~~LoLu~~

Chapter 15

~~LoLu~~

The inn at one end of the small town of Garnet was comfortable enough, Lucy was surprised to find, though nothing special. It truthfully seemed like a thousand other inns that could be found anywhere in Fiore, just as the town itself seemed.

On the surface.

But look just beneath, and everything changed.

This place is just a... a facade, Lucy thought to herself as she looked around, trying to keep her interest casual. She didn't want to give them away to anyone who might be watching – and there were things watching. That much was entirely clear just from the feel of the eyes on her skin. She just wasn't sure who was doing the watching – or what they were looking for.

She glanced at her companion, wondering what he was sensing. I'll ask him when we're alone and safe from prying eyes and ears, she decided. For some reason, she was very interested in Loke's impressions of this place. Of course, he'd already said he wasn't going to like it here, but he didn't really elaborate, not that he really could right then, I suppose.

Unfortunately, the damned man was still wearing those black jeans and that half-unbuttoned matching shirt, and though the look was very casual, it was also very enticing. The part of Lucy's brain not concentrated on their surroundings was quite well enjoying the visual, and cheerfully taunting her with said enjoyment on the return.

Loke, at least, looked completely unaware of her scrutiny, and it was possible he was – he was a lion on the hunt, all his senses peeled to their circumstances. Lucy pouted at herself in realization. Here she was lusting over her lion, and he was paying attention to what he should be – their mission. Time to take herself in hand, then.

Forcibly returning her attention strictly to their surroundings, she found herself assisted by a strange feeling that teased at her for fragments of a second, and then faded. She almost stopped in surprise at the feel of it and then its disappearance, but managed to keep moving like nothing was wrong. Though the citizens seemed all that was normal, there was no telling whether they were or not, so she couldn't afford to be careless.

Her stride hitched once again just momentarily, this time enough for Loke to notice, before she continued on. "What's wrong, love?" he asked in a careless manner, wanting to appear as nothing more than an innocent couple visiting the area. "Feeling a little under the weather? That train ride was a little rough, I know," he continued, mostly for the benefit of the people around them so as not to arouse any suspicion.

It took the blonde a moment to figure out what he was doing. "Oh! Um, yeah, sorta," she agreed, looking away a little tiredly. It was no stretch, she was tired, though not physically. "It's just been a really, really long day," she finally sighed. Then she smiled a little and reached for his arm, letting him lead her. "But I'll be okay once we get a room and can get some sleep."

The lion watched her from beneath a copper fringe, his eyes sharp for just a moment, and then he nodded. "The inn should be right up ahead, we'll be there momentarily, beautiful. Just hang in a few more minutes."

She gave him a small, sleepy smile. "Okay."

Loke's heart pounded hard just once at the sight. She looked adorable right then, rubbing at weary eyes like a small child who'd stayed up too late and just wanted their bed. He smiled a little to himself at the thought as he reached out and slid open the doors for them, then guided her into the reception area. There appeared to be a decent amount of activity in the place as he looked appraisingly around, nothing suspicious to meet the eye. Though he was just as convinced as he'd been the moment they'd stepped off the train that this place was anything but innocent, it certainly conveyed that visual perfectly.

Without a further word he started for the clerk, who was eyeing them with a bland, polite smile and slightly inquisitive look.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"I'd like a single room, please," he replied with a charming return smile. He tightened his fingers around Lucy's hand as her own twitched when he asked for a single, but she didn't respond to that in any other way, which he was glad for. He hadn't really thought to mention that in order to pull off their cover, which was a simple tourist couple, they'd have to share a room, and he wasn't entirely certain such a thing had occurred to her on its own. Which, it now appeared that it hadn't, but they could talk about it later, once they were in their room and had made sure it was not being monitored.

It didn't take a second for Lucy to realize she should have thought of the fact they'd be in very close quarters here, but there was no help for it, and she knew that. (Not that she would be averse to such a thing under other circumstances, if she were telling the truth.) But these weren't other circumstances, so she simply continued to go along with the ploy. The warmth of his fingers in hers, though, was a tad overwhelming to the young woman, and-

That same strange feeling prickled over her again, and she shivered, though she managed to keep her face straight. But she was sure Loke had noticed something was wrong by now, and knew she'd be getting interrogated the moment it was safe.

"The lady looks tired," the clerk said with professional courtesy and a sympathetic smile as she took care of the registration. "How long will you be staying?"

Shrugging, Loke glanced down easily at the woman on his arm, who looked up at him in question. Their eyes held a moment and then he turned and said, "My princess is fairly worn out – we have been traveling a great deal lately. I suppose four days won't be a stretch. She can rest up, and then we can see how she's feeling before deciding further."

The clerk simply nodded and took the information and his payment, then handed him a key. "I hope you enjoy your stay in Garnet, then. Your room is on the second floor at the north end of the hall, you can take that staircase there and it will lead you right to it. There's only one other guest on that end, so it should be fairly quiet for your lady."

Loke thanked the woman and turned, immediately leading Lucy towards the indicated stairs. Well, so far, so good... I think.

Now all they had to do was get themselves settled, find Makarov's contact – and get something to eat.

~~LoLu~~

Neither had said a word as they'd located their room and then slipped inside, Loke shutting the door quietly but firmly, and locking it. Then he turned and slid something out of his pocket.

He and Lucy both looked at it, and Loke shook his head with a small smile. It was an odd little device that Levy had pressed on them as they were preparing to leave the guild – something she'd cooked up that would keep anyone from using magic to spy on them when they were wherever it had been set up, while feeding any possible listeners the magical equivalent of background noise. He set it down on the little table by the bed, and then surged just a faint bit of his power into it as the clever little script mage had explained, and voila – they could now speak freely.

The blonde let out a whooshing breath and sighed in relief. Clearly, the need to watch everything she said or did was weighing on her, but Loke couldn't blame her, because he was truthfully just as tense.

"What had you twitching so much on the way up here?"

Lucy blinked, then pouted, a cute frown furrowing her brow. "I don't know," she replied, sitting down on the end of the bed and looking toward the window. "It's so vague I can't make heads nor tails of it. I just... every so often, I get a very tiny prod to my memory – like there's something familiar somewhere here. Something I've felt or sensed before. But it's not a strong sense... it's like something that I noticed once in passing," she scowled and then closed her eyes and rubbed at her brow in frustration. "Anyway, I don't know how else to say it. But I'm definitely paying attention, so if I figure it out I'll let you know."

Leaning against a wall with his hands casually in his pockets, he looked thoughtful. He hadn't really noticed anything that he could say was familiar, so all he could do was let her think about it and keep his own senses on alert. (Which he was doing anyway.) "Familiar," he parroted, looking at the floor absently as he thought out loud. "Well, besides the feeling of being in danger, which anyone from Fairy Tail should be familiar with-" he chuckled mordantly, "-I can't say I've noticed anything specific or that I've sensed anywhere else. Although... it's almost like this place is a living entity itself... like the very landscape and everything in it is watching us. It's outrageously intense."

"At least for anyone with any magic," Lucy agreed. Loke wasn't exaggerating, she decided, because yes, that was a very good description for how this place felt.

"Well-" he pulled one hand from his pocket and glanced down at the number on the key, "-I'm imagining that the 'only other guest' on this side is our man. The room number Makarov gave us should be down this hall just a little further. What do you want to do? It's getting late and we need to get something to eat, but we also need to make contact as soon as possible. We can eat first and then track our guy down, or get to business first and wait to eat until later. Up to you, Princess."

"I'm not really hungry-" she blushed and he grinned as her stomach chose that moment to show its displeasure quite loudly, and her lower lip poked out as she stared at him reproachfully. "... Jerk," she muttered under her breath. "Fine, I'm hungry, but I can wait. We'd better get on with business first. Then we can get something, come back here, and discuss what we're going to do next while we eat."

Loke shook his head, still grinning, and straightened. "Then let's go," he chuckled. "Wouldn't want to make your stomach wait too long – it almost sounded like a roaring lion on the hunt for a meal. I'm not looking to be on the menu." Then he seemed to rethink that statement and leered at her. "Well, unless-"

He was stopped by a hand in the face as Lucy brushed past him towards the door with a dour look. "Can it, pervert. This isn't the time for your infernal flirting."

"But-"

She shot him a threatening glare, and he put up his hands in surrender and gave with a laugh.

"Alright, alright, I got it. I'll save the flirting for later."

"Hmph." She flounced out the door with her nose in the air, though with a tiny smile he didn't miss, and Loke chuckled to himself. All he'd really been trying to do was lighten her mood, and he'd succeeded so he let the matter go, closing the door to their room behind him and pocketing the key.

The two ambled seemingly aimlessly down the hall despite the fact that no one else was visible anywhere, and the silence was almost too deep. Both kept a discreet eye on the room numbers, but as they reached the right length of hall for the number Makarov had given them, a door a few feet away suddenly flew open, and a large, hulking shadow appeared.

"Hurry and come in," it said in a surprisingly soft but gruff voice, "before someone jus' so happens ta come along an' see somethin' they really don' need ta."

Both Loke and Lucy came to startled halts with their defenses up at the opening door and the voice coming out of the blue. They glanced at each other and then back at the doorway a little suspiciously. Sure, they were near the room number they needed and they knew there was only one guest down this hall, but there was no guaranteeing this man was who he appeared to be.

"How do you-"

"I'm sens'tive," the voice said, becoming a little snappy. "I can feel traces of Master M's magic on ya. Now get in 'ere," he said insistently, finally sticking a large, bearded head out the door to look down the corridor. Then he reached out and grabbed the couple and drew them swiftly into the room, shutting the door firmly behind them all with a sigh.

After a moment the man turned and shook his head at them. "Sorry. Know you're prolly suspicious an' all, but we really need ta be damn careful 'ere." He ran a hand through disheveled, shaggy brown hair, then turned and made his way further into the room towards a table. "Name's Gaults. I s'pose you're Loke and Lucy, least, them's the names Makarov gave me. Come take a seat and let's get down ta cases, why don' we?"

"Uh, well, okay," Lucy finally sputtered out after exchanging a rather incredulous glance with her lion, who had on the same disconcerted expression she was sure she did. "Yeah, Lucy and Loke. Nice to meet you... I think..."

Loke just shook his head after he'd regathered his senses and led his mistress to the table, where Gaults was now taking a seat in a seemingly flimsy chair that protested his bulk. Big, it wasn't a matter of fat, but sheer bulky muscle. The man really kind of looked like a bear, if truth were to be told. In fact, he rather reminded Loke of Ursa Major, the celestial bear.

The 'bear' gave a long exhale and though his body position didn't change, it almost seemed as if he'd slumped. Now that Loke's eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, he could see that the man looked tired, as if he'd been under a lot of strain lately. With where they were and what they were doing, that wasn't too surprising. What was surprising was that, despite that weary air, the man looked perfectly capable of swiping a person's head right off their shoulders and fighting his way out of a bad situation with only the strength in his meaty arms. He was just dangerous, tired or not. In fact, that might even make him more dangerous.

"So, anyway," Gaults said, looking at Lucy from beneath shaggy, beetling brows, "you're the one as they used Marionette on, so's you know wha' we're up against. Heard tell you ain't 'xactly human anymore, partly 'cause a' this mess."

Loke started to frown, becoming worried that Lucy would take the blunt reminder too hard, but was taken aback when she looked fierce and angry, instead. She just nodded once, sharply, and the other man shook his head.

"Well, then you're goin' ta be happy ta get your hands on the one's as responsible for that. Guy by the name 'a Varrick Vashton – least, tha's wha' he's callin' hisself." Gaults shrugged. "Migh' be his real 'un, migh' not. My guess is not. But anyways, from wha' we've been able ta dig up, he showed up here in Garnet 'bout fifteen years ago. Bough' a place out a' town a ways, big spread, and jus' called it The Ranch. Then he quietly began bringin' in others a year 'r so later, one or two at a time so's no one would be suspicious, I reckon."

Leaning back in his seat, Loke ran an absent finger around the part of the table in front of him. "And there was never any trouble with any of them? They were just all perfect residents all this time?"

"Seems so," the big man shrugged again, then folded his arms over his chest, making himself look even bigger. "Tha residents here don' have anythin' odd ta say about them, anyway. How them people got ahold of anyone ta practice their evil magic on beats me, though, 'cause there ain't any tell of disappearances 'round here, neither. I guess they coulda jus' gone ta other places and nabbed victims," he squinted thoughtfully, "but otherwise, tha's a mystery."

"So what about the mage we had the run-in with... Delenn?" Lucy asked. "Where does he fit in?"

"Ah, that 'un," Gaults grunted. "Guess he had a fallin' out with Varrick an' jus' up an' left one day. Nothin' more ta say, really. Folks here don' seem ta know nothin' 'bout what goes on ou' there on The Ranch, so they couldn't really give any details. An' we got ta be careful, anyway, an' not be askin' all these nosy questions, ya see? It ain't easy gettin' info on locals while not seemin' ta be fishin' for details on things as ya shouldn' really be concerned with anyways."

Lucy blinked a little bemusedly, almost wanting to fall asleep at the way of speaking this strange man had. But while his words themselves might seem simple, it was clear he was anything but. And she had the odd little suspicion that he might be exaggerating his oddly-lyrical speech just a bit. If you're wanting not to rouse suspicion, seeming to be on the slightly dim side would definitely quell that.

"So in other words, the background history is on the vague and shaky side," she nodded to herself. "That's disappointing, but I suppose we don't need to know all the details to put an end to what they're doing."

"Tha's about righ', 'lil lady. Although somethin' odd did come out, which I wouldn' prolly mention 'cept as you're spirits. From wha' we could gather, the ones as leave The Ranch an' travel aroun' for a while an' then come back, well, they've been a'collectin' all the celestial keys they can find. They bring 'em back here an' give 'em to Varrick, an' then they get locked away somewheres, an' tha's that."

"What?" Lucy blurted, eyes wide, as Loke sat up straight in equal surprise at that very unexpected piece of information.

"Got any reason why, at all?" the lion queried sharply, his brows furrowed.

Their reactions were met with a rusty chuckle. "Nope, no' a one."

"Well, damn," he replied as he sat back again and stared at the tabletop with a frown. "I can't see how it could possibly play into all this, but I guess there isn't anything we can do about it for right now. Once we get this Varrick guy, we can look into that side of things, but for now I guess we'll just have to put it aside." He glanced at Lucy to see her reaction.

She nodded after a moment more. "Yeah," she blew out a reluctant breath, ruffling her bangs, "I don't like it, but without any further info there isn't much we can do about it right now."

Gaults nodded, glancing between the two approvingly. Then he unfolded his arms and leaned forward. "If tha's tha' case, then let's ge' talkin' 'bout wha' you really need ta know. Got any questions?"

"I'd like numbers, types of mages, and how many can actually use Marionette. Where exactly The Ranch is, how many buildings there are and how they're laid out, you know, things like that. Give us everything you've got," Loke replied instantly.

His demands were met with a laugh. "Don' ask much, do ya? Well, don' worry, then. I can give ya wha' you're wantin' ta know. Le's start with numbers, shall we?"

Lucy nodded and took out a notepad from her bag, flipping it open and then withdrawing a magic pen from her little purse, as well. "Alright, I'm ready," she stated firmly, holding the pen up in preparation to jot down everything they were told. Both men chuckled a little at her serious, determined expression.

"Here we go, then, lil' lady," the burly man sent back in a business-like manner. "First..."

~~LoLu~~

An hour or so later, thoroughly briefed, the two left Gault's room on the sly and headed back to their own. Loke unlocked the door, but then caught Lucy's arm as she went to step inside. "Hey, um, why don't you go in and relax. I'll go get us something to eat, and then we can talk about things when I get back. Anything in particular you'd like?"

The blonde paused and thought about it, but then shook her head and said in a low tone, "It'd be safer to stick together. What if something happened while you were gone? If we are being watched, we don't want to give anyone a chance to separate us."

Loke had to reluctantly agree with that; while he wished she would stay behind and try to rest, he wouldn't have allowed her to go off on her own, so he couldn't really say anything against her concern. With a sigh he pulled the door shut again and led her on down the corridor, back towards the stairs. "Well, in that case, look more tired," he told her. "You had that look earlier when we checked in and that's the excuse we used for being here, so we don't want to change that perception now."

Look more tired? You mean, I don't already look dead on my feet? she wondered. I certainly feel like it. But she simply agreed quietly and allowed her shoulders to slump a little and her eyes to droop. It wasn't a difficult switch, she'd actually been having to struggle to look on her toes and professional in front of Gaults, because she really was tired, and not just inwardly, now.

She was also beginning to feel the mortal realm eating at her energy more than it had to begin with, and that was adding to the effect. She strongly suspected that if it weren't for the fact that she'd been human all her life until recently and her body remembered that, she'd be feeling the loss more. She shuddered inwardly; she couldn't even imagine now how Loke had survived three years of this world eating away at his life force. It was such a lucky chance that he had, and then that she'd arrived just in time to save him from the consequences of faulty celestial laws and the results of Karen's cruelty.

I would never have gotten to know such an amazing person, she took in fully for the first time. It was a frightening realization. It would have been a devastating loss, in her opinion, not just for her, but for everyone. Loke really was an amazing man, there were no other words for it.

She exhaled slowly and deeply as he led her out of the inn after inquiring into acceptable dining facilities at the desk. "Tired enough looking, for you?" she chuckled under her breath as they walked down the street. "Geez, when did this day even start, anyway? I can't remember – it feels like maybe a lifetime ago, honestly."

Loke just shot her a "Really?" sort of expression over his shoulder, his eyes twinkling wryly at her sarcasm, but all he said was, "It does kind of feel that way, doesn't it?" in agreement, because it certainly did seem as though this morning was a lifetime ago. In some ways, it had been.

Maybe more than one.

~~LoLu~~

A/N: To the reviewers on both sites, thank you for your continuing support for this story and kind words! I hope I can continue to deliver a satisfying tale to my readers.

Dozo yoroshiku onegai shimasu,

(Please regard me kindly)

Amber