Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Hot Coffees & Frosty Mages
Gray's POV
As I entered the castle with Suzuna, my dark blue eyes widened in a surprised manner from seeing how the interior of her home had light blue walls with sapphire blue carpeting to match. There was a staircase on the left side of the castle's foyer, and it would lead people to the upper rooms of the castle while a white chandelier hung from the ceiling to make the place be brighter. My eyes soon shifted to a doorway that was directly across from where I stood with Suzuna, and that doorway was bordered by two sapphire blue statuettes of her blowing kisses while winking with her right eye.
I took some steps towards that doorway for the purpose of seeing what was in the next room, and it appeared to just be the dining room area that featured two women in maid outfits while they seemed to be pouring hot water into some cups. I turned around to face Suzuna, who merely gave me a nice smile while she gently twiddled her thumbs, and I wondered if talking about her fancy lifestyle would keep all the attention off of the list that was now in Lucy's possession. If Suzuna found out that I lost her list, she might get heated to where hot tea would be thrown at me.
Suzuna began to look at me in a pleased manner, acting like she was totally glad that I would be helping her with strengthening her Ice Magic, and I actually felt good about helping someone else get stronger. The training couldn't be accomplished only in a single day, which made me be pretty aware that I would be staying here for days or weeks, and I gave her a calm smile while actually being interested in viewing the techniques that she could wield with her Ice Magic. This felt like a good time to start training with Suzuna, and I decided to stand beside her while assuming that she'd give me a tour of this castle.
She started walking into the dining room, which made me follow her, and I got to see that the dining table was in an azure blue color while it also seemed lengthy enough for at least seventeen people to have a feast together. The regal-looking golden chairs were making me wonder how many jewels Suzuna's father spent on them, and the fancy white cups on the table seemed to be filled with hot tea that had clouds of steam slowly rising up from the liquid. Before I could even sit down in a chair, I noticed a woman with long green hair that fell down to her hips while she wore a black maid outfit.
"Welcome back, Miss Suzuna. Lunch will be served to you and your guest shortly, so please wait for your steamed pork buns with grilled shrimp." The maid told Suzuna in a calm tone while smiling, having kindness in her brown eyes while she curtsied.
Suzuna responded nicely while smiling smiling back, loving her routine, "Thank you, Haruka. Also, the wizard next to me shall be training me later and he spent hours on a train ride to this town. Be sure to give him seconds, and then he can complete the next task on his list."
I commented on the conversation while giving Haruka a look of assurance, not wanting to seem suspicious, "Yeah, I'll totally do the next task on the list. Suzuna is so good with her lists to where she won't have to rewrite a thing!"
As Haruka walked towards the kitchen area that was on the left side of the dining room, I decided to sit down in one of chairs while wondering how I would avoid Suzuna's possible wrath for losing her list and mixing it up with Lucy's chapter that needed to be fixed. Suzuna went to the other side of the table for the purpose of sitting across from me, which prompted me to look down at the hot tea, and a few quick sniffs of the drink informed me that it was hot coffee in the flavor of peppermint mocha. Natsu bought cups of peppermint mocha coffee from a concession stand in Magnolia last week, and I almost wished that he could comically distract Suzuna by getting lost in her castle for hours.
I held the cup of tea by its handle, before drinking a few sips of it, and I quickly placed the cup back down on the white plate from seeing Suzuna give me a cheerful smile. She appeared to be smiling at me in a way that displayed her happiness, and I merely looked back at her while trying to focus on the coffee. There were small bowls of sugar cubes near our cups, but I did not want to seem impolite around this princess by using up her sugar cubes. Even if I asked for some powdery sugar, she would probably think I'm rude.
Speaking of rudeness, I feigned a very innocent smile at Suzuna while thinking about how I would have to rewrite Lucy's story for her to not seem offended. I had caught a glimpse of Lucy's writings that featured Suzuna getting frozen in ice, as well as being damaged by it, and there was no way that I'd let this princess think that someone from Fairy Tail had the audacity to mock her. I turned around for a moment to see the staircase, and a guest room with some paper was the best thing I could hope to have in this castle. Some pens with blue ink would be nice, too, and I'd probably have to explain the situation to Lucy when I got back home to Magnolia.
Suzuna sipped her coffee in a loud manner, before placing it on the plate, and she sighed nicely at how her coffee tasted quite delicious. I didn't think that princesses would sip their drinks loudly, since Lucy was the Heartfilia heiress who sometimes reminded Natsu to have manners, but Suzuna probably needed help with certain table manners. I got up from my chair for a moment to get two more bowls of sugar cubes, and I quickly came back to my seat while placing them next to my cup of hot coffee. As I kept to myself, however, Suzuna lightly cleared her throat.
"Gray, how many lumps of sugar do you want in your coffee? Why are you barely drinking it?" Suzuna asked me with a curious facial expression, before kindly smiling.
I replied with a somewhat flustered look, not wanting to make her coffee seem bad, "I'd like 27 cubes of it, Suzuna! 37 lumps of sugar would make it sweeter, too!"
Suzuna asked me while looking surprised, "Gray, you want that much sugar in your coffee?"
I responded to her in a comical manner, trying to keep the princess focused on the coffee, "You know, maybe I should cut back to only having 36 lumps of sugar!"
That prompted Suzuna to giggle, before simply saying that I had a wacky sense of humor, so I felt pretty glad about making her laugh. We didn't have the best first impressions of each other in the snow-covered town, but I wanted her to not hate me while we would be training. If she didn't have a good bond with me, then we wouldn't be able to work well together. Training Suzuna to the best that she could possibly be would make her father proud, and he would give me a hefty reward for doing a great job. Suzuna drank down the rest of her coffee that had ten sugar cubes in it, and she'd definitely be hyped up for our training later.
She even placed seven sugar cubes into my peppermint mocha coffee, and they dissolved rapidly in the hot drink. Since I did not want this coffee to get cold, I proceeded to drink it down quite fast while loving how it tasted quite sweet. The peppermint mocha flavor was quite popular in the winter season, especially here in Seondan Town, and Suzuna probably had tons of peppermint mocha coffee in this castle. I gave her one last smile before Haruka walked towards us with some white plates that had food on them, and it would be good to eat lunch while the list wouldn't be our main focus before training.
Five hours later, in Seondan Town... (Lucy's POV)
After taking the train to the town of Seondan, I walked past some concession stands while trying to ignore how the temperature had dropped to where the air would be quite cold. The wind that blew past me felt chilly, but having a winter coat made me feel somewhat relieved about how I probably wouldn't end up freezing to death in this place. My current goal was to find Gray, since he got us both into this crazy situation, and I would be glad to get back those papers for my chapter. Gray's list of things to do for Suzuna was in the left pocket of my pink winter coat, and I would give the correct papers to him after throwing some snowballs in his direction.
I noticed some female mages walking out of a place that appeared to be their guild's building, and Gray might've stopped by that building on his way to meet the princess. Her castle was somewhat far from my current location, but she could be training with Gray right now in the tundra that had vicious blizzards. I couldn't possibly go to that area, especially since the ice-wielding enemies in the tundra could be very dangerous, and I would probably just have to be patient with finding Gray. If my unfinished chapter was taken to the paparazzi by Suzuna Azure, then I would definitely become infamous.
There was a brown wooden sign next to that building, and the sign informed me that the building belonged to the guild known as Kissaki Blizzard. Their guild's building appeared to be dark brown with a sapphire blue pitched roof, and there were two arched windows on both sides of the doorway. The guild's symbol seemed to be above the door, and it was simply a blue snowflake. I smiled nicely while deciding to walk through the entrance that already had its two thin doors open, but simply walking into Kissaki Blizzard caused me to get a weird reaction.
Some of the guild members who sat down at light blue circular tables gave me puzzled looks, which was understandable because of how they never even met me before, and I took seven more steps into the guild while taking notice of the request board that was a near a window on the right side of the guild. As I began to notice how no one in the guild resembled a princess, a girl with long purple hair that fell to her ankles chose to get up from her seat. She wore a spaghetti strap violet dress with black frills while it only left her stomach exposed, and black frills were also on the bracelets that she wore on her wrists.
"Can we help you with something, or are you one of the new wizards taking jobs in the afternoon shift?" She asked in a calm tone, before giving me a disapproving frown.
I replied with a concerned facial expression, really needing to find my friend, "I'm just here to see if a guy named Gray Fullbuster ever stopped by your guild. You see, he has some of my important papers while he's doing something with Suzuna Azure."
The girl with violet hair and violet eyes responded in a rude tone while frowning, "We don't have anyone named Gray in our guild, but here's an idea. You should go to the castle that obviously looks fancy, since everyone knows that the rich Suzuna Azure lives there. Also, my name is Miyuki Katsuda and I live two streets west from the concession stand that sells peppermint mocha coffees."
My reply to Miyuki didn't seem like a response that had any obvious answers, but her rudeness wouldn't get me anywhere in my search for Gray. I decided to just turn around for the purpose of walking out of the guild, only to hear Miyuki let out an annoyed sigh, and I got to hear her mutter some words about how escorting me to Suzuna's castle was better than the thought of me yelling in confusion while triggering a massive avalanche. Miyuki walked towards me at a quick pace, before going past the spot where I stood, and I just had to follow her.
As I went outside, my cocoa brown eyes were filled with some curiosity from seeing Miyuki run to the concession stand that sold coffees. She smiled politely to the white-haired vendor who somewhat resembled Natsu while handing him 1,000 jewels that she pulled out of the right pocket of her dress, and Miyuki proceeded to hastily run towards the castle with the coffees in her hands. I ran after her while running fast, thinking that she could give Gray and Suzuna those drinks after I surprised them, and it seemed like my mix-up with Gray would be an easy matter to handle.
Miyuki ran straight ahead to an area that was bordered by two large icicles on its left and right sides, which caused that part of Seondan Town to really stand out, and I felt surprised to actually see the castle where Princess Azure resided. There was a green-haired woman who stood in front of the path that led to the castle's entrance doors, and she looked somewhat stern while appearing to act as a guard. That was interesting, since she looked like a maid, but I made sure to stand close to Miyuki for the purpose of avoiding possible trouble.
The woman chose to look at me, which made me have a determined facial expression from how I planned to see Gray, but trying to walk past her only caused the maid to extend her right arm for me to not be permitted to enter. I frowned at her while starting to impatiently tell her about my desire to see Gray, but she gave me a kind smile while starting a lecture about how Suzuna Azure couldn't accept visitors right now because of how she was exercising with her new icy instructor. That made me begin to smile, though, and I felt glad that Gray was here.
Miyuki told the woman in a calm tone while handing her the white cup that was in her left hand, "Haruka, I got your favorite coffee. If we're just touring the castle as wizards, then there's no problem."
Haruka replied kindly while accepting the coffee and stepping aside, "You and your guest can enter the castle, Miyuki. However, please don't stay inside after Princess Azure asks that the doors be locked at midnight."
Miyuki responded to her while walking up the path, looking somewhat annoyed, "As long as this blonde doesn't slow me down and waste my time, then we'll be fine."
That merely caused me to groan in an annoyed manner while running past the maid, and I made sure to run at high speeds to where I could reach the castle's front doors before Miyuki. I ran quite fast to where the doors were mere inches away from me, and I pushed them opened with my hands while looking determined to not let my story be jeopardized by Suzuna thinking that it would need to be public news for everyone to read. I started to pant softly from running, and I took some steps into the foyer that looked very amazing.
My eyes shifted to the left and right sides of the castle's foyer while I wondered if going through the doorway would lead me to a different set of stairs, but I soon heard the sounds of someone giggling in a pleased manner. It seemed like that person was in a room located upstairs, which prompted me to go up to the next floor, and could only take a few steps up the staircase before hearing Gray laugh happily. I recognized his voice, and that caused me to gasp in shock while not caring that Miyuki stood at the base of the staircase with an annoyed facial expression. Gray and Princess Suzuna must've been training, but something caused my heart to beat more while walking up the stairs. I really wanted my papers back, but I started feeling like Gray and I really needed to see each other.
How was Chapter 3? Did you like it? Sorry for the one-year wait, but I've been so busy! Anyway, please leave your thoughts on the chapter. Also, Miyuki is an OC of mine.