A/N: Okay, I'm really sorry not uploading for such a long time, but I bought a whole bunch of new games recently (Blame Steam for their Christmas sale!) and I was so darn engrossed with completing them, I had totally forgot about this... Sorry! And when I finally completed them (and my mum started chasing me to continue the story) I kinda lost the 'feel' for this story and couldn't write immediately (because the game's story and 'feel' were still stuck in my head) so I had to go through tumbler and deviant art to get my FairyTail 'feel's back to continue this story. So, after so long, IT'S OUT! YAY! Okay, maybe I'm the only one who's thrilled. Anyway, enough of my rant. Enjoy! =)
Maybe it was because of the blizzard or maybe it was because of Joel's hands, Lucy's scream was nearly inaudible for the town as the duo descended from the third floor of the hotel. However, instead of landing with a splat, they were engulfed in fluffy, cold, white snow; just like Joel planned. Immediately, he yanked the now fully awake girl out of the snow and proceeded their long and sluggish way to the train station. As Lucy was about to question Joel for the overly dramatic escape, she heard yells over the howling winds and figured why.
"Joel! What now?!"
"We leave!"
"Where?!"
"The train station!"
Everything passed in a blur. When the duo finally got to the train station, Joel quickly bought two tickets to head further into Iceberg despite the counter lady's quizzical gaze.
"Uh... your train would arrive at 01:00 at Platform 5." The lady informed.
Thanking her, the duo made their way to the waiting room to warm themselves up and stock up on their snacks.
"Alright, the train arrives at 01:00 and it's 00:45 right now, we just got to make sure they don't spot us till then. The blizzard would be a good cover." Joel planned.
"Shucks!"
"What?"
"I left my luggage in the hotel room and I forgot to return the key!"
"Lucy, excuse my poor choice of words now, but IT DOESN'T F***ING MATTER! Do you have your bare essentials with you?"
"Yeah..." On cue, she took out her important documents, still in shock at the man's use of unnecessary vulgarities.
"Good. Then you'll survive."
As soon as the words left Joel's mouth, Lucy dragged him to hide bellow the window of the room.
Hushed tones resuming, Joel questioned the blonde, "What was that for?!"
As though to answer his question, a bunch of brutes ran pass the windows of the waiting room, yelling "She went this way!" and "Are you sure?!"s.
"What now? If they catch us in here, we'll be sitting ducks..." Lucy asked.
"C'mon, we'll get out of here and wait at the platform to jump into the train the moment it arrives."
Following his orders, Lucy prepared herself for their long stealth crawling to the platform, but before they could leave the room, Joel grabbed Lucy's brown cap and replaced it with a white knit cap. However, before Joel could get rid of the cap, Lucy grabbed onto it and told the man sternly.
"No. This. is. mine."
Shrugging it off, they began their crawl.
"We're almost there." Erza informed the others as the train entered a blizzard.
However, only three others replied since one of them were busy shutting their mouth from letting their dinner out and the another was 'sleeping'.
"G-Gajeel..." Levy tried to comfort the poor dragon slayer who was barfing into a paper bag.
Grinning, Gray commented, "Well, this is one of the quietest ride flame-brain has ever been in."
"W-well... he is unconscious..." Wendy pointed out.
As the train pulled to a stop, Natsu suddenly shot up and began sniffing.
"She's close!"
"00:59... one more minute..." Joel updated as the two of them sat crouched against a pillar in platform 5.
By then, the train's horn could be heard from where the duo were and they got up into a prepared-to-sprint position.
"Ready?" Joel asked.
"No." Lucy stated bluntly, "But I don't really have a choice, do I?"
Smirking, Joel concurred.
"LUCYYYY!" Natsu yelled at the top of his voice, hoping that the blonde would be able to catch his voice amongst the rushing gales of wind.
Lucy's head shot back. It was faint, very faint, but she was sure that she heard her name. However, she couldn't make out who and isn't in any position to figure out who it was.
"Lucy!" Joel called her back to him. "Any minute now!"
Nodding, she returned her focus on the train that had now entered the station, waiting for the moment it stops to jump in. However, her head shot behind her once more.
Again. I heard my name again...
"Lucy!" Once again, Joel had pulled her back to the matter at hand but Lucy's head insisted on staying focused on the voice.
A figure was vaguely visible making it's way to them at a rather high speed and Joel stomach churned. There's no telling who that was.
"Lucy! We gotta go NOW!" Forcefully, Joel yanked the girl off the platform and into the train.
Making sure that they are not visible to the outside of the carriage, Lucy took a peak at the figure that was still quickly advancing towards their train. Finally, the figure was close enough for identification and sadly, Lucy had to duck immediately to make sure those guys don't see her.
"So? Who was it?" Joel asked with a smug tone.
Irritated, Lucy retaliated with a tone harsher than usual, "Some of your 'lovely friends'."
Having got the satisfaction of irritating the blonde, Joel returned to business.
"Well, it is definitely bad if they continue to search around here and eventually decide to check the train. Any ideas?"
Lucy was a little stumped. She was so used to having Joel call all the shots that she forgot how to think. It was kind of frustrating, but she couldn't deny the fact that Joel, despite his poor language and stuck up attitude, was rather reliable. Well, at least more than her usual team -something she can never say out loud-.
"What?" Joel finally broke her out of her stupor when he found her gaze a little to tense for comfort. "You falling for me now?"
"HELL NO!"
Four hands immediately made their way to cover her mouth as soon as the words left her lips.
"Idiot!" Joel scolded her in a hushed tone and they listened hard for any movements outside that would indicate that they were heard.
Nothing.
However, before Lucy could even let out a sigh of relief, Joel had immediately yanked her out of the train and onto the platform.
"There they are!"
"They're getting away!"
Lucy looked behind them to find a group of brutes coming after them.
"What the heck Joel?! You blew our cover!"
"No! You blew our cover! Those guys heard you and were preparing to ambush us!"
"Come to think of it, it was too quiet..."
"C'mon! We gotta throw them off!"
Finally, the gears in Lucy's head started turning again and a plan formulated in her head.
"Joel! I've got an idea." Lucy announced in confidence.
"C'mon, they made a left!"
Turning around the corner, what the brutes found was the duo splitting into two separate directions.
"Wha- who do we follow?!" One man questioned.
"Idiot! Follow the girl! She's more important!" Another man answered.
5 minutes till train departs...
"See, my plan worked out just fine!" Lucy gloated.
In contrast to Lucy's elation, Joel was filled with displeasure. Reason, that was the 10th time the blonde bragged the same thing.
"Yeah yeah..." Came his weak reply.
Just as Lucy opened her mouth to let out another gloat, Joel cut her off.
"Okay! I get it! Your plan was splendid! It was amazing that you thought up of having one of your stellar spirit dig the real you back to this platform while your other spirt pose as you and lure the idiots away!"
Realising the man had snapped, Lucy decided to shut up for awhile before retaliating softly.
"My stellar spirits have names... (Virgo for digging and Gemini for posing)"
Joel immediately shot a overly fierce gaze that burned a hole into Lucy's head before questioning the girl rhetorically, "Huh? Did you say something?!"
"N-nothing..."
Suddenly, Joel's pissed off face changed to a serious one as he pressed his ear against the carriage's wall and listened hard.
"Joel?" Lucy inquired softly, worried that she'll rail up the man again.
"Shh."
Extremely curious, Lucy decided to carefully perked her head up to peer out of the window, only to find a sphere of fiery flame heading in their direction. As Lucy's mouth opened to voice the name of the owner of those flames, she didn't know if it was due to relief or dread, but tears welled up in her eyes.
"Natsu."