I ask you a favor.
Say what you think of Ryker, what you think he is, how you see him, his attitudes and everything. This is important for me to know if I'm taking the story the right way. I know it can be a lot, but it would help me a lot.
Thank you and enjoy the chapter
Lucy had returned to the guild after fulfilling her mission with Ryker and now she was crestfallen, sitting at the bar drinking some juice and thinking about what to do. The mage had an internal conflict, Ryker was in trouble, she saw, but he asked her to keep it a secret, however, to help him, she should tell the others, or at least the master, what had happened.
"What should I do?", she sighed thoughtfully.
"Is there a problem Lu-chan?", said Levy, sitting down beside her.
"Levy-chan!", called the blonde when she saw her best friend. "No…I mean yes, or maybe. I don't know," the mage lowered her head in frustration.
"You have to make up your mind", the script mage said laughing, being accompanied by the blonde.
"If someone asked you to keep a secret, but doing so would harm the person who asked, what would you do?", the celestial mage asked the short girl with a serious face.
Levy was thoughtful for a while, holding her chin in one hand, considering the matter. It wasn't trivial.
"Well Lu-chan, a secret is a secret and shouldn't be shared, especially if you promised", she said, Lucy looked at her and felt sad, she knew that and her best friend saying she should keep keeping it weighed on your heart. It was a load she didn't want to carry.
"However,...", the little girl continued, " if this secret harms the owner, maybe it's better to tell someone. This will make the other party angry and upset, but in the end it will be better, who knows. But that only you will be able to decide", she said looking at the celestial magician.
"I understand. Thank you Levy-chan!", thanked her friend.
Levy smiled and looked at her for a second. "Does this have to do with your last mission?"
"Yes, and no," Lucy replied.
"You are very confused today", laughed the solidly scripted mage, Lucy laughed along with her, agreeing with her confused and shaken state.
"Hello girls", a sweet voice greeted the two seated mages.
"Hello Mira," they said together.
"Lucy, did you come back from your last mission today?", the white mage asked.
"Yes, we came back this morning. We finished yesterday, but we decided to rest at the hotel before returning".
"And where's Ryker?" Mira asked.
"He preferred to go straight home. He said he wasn't in the mood to come to the guild", replied the blonde with little enthusiasm, with a slight note of concern in her voice.
"Oh yeah," Mira said, all that joy she always had seems to vanish in the wind. Levy and Lucy looked at each other, surprised at her change.
"Mira-san! What do you think of Ryker?" Lucy asked, without further malice.
"W… what do I think of him!?" Mira blushed, taken aback by the question. "Well, he's a kind person, he's funny, he likes to help others, he's smart. It's good to be with him," she said with a slight tinge of pink to her cheeks.
"Wait a minute!", Lucy yelled. "Kind and funny!?", she looked stunned. The last thing she would say about him was to be kind and funny.
"Well Lu-chan. Mira is always with him, so she knows him better. He must have shown her other aspects of his personality," Levy said and Mira blushed at the fact that they were always close to each other.
"It's possible," Lucy agreed. "But I never saw him helping anyone," she pointed out.
"He always helps me open and clean the guild," Mira said in a scolding tone, her features turning evil from the blonde's comment. The celestial mage broke out in a cold sweat and raised her hands and shook apologetically.
"From...anyway Mira, did you notice anything wrong with him?", the blonde asked, still afraid of her reaction. Lucy saw the expression of the Take Over Demonic mage fall away from her usual angelic face to something serious and sad.
"Is everything okay Mira?", said a worried Levy.
"Ryker... he doesn't talk much about himself beyond the basics and he doesn't talk about his past," she sighed. "I feel that something very serious has happened to him."
"What do you mean?", asked Levy.
"Well, you saw what he looked like when he arrived at the guild. It was frightening and at the same time sad, lifeless. Only if something really bad happens to a person does he have eyes like his. Aside from the fact that he ate like he'd never seen food in front of him, he looked desperate. I think he must have been hungry or something", the white woman said crestfallen.
"It's true, I remember. So you don't even know much about his past ?", asked Lucy. Mira nodded confirming that she knew little about him.
"The master was looking for some information, but he didn't find anything. But I can say he's a good person. I feel it,", Mira said confidently. "And why are you wanting to know about this Lucy?," she asked curiously.
"Yeah…it's for nothing, just curiosity", the celestial mage replied, clearly hiding something, she wasn't very good at it, especially against the woman called a demon.
"You're hiding something.", Mira said staring her eyes at the blonde, which ruffled her hair and Levy's, who had nothing to do with the story.
"I'm glad you're back, Lucy", a firm and authoritative voice said from behind the celestial mage. The blonde turned and saw a redhead standing behind her. At that moment Lucy thanked the heavens that Erza had arrived and distracted her from her confrontation with Mira.
"We came back this morning," the blonde replied.
"Very good. And Ryker? I haven't seen him yet," Erza asked, taking a seat next to Lucy.
"He was tired and decided to go straight home", she replied, smiling nervously.
"I see," the Requip mage said, crossing her arms.
"So Erza!" called Levy on the other side. "What do you know about him?" .
The redhead looked at her in surprise. " How so? What are you talking about?" , she asked.
"We're talking about Ryker and seeing what each of us knows about him. I think Lucy got interested in him after the mission," the little Solid Script mage said, embarrassing a blonde who sensed menacing eyes and black auras coming from the two most powerful mages in Fairy Tail.
"I'm not interested in him!", Lucy yelled at her little bluenett friend, who just laughed at her.
I absolutely don't want Mira and Erza to think I have any interest in that guy, for my own good. Not to mention that it would be better not to mention that I slept cuddled with him (twice, because the other night he also needed to sleep and he thought that if I slept with him he wouldn't have nightmares, which actually happened) even for one good cause. All right! I might even have liked sleeping with him, after all he was a big, muscular guy and even attractive, with an air of mystery which was sexy. Damn, what am I thinking!? But that didn't mean I had any kind of romantic attraction to him. No! No way!
Lucy thought, sweating cold at the prospect of the two of them finding out. "I was just wanting to know more about a guildmate that I don't know anything about. Besides…" she paused and looked down with regretful eyes, "I'm worried about him.", she said in a low voice.
"Did something happen ?" , Erza, who heard, said worried. "Why did you say you were worried about him?"
"What happened!?" Mira, too, said worriedly.
Lucy looked at them not knowing what to do. What should she? She promised to keep it a secret, but he needs help and they could help him, as they were closest to him in the guild, along with Wendy.
The celestial mage sighed in defeat, after reflecting for a moment. "I, I can't say what happened, I made a promise. But I can say that it was ugly, and that he is not well and will need all the help possible", she said in a weak voice.
An atmosphere of sadness and despondency fell upon the mages. Erza knew he had some issues, she felt, and as he said, they both had an inexplicable connection. But, Mira knew him better, she knew he had issues, she'd seen him weak and beaten down once, she'd said she'd be there for him.
The Take Over mage dropped what she was doing and walked towards the guild gate.
"Hey Mira, where are you going?", asked Levy when he saw her leaving the bar.
"If Ryker needs help I'll help him," replied the mage, looking over her shoulder.
"Leave it!" yelled a red-haired mage. Everyone looked at her in amazement, it was not a common attitude coming from Titania, she was always one of the first to help her friends. Why not now?
"We already told him that we are available, whenever he needs it. Unfortunately we can't force him to ask for help, we have to wait for him to come to us", she said between sighs. "If you go to him it could make the situation worse, Mira. You know how he is", she said, looking steadily at the other mage.
Mirajane glared at her, her eyes filled with anger, she wanted to go after him, but after a sigh and a quick reflection she saw she was right. If she came to his house to try something, he would reject her or say it was okay, she would insist she didn't and end up stressing the wizard instead of helping. He was stubborn and for some reason didn't talk about what bothered him.
"So what are we going to do?" Levy asked wanting to help.
"We have to wait and give the support whenever we need it, as we would with any of our companions", Mira stated and smiled, gaining the agreement of the other mages.
At home, Ryker sat on his couch, eyes unblinking, watching his sphere-shaped lacrima on the coffee table. He was projecting pictures in the air, countless pictures. Older and younger people were appearing in a clear blue light, very beautiful. Ryker stood there staring at them motionless, unblinking for even a split second. He was just sitting, just looking, just existing.