Sorry for the delay everyone, but here's chapter 7! Hope you like it~
"Hell, it's been a while since I've come here." Gray commented as he studied the familiar café that Sting led him, or rather, pulled him to.
The place's name was Newcastle Café and it was your typical, run of the mill eatery, however it served the best coffee in Magnolia, making it rather popular. The inside was mainly red and black with booths lining the windows, which showed the cobblestone streets beyond. Tables were laid out along the sides and a long bar was positioned precisely in the middle. It was behind there that ladies in aprons and skirts fumbled about, running orders from the kitchen out to the hungry customers.
To Gray it looked as though the place hadn't aged a day.
"You've been here before?" Lyon questioned as he crossed his arms and sent the décor a bored look before glancing back at his comrade.
"Yeah, back when I lived in Magnolia I would come here often with…." He paused before waving the subject off, "Nah, never mind."
The elder ice maker opened his mouth to push the subject further; however he was interrupted by a cheery voice,
"Hey, come on, there's an empty booth over here!"
The raven was yanked from both his thoughts and his balance as Sting pulled him sideways into a red plush booth, a grin on his face.
The white haired male huffed in annoyance.
Across from them, the younger ice maker could vaguely make out the forms of Rogue and Lyon as they took the remaining two seats. They both wore neutral expressions and seemed bored to be there, whilst Sting was energetic and Gray, to put it simply, was puzzled.
"So what are you guys doing around here?"
Rogue gave a slight shrug in response and Sting rolled his eyes at his friend's silence before responding,
"We were getting some food for Frosh and Lector, they eat a hell of a lot."
"Frosh and Lector…?" He repeated, blinking at them in confusion.
"They're our cats." The blonde explained, his gaze drifting from the raven to the opened menu before him, "I don't think you ever got the chance to meet them."
"No, I guess not…" The ice maker's words trailed off and he instead took to studying the menu, the awkward feeling that originally haunted him slowly drifting away.
"So, are you gonna tell us what the hell happened to you or not?"
And the awkward feeling returned full force.
"Oh, well…" He rubbed the back of his head nervously, his gaze not leaving the plastic menu, "Like I said, it's a long story…"
"Long story my ass," Sting scoffed, "Hell, Gray, we thought you were dead. I thought I was seeing things when we passed by you. What happened? How did you survive Deliora?"
Subtly, Lyon perked up at the question, wanting to know the answer as well. Even after all these years of working with the boy he had never managed to pry the full story from him. He was as stubborn as he was closed off.
Unfortunately, but rather predictably, the raven clamped shut. He refused to dwell deeper into the events that led to his disappearance from his hometown. Instead he merely shrugged and went back to paying complete attention to the list before him,
"The whole thing is a blur, really. Hell if I know exactly what happened. All I can remember is waking up after blacking out from Deliora to a woman named Ur tending to me. I stayed with her in Isvan until I got my strength back and then became an apprentice of hers along with Lyon here. She was a master ice sculptor and, well, now we continue her work."
Only the last part of that was true, the white haired man knew as much, however he also knew better than to voice it. Gray's lies to his old friends were his business and his alone.
"Really? Damn, that's rough dude. I'm sorry 'bout that." Sting looked as though he wanted to ask more questions, although he seemed to also know better than to pry any further.
"Yeah…" He cleared his throat, "Anyway, what have you guys been doing?"
"Eh, ya know, martial arts and all, nothing really all that new." The blonde shrugged, deciding on an entrée, "But on that topic I-…."
His sentence cut off as a blue haired, short, waitress came over,
"Hi," She smiled, flipping open the small notebook she held with one hand while the other had a pencil at the ready, "Sorry to make you guys wait, it's been extremely hectic around here today. "
The blonde smiled back at her, raising two fingers before waving them slightly at her in a 'no biggie' manner,
"No problem, this place sure looks packed today anyway."
The raven took to silently studying the petite female as she chatted idly with Sting and Rogue, acting as though she was already well acquainted with the duo. Perhaps they did know each other, that idea alone wasn't so far-fetched; however there was something else about her that stood out; something that the ice sculptor couldn't quite lay his finger on.
"So, who are your friends?" The waitress asked, glancing from the white haired, bored looking male to the black haired boy, who seemed deep in thought. For one reason or another she thought he looked familiar.
"Oh, right. Sorry Levy, I almost forgot. The guy sitting next to Rogue that looks like he hates life is Lion-,"
"My name is Lyon, idiot." Said male grunted, his voice dripping with irritation.
"Oh, right. Anyways and you'll never believe this, but the guy sitting next to me is G-.."
"-Silver." Gray swiftly interrupted the blonde, his blood running cold as he finally recognized just where he had seen that girl before. Shit, why the hell did the world hate him so much? "My name is Silver."
"Silver?" Sting repeated, staring at the boy beside him as though he had grown an extra head, just to receive an 'I'll explain later' glance.
"Oh, well, it's nice to meet you Lyon, Silver." The blue haired waitress offered them another smile before shifting her gaze to the small notebook she held, "What can I get you all to drink?"
"Uh, "Sting finally pried his dazed look from Gray in order to glance down at the menu, "Coffee will be fine…"
"I'll have unsweet tea." Rogue mumbled.
"Great! And for you two?"
"Iced water, please." Gray muttered to which Lyon nodded, indicating that he too wanted that drink.
"Alright. Do you know what you want for a meal yet or do you want a few more minutes?"
The four boys shared an indecisive look before the blonde spoke up,
"We'll need a few more minutes."
"That's fine! I'll be back with your drinks soon!"
It was as soon as Levy left that Gray received the question that he just knew was coming,
"So, what the hell was that all about? Why'd you tell her that your name was Silver? Weren't you friends or something before you left?"
It took all of the younger ice maker's will not to snicker. Even if you used that term loosely to describe their relationship it still wouldn't fit quite right, but then again, they didn't exactly need to know that.
"I'm only here for the remainder of the week." He muttered, his gaze drifting once more out the window, "I don't want to see everyone again, hell, I just want to stay on the down low."
Across from him he could vaguely hear Lyon mutter a 'well you're doing a great job of that' under his breath, to which the raven frowned and kicked his leg from under the table.
"Well, I can't say I understand you, man. Actually, I don't understand anything about you at the moment, but that's alright, I guess. It's just nice to see you again."
Gray couldn't help but agree. Sting and Rogue were one of the few who never actually teased him for not being from Fiore and for not being quite as fit as the other boys were. After all, it wasn't his fault that he hit puberty later than most of the others. They were the only ones who actually settled with treating him like a human, even going so far as to protect him from bullies when they were around.
"Yeah… It's nice to see you guys again too…"
It was the truth.
He was met with a short nod from the blonde before the table was absorbed in silence, everyone either deciding what they want to order or at a loss for conversation. By this point it was rather obvious that Lyon and Rogue would speak very little, regardless about the topic at hand, so it was up to Sting and Gray to uphold a steady stream of chatter or run the risk of sitting in an awkward silence.
"So, I'm guessing you're not a part of the Fairy Tail gym anymore, right?" Sting inquired as he added the desired amount of cream and sugar into his coffee whilst Rogue seemed to be rather content with drinking his tea bitter.
"That's right."
"Have you joined another Gym back in Isvan?"
The raven shook his head slightly,
"No, there aren't many guilds there."
A smile lit up the blonde's face at the information and he shared a look with Rogue before glancing back at Gray,
"You're familiar with the Grand fighting games, right?"
"Of course. It's the biggest Martial arts competition in Fiore." He paused, his drink teetering at the edge of his lips as he suddenly narrowed his eyes at the man sitting beside him, "Why do you ask?"
"Well…" Sting glanced over at Rogue before continuing, "Our gym, Sabertooth, Is still looking into what members will be a part of our team. Of course Rogue and I am a shoe in because we are the best fighters they got, but if I remember right you weren't too shabby yourself. You had the skill, just not the strength when we were younger." He looked the raven up and down before smirking, "But that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore…"
Across from them Gray could vaguely make out the sound of his comrade scoffing, of which he ignored in favor of giving the blonde a questioning look. He was about to ask him to explain what he meant when the silver haired man stood up and stretched,
"Well, I'm bored as hell. If you can excuse me there's a beautiful women over there that I'm going to talk to."
The younger of the two ice workers couldn't help but roll his eyes at his elder's words.
"Go knock yourself out, snow cone."
"Shut up, brat."
With a slight wave of his hand the albino left the table and went over to talk to a fellow blue haired woman across the restaurant. Her hair was roughly the same color as Levy's, although it was longer and curled. Her back was turned to him, so he could only come up with a rough estimate as to what she truly looked like; not that he actually cared all that much.
Instead he focused his attention back on the scarred man beside him, who seemed to have been blabbering further on about the GFG while he was lost in thought.
"- so we are still looking for two more people to join our team for the competition." The blonde finished.
"What exactly does that have to do with me?"
"I..- " He cleared his throat, " We want you to come in and show us just what you've got. We'd love to have you on our team for the games. So, what do you say? Wanna try and become a part of the future winning gym?"
The dark blue haired male snickered before spinning his cup around, watching absentmindedly as the ice swirled and licked the rim of the glass; threatening to spill at any moment,
"You're joking, right? I told you I'm only here for business, man, I have no intentions of participating in any competitions."
"Well, that's no fun." Sting chuckled and slung his arm around the back of the booth; his forearm brushing ever so slightly against the raven's coat, "Look, I know you don't want to make a big deal about coming back and all, but I also know that you have a vendetta against the losers in the Fairy Tail gym; especially a certain dyed- pink haired boy. Don't tell me you're passing up the chance to get your revenge."
The raven stiffened slightly and released his glass, ignoring the clatter it made as it regained its upright position,
"And how exactly would you know that, Sting?"
His tone was cool and collected however inwardly he could feel his anger returning at the mere mention of Natsu. How the hell did he know so much about what happened in the past?
"Come on, Gray, what do you take me for?" The blonde mused, "I know how he – how they all - treated you when we were kids. Now's your chance to show them that you aren't that little weakling anymore; that you are better than them."
The raven stared silently at the male beside him before glancing down at the table, his fingers fiddling with the necklace around his neck. No matter how much he wanted to deny everything Sting was saying it was the truth. This could very well be the chance he had been waiting for. He could finally show the Fairy Tail Gym that he was so much more than their honorary punching bag.
He gritted his teeth before clenching his fist under the table, his eyes shadowed by his bangs.
"Say I do decide to go. What do I have to do to make it onto the team?"
A small smirk grew on the light 'Dragon Slayer's' face at the response. Perfect.
"There will be a few martial arts tests that you must complete and a few people you'll have to defeat." He shrugged slightly, "I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle."
Rogue, who had subjected himself to mainly watching the exchange in silence, finally spoke up,
"So what is it, 'Silver'? Will you join or not?"
Gray glanced up from the table, looking at both men before sighing, watching Lyon approach the table once more before hesitantly nodding.
"Fine, I will. What are the details?"
Hah! I am not dead! Sorry everyone for this huge delay . I honestly thought this summer I would have more time to write! Things have been a bit hectic between Costume making, vacations and Conventions, so I've been delayed with my writing.
Quick note, next chapter will continue more onto Natsu's side of things, so that's why he wasn't addressed too much throughout this chapter. That and severe writer's block. This chapter probably isn't the best, but it gets my point across well enough, I suppose. Eh, I might go back and rewrite it at one point.
But, that boring personal stuff aside, I'm also going to be writing another story (probably) however it will not be Natsu X Gray. Lately I've started roleplaying with a Laxus and have since discovered an interest in the Laxus X Gray pairing. Because of that I'm going to write about it! Probably!
Now for the review responses. Oh, and just so you all know I wil probably start personally responding to accounts with profiles and only answering reviews here that are from guests. Makes things easier. Vaguely.
Luvscookie: Oh yes, Makarov's punishment game will certainly be interesting ;D. He'll personally see to it that all the boys, aside from Gray, are punished properly. As for Sting and Rogue seeming like Laxus and Gajeel for a moment, that was unintentional, but sounds pretty funny. Anyway, Lyon X Gray X Natsu is my favorite love triangle too, so I'm glad that you like it~
Strife134: Thanks! Glad you like it!
AsDarknessSpreads: Yep, Rogue and Sting did hear about the Deliora accident. I believe that was addressed a bit more in this chapter. Glad you like it and don't kill Natsu just yet! That's Gray's job :p
Rewinsan: Yes, he had a reason too XD Although that will be explained a bit later on~
Daddy's little crazy bitch: Yay, nice to know you love it! :D
6purplecats: Ah, well that's good that they weren't too out of character :P I know only a little about their overall personalilities. As for Spoilers, nah, I know what's going on at the moment just because of Spoilers, but I won't be posting any of it here just for the sake of the one's who don't. Thank you and I will try my best to make sure this story is awesome! ^.^
Iceprinceryuu: Thank you And Don't worry, I never really write hardcore scenes. Even fluff will be a bit down the road, seeing as they still need to become friends again for the relationship to deepen further. Thanks for reading and reviewing though!
.oO: It seems like a lot of people seem to really like Lyon and Gray's relationship. I'm guilty of it as well :P As for your question, Gray is 19 and Lyon Is 21 during this story. Thanks for reviewing and sorry for the delay!
Masayuki: Thanks! Here's the next chapter and sorry for the delay~
Lol: Oh, thank you, and don't cry, here's the next chapter :p I'm sorry for the almost 2 month delay, but I hope to update more often now.
Guest: I'm glad you think so! Thank you.