Loke tapped his fingers on the table he and Gray were sitting at. Gray was going on about a mission he had been on recently. Something about getting lost in a forest trying to find a rare mushroom for a client. Loke nodded when needed but his focus was elsewhere. The guild's newest recruit, a celestial spirit mage named Lucy, was sitting at the bar with her head resting on one hand talking to the guild's resident bartender Mirajane. She was twirling a straw around in a glass of orange juice that was in front of her. She seemed to be half heartedly replying to the teasing Mirajnae was giving her about her last mission with Natsu. A faraway look in her eyes. Loke looked down to the leather pouch that held her keys. He saw a flash of gold peaking through the side. So she already had a few gold keys. He wondered if she had Aries. He had always hoped she ended up in good hands after he was banished. He would never find out of course. Disaster would strike if she ever summoned one in his presence and they recognized him. But would they? He had spent so much time in the human world that he looked so… different. He was no longer Leo the Lion, Leader of the Zodiacs. He had become Loke, Holder Mage of FairyTail. He had changed his style of dress completely. His trademark suit would have been too recognizable. Besides, he had destroyed it. His time in the human world was starting to show as well. There were permanent bags under his eyes and he had lost all his color. He didn't have much time left and he definitely looked and felt like it. He looked up. Crap, Mirajane had caught him staring. She winked at him and walked into the kitchens, clearly trying to give him a window to approach Lucy. He quickly turned looking back at Gray who was still going on about his mission. Maybe he could go up and just ask her. Exile or no, he still had a duty to his fellow zodiac spirits. He had to make sure they were in good hands. His gaze drifted back to Lucy. She was still absentmindedly twirling her straw in her glass of orange juice. She would understand. Heart pounding, he slammed his hands down on the table, startling Gray, and walked over to her. "Oi!" Gray called after him. He sat down, keeping one open seat between him and Lucy, and turned to her. "S-so, you're a celestial spirit mage? You have keys?" He gulped. "I mean which keys do you have?" he mentally slammed his head down on the bar, he was so smooth.
Lucy perked up at his question. "You want to know about my keys?" He nodded. "Do you mind hearing about them?" Lucy asked shyly, pulling her keyring from the leather pouch at her side. "I could go on for a while."
"Of course not. I'd love to hear about them." He said honestly.
"Ok well in that case," Lucy smiled and splayed her keys out on the counter. "I have four golden keys and four silver keys as of right now." She pointed to the first silver key. "This is my newest silver key: Nikora. I like to call him Plue. He's just the cutest! They don't take much magic to keep out so people like to keep them as pets. Would you like to see him? I don't mind summoning-"
"Ah! No! it's okay you don't have to!" He waved his arms out in front of him. Even the thousands of Nikora knew who he was and he couldn't risk it being one he had once interacted with… even if they couldn't talk…
"Okay…" She went down the line of silver keys quickly. "This is Lyra, she sings and plays the harp beautifully but I can only summon her once a month." She pointed to the next. "This is Horologium, he protects whoever's inside him and this," She pointed to the final silver key. "Is Crux, he knows a lot about celestial magic. He basically taught me what I know."
He pointed to the first golden key. He could already see which keys she had but she wanted to hear her tell him about them. "What about these," He asked, feigning ignorance. "What makes them different?"
"These are gold keys, they're rare since there's only 12 of them in existence. One for each of the zodiac constellations," She pointed to the first gold key. "For example, this is Virgo the Maiden, the sixth zodiac constellation, she's my newest golden key. I've only summoned her twice so far." Lucy cringed. "I got her after Natsu and I defeated that creep Everlue… People like him shouldn't be able to have celestial keys."
"He was that bad?" He paled. Virgo was more tolerant of bad masters, he would even go so far as to say she liked them, but that didn't mean she didn't have her limits.
Lucy shivered. "Yes, you should have seen the form he made her take... Well, anyways speaking of creeps…" She pointed to the next golden key. "This is Taurus. To put it plainly, he's a pervert but he'll always have my back."
Lucy pointed to the next two keys. "These two are Cancer and Aquarius. They were my mother's spirits."
"Your mother was a celestial spirit mage?"
"Yeah, she was amazing. She used to take me out every Saturday night to our patio and we would lay side by side and look at the stars. She taught me so much about all the different constellations. She really cared for her spirits. You know some people think of them just as tools? It's not right." She said with a look of determination in her eyes. "They may not be human but they still have thoughts and feelings just like us."
He looked at her stunned and then laughed. "You're one of a kind Lucy." He didn't need to but he asked anyway. "So, what do Cancer and Aquarius do?"
She smiled widely at him and his heart skipped a beat. "I normally call cancer whenever I need my hair styled but he's also powerful in combat. I'm not sure what he does to be honest but all my enemies end up bald and incapacitated." She laughed and he couldn't help but laugh with her.
"Aquarius is super powerful but she hates it when I summon her. She always berates me for something. Usually it's for not having a boyfriend." Lucy huffed and then smiled. "She was my mother's favorite though. She's the one who taught me how to swim. Well, she tried to drown me when my mom wasn't looking but here I am, alive and able to swim so take that Aquarius!"
"You really care for your spirits don't you?" He asked, leaning his head into his hand, staring into her eyes.
"Of course!" she said, staring back. "They're my friends!"
He laughed and shook his head. "Well, thank you… for telling me."
"No, thank you, for letting me talk about them. Usually no one lets me talk that much."
She reached for his hand. Uh oh. He shot up from the bar. "W-well, lot's to do. I think Gray is calling me. Gotta go! Bye!"
He ran like hell out of the guild. "Hm?" She blinked watching as he suddenly disappeared.
Gray sat down in the seat next to her. "I thought he was scared of you," He raised his eyebrow. "What was that about?"
"Yea, what was that about Lucy?" Mirajane asked, suddenly reappearing from the kitchens.
"I don't know," Lucy said. "He wanted to know about my keys…"
"Huh? Why would he ask about that?"
Lucy shrugged. "I don't know." She really didn't. She thought he hated celestial spirit mages… So why would he have taken such an interest in knowing what keys she had? Oh well. She turned back to her orange juice. She had fun telling him about them.
