Chapter 13
The girls submersed themselves in the decadent depths of the simmering cleansing water of the hot springs. Ever half-dozed against one corner while the others chit chatted away.
"Oh, this feels wonderful," Erza stated.
"Soooo," Meredy said out of the blue. "I just want to make sure I don't step on any toes here. I was curious who is into who?"
"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.
"She means out of our motley male members of Fairy Tail, who we each like," Mira smiles.
Meredy merely nodded in response.
"Natsu would be a better fighter if he could get his spontaneity under control," Erza stated and before she could go on a tangent of all the guys' battle prowess Mira interjected.
"She means like in the romantic sense, Erza."
"Oh, I don't...hmm... well I don't like any of the Fairy Tail boys. They are too much like family to have any romantic entanglement with one." Her difficulty in making this announcement was not overlooked by the girls.
"So that would leave either Hibiki or Jellal." Meredy said with a finger poised at her chin.
Erza stuttered for a second, "I...I...didn't say I liked any of our travel companions."
Lucy snickered, "No you said you didn't like any of the Fairy Tail boys. That's guilt by omission."
"Mm, I'd agree," Mira stated.
"Eh, it's okay. I am pretty sure I already know who Erza likes." Meredy smirked.
Erza merely blushed in response.
"Honestly, I think we all know who she likes. Just like we know that Ever likes Elfman."
Ever while dozing muttered, "Real man...pssh.."
The other girls giggled furiously. "Lucy likes Natsu," Mira stated. "And they are soooo cute together." Hearts started dancing in her eyes.
"I really wish you would give that up, Mira. Last time you said that you made me believe that he had asked me out on a date. All he wanted was to use Virgo to dig up some holes." Lucy sighed. She wouldn't admit the emotional damage that day caused her. "I think Mira likes Freed."
Mira shrugged at Lucy. "What's not to like? He's handsome, has long luscious hair, eyelashes any girl would kill for, not to mention that adorable mole under his left eye. He also is a gentleman and extremely chivalrous."
"What about when he fought you at the time of the Fantasia Festival? I wouldn't say that was very chivalrous of him." Erza asked curiously.
"No, but he unintentionally gifted back my magic power and honestly that's probably what opened up my heart to him in the first place. But enough about me. Do you have anyone you like, Yukino?"
"Oooh, I bet it is either Sting or Rogue." Lucy stated.
Yukino's face turned red and she suddenly seemed to find the stars in the sky extremely interesting.
oOo
The boys tried not to splash around the water all that much so they could eavesdrop on the girls' conversation.
Erza didn't really answer but Jellal knew her feelings for him. He would have to be...well...the easiest comparison he could think of was Natsu. The boy was enthusiastic but he rarely used any deductive reasoning.
Natsu, for once, was glad Happy wasn't with him. The blue exceed didn't even want to get his paws wet let alone soak in the hot springs. He would have teased the partners excessively if he had heard the conversation the girls were having. Natsu found himself surprised that Lucy thought he asked her on a date. That did explain her over-enhanced scent that night. (Stupid smelly female stuff!) Her outfit also seemed more like something she would wear on a special occasion too now that he thought about it. So he would just have to ask her properly on a date. But he wasn't really sure how he asked her the first time. The boy groaned as his head started to ache from overuse.
Elfman tried to deny that there was anything between him and Ever. Freed merely turned to him and said, "You know a real man would admit his true feelings not deny them."
Freed blushed when he heard Mira's admission. To think centerfold beauty Mira would think of him like that. Freed didn't often consider his own worth. He was merely a part of the thunder legion, a part of a cohesive unit. But perhaps that wasn't all he was.
As for Mira's appreciation for his looks. His mole always annoyed him. He even one time attempted to have it magically removed. His eyelashes he knew about, many girls made the same observation. He momentarily wondered what Mira had thought of his hair when he cut it. But she was sure she appreciated his longer hair more and was excessively thankful to have grown it out.
OOo
They all met back up in the girls room twenty minutes later. The food had been brought in and the conversation began.
"I honestly think we should try to help this village out. I am tired of hearing about all the slave trading regarding Bosco. I can't guarantee that we will completely shut them down but maybe it will make the other bandits in the area think twice," Lucy stated.
"Agreed, the delinquents must be taught what morals are," Erza stated.
"We do have a week before we can get on another train, and it's not like we didn't know this excursion would take awhile." Hibiki commented.
"All in favor of taking the request?"
Throughout the whole room a chorus of ayes rang out, except for Natsu who's aye came out garbled from the amount of food he inhaled. Everyone was in agreement that they all would do their part to help out the town.
The night ended when Natsu instigated an impromptu pillow fight by lobbing a pillow at Lucy. Lucy groaned and attempted to lob one back at him but hit Elfman instead. Elfman jumped exclaiming how manly a pillow fight was. Ever openly glared at him, grabbed a pillow and shoved it in his face. "It's not manly at all! Teenage girls tend to have pillow fights during slumber parties." Regardless of the verbal disagreement the pillow fight carried on for about ten minutes more. It only stopped because Lucy almost inhaled a few errant feathers.
Happy openly guffawed at Lucy and managed to fly out of range of the Lucy kick sent his way.
oOo
Natsu looked down at his drooling companion and found himself envying Happy in that moment. He had been sleeping off and on since they had all took the trip to the hot springs. Normally Natsu himself could sleep like the dead. The trouble was between his brain not wanting to shut off, and Elfman's snoring he found himself wide awake. He kept replaying the night that left Lucy thinking it was a date, wishing he could replicate how he had asked her out. What had he said? It was something about having to tell her something. Would it be that simple to just say something like that again and blurt out that he thought he had feelings for her? Should he even risk it?
She and Happy were the closest people to him. The whole guild was his family but those two in particular were more than that. They were more than his best friends, more than his teammates, and the way he felt about Lucy was far different than how he felt about Happy.
He didn't care as much about disappointing Happy. But when he disappointed Lucy he felt the guilt throb off him in waves. If guilt had a scent to anyone other than a dragon slayer he wreaked of it when disappointing her.
Hell, Gajeel wreaked of it a lot himself when he was hovering around Levy. Can't say as I blame the iron faced ape. I would feel guilty too if I had done something like tied a woman to a tree and threatened Fairy Tail by marking her as some kind of warning.
Feeling guilty whenever he was being foolish or making a mistake was so new for him. It metaphorically knocked him off his gravitational axis and made him mentally stumble. Sure he felt guilty when scolded by Mira and Makarov. Guilty about disappointing Lucy was a wholly altogether different sensation. But that guilt was just the tip of the iceberg with how different he felt about her.
When had it happened though? He knew that the night she questioned and thought was a date he had no inkling he felt different about her. So when did it change?
Then his brain conjured up a moment he would have liked to forget. A moment he wished he had never witnessed. It conjured up the moment he had to witness Lucy's death with his own eyes. In that moment he felt rage toward Future Rogue. But his chest had also ached with the loss. If it hadn't been for the fact that the current Lucy was still alive and right beside him he probably would have completely shut down.
Yet, that couldn't have been the moment he started to feel this way. Sure he felt a part of himself had broken on the inside and afterward things he felt around Lucy started to register differently. He had to have started feeling this way at another moment in time.
His brain replayed a montage of moments with her. The first time they met in Hargeon. The moment she wore that maid costume that still hung in his closet. The gutsy moment she jumped from the Phantom Lord Headquarter's sky prison knowing he would be there to catch her when she fell. That time she was sick and he felt a need to cheer her up by uprooting the tree so she wouldn't miss Magnolia's blossom-viewing. Seeing Lucy be used as part of that infernal infinity clock. The moments Lucy was fighting in the Grand Magic Games and he felt pride for how powerful she truly was, especially the fight against Flare. He could hear a pin drop from a mile away but he had been the only of the dragon slayers to act upon how she had uttered the name Asuka.
Somehow it dawned on him then. It wasn't one moment that made up when he had these feelings for her. It had been something that was built over time. With that realization in mind his brain finally calmed and he was able to get some well needed sleep.