AN: If you haven't yet, PLEASE review! I look forward to anyone telling me why they did or didn't like my story. This is my first fanfic, so I really just want to find out what people think of my story. If you liked it, please tell me why! If you didn't, please tell me why!

Notice: I don't own Fairy Tail. All rights to its characters, settings, etc. go to Hiro Mashima. HOWEVER, this fic does contain multiple OC's. These, and these alone, are mine.

Also, Sic's name is pronounced "seek," just like the Latin word.

Chapter 3: Sic

It was seven days since Sic had woken up to the sight of the face of Lucy Heartfilia. The other guild members seemed to at last have stopped acting strangely around him. He was wandering throughout the guildhall with a platter of drinks on his arm, serving rounds to anyone who cared for a shot of alcohol. Sic didn't think much of this task, but it was what was assigned to him by the woman with silver hair who had nursed him back to health, named…. Mirajoan, he believed. He wasn't good with anyone's names. Except for Lucy Heartfilia's, of course. That one seemed to roll off his tongue and resonate through his skull.

At any rate, he was in the process of serving drinks when he noticed a certain table, which seemed more boisterous than the rest. That was Lucy's table. She was having lunch with Grade Forebullster, Minerva Scradlett, and Nasty Draggle. There was also that one blue cat, with the incredibly curious name. What was it, Harpy? No, Happy. Of all of these names, that was the one that intrigued Sic the most. It seemed the same as any ordinary name, yet people regularly used the word as if it had a common meaning. Given that Sic's terminology was consummate in capacity, it most certainly intrigued him what the word happy could possibly mean. Ah, but that was trivial, unimportant. The two boys certainly were unnecessarily slipshod eaters, he noticed to himself matter-of-factly.

Suddenly he noticed something else. The pink-haired one they called Nasty Draggle was acting strangely. He was clutching at his sides as if he were in pain, and the motions he made with his mouth suggested that he was retching, or air was attempting to get out. This certainly was not too far-fetched a theory, given how recklessly the boy inhaled his nutriment. Sic suddenly realized that the boy was about to choke. Now, ordinarily Sic would not have been troubled by this- he didn't particularly like Nasty Draggle, after all- but he did appear to be of somewhat importance to Lucy Heartfilia, and for whatever reason, he felt that it was important that this boy's life be saved.

Natsu never saw it coming. He was just in the middle of enjoying a fabulous lunch with his closest friends, laughing at one of Happy's ridiculous jokes, when he felt a sudden quick blow to his stomach, and suddenly the contents of said stomach were spread out all over the table- his lunch, along with more than a little fire, which promptly began to spread throughout the guildhall. While Gray and Erza panickedly put out the fire, Natsu whipped around to give Gajeel a piece of his mind. He was incredibly surprised to find out who was standing behind him.

For some reason, the one who'd given him the Heimlich maneuver was not Gajeel, but that creepy new white-haired Jellal look-alike. Natsu hadn't given him much thought in the past week, had never spoken to him, never given him any reason to dislike him, and now he was deprived of his lunch. What a jerk!

"You jerk!" Natsu yelled. For some reason, Sic seemed surprised, as if he expected Natsu to thank him. Fat chance, bub. I never turn down a fight. "Fire Dragon… Roar!" Natsu shouted through hands cupped over his mouth. Yet nothing came out. "Goddammit! All the fire in my belly's gone!"

Sic quizzically cocked his head sideways, turned around, and left to wait more tables. He didn't understand this boy's behavior at all. Abruptly a large man with a mane of long, black hair blocked his path.

"Hey, Pillowhead. I appreciate the effort, but I'M the resident Natsu bully around here. You can just butt out," Gajeel snarled with all his teeth.

Sic replied with a face devoid of emotion, "Please refrain from grimacing like that. I understand you must be in immense pain from all those iron studs piercing your face, but I'm sure a man of your age must be able to endure."

"Why, you!" Gajeel roared, and struck Sic across the face with an Iron Dragon Claw, sending him flying clear across the room and crashing into the wall, leaving a noticeable dent.

Sic got up without a word, covered in broken glass and alcohol, and calmly walked out of the guildhall in disgust.

"What the heck was that for, you guys? You made Sic upset again!" Lucy scolded Natsu and Gajeel furiously.

"What? He started it!" both boys yelled, but when they realized they had spoken in unison, they just shrugged and started brawling. Lucy sighed in exasperation and ran off to find Sic.

She found him at the same place she always did: sitting at the edge of the cliff next to his makeshift cottage overlooking the sea; it really was the most beautiful view you could find anywhere in or around Magnolia. Of course, when Lucy first pointed this out to Sic, he adamantly denied that was his reason for choosing the spot. Now, most of the people in the guild avoided or looked down on Sic because of his weird behavior, but Lucy was incredibly interested by the guy. It was like he couldn't sense emotion or something equally crazy. That, and… well, she couldn't get enough of his eyes. Shhh.

"You really don't have to talk to me when I come out here to be alone, you know," Sic said over his shoulder without turning. Lucy wondered how on earth he had sensed her approach.

"That's okay, I enjoy talking to you," the blonde smiled cheerfully as she scooched down to sit next to Sic.

Sic's gaze remained hard and constant, anchored toward the horizon. "I will never understand the imbeciles that live here," he said in his usual blunt, matter-of-fact tone of voice.

"Come on, Sic, calm down. Will you tell me a story? You tell the best stories."

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

"No."

That was too bad. He really did tell the best stories. Even though most of the stories he'd told so far were adaptations of simple children's tales, Sic had expanded each one of them into its own living, breathing, epic masterpiece. When he began storytelling was the one time when the whole guild just sat and listened, enraptured by his smooth, soothing voice and whimsical, heart-pounding plot-twists. But the best stories were undoubtedly the ones he reserved just for her. It really was too bad that he said no.

Sic finally averted his eyes from the horizon, and as he caught Lucy's stare, his gaze softened. "Okay, perhaps just one."

Lucy's face immediately perked up. "Yaay!"

"Okay. This story here is actually a true one. It's about how I lost my ability to use magic."

What do you think? Again, please review! It would mean the world to me :)