"

"Because my legs are now stiff since you've been sitting on it for too long," he replied. "Who would've thought you were heavy, Lucy?"

My eyes darkened. He really shouldn't have said that.

"Gray, you idiot!"

...

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