Chapter 9

"Are you sure you want this mission?" Laxus questioned. Tempest nodded. It wasn't a ton of Jewel, but something about the request sparked her curiosity.

"...we'll have to ride a train again..." Laxus' face turned a light shade of green. Tempest's did as well.

"I want to take this one." Tempest affirmed.

"We'll leave in the morning then." Laxus confirmed. Tempest turned away and went to the bar.

"Water please, Mira" Tempest smiled at the take-over mage. A cup was placed in front of her. Glancing down the bar, Tempest saw Levy, and Gajeel. They were "covertly" touching each others hands. To the other side, Alzack and Bisca were watching Asca play on the floor. A tap on the shoulder, had Tempest brought from her thoughts, and spinning around. Cana had her hands on her hips. But her face was filled with a smile.

"Come have drinks with us tonight!" Cana beamed.

"Who's us?" Tempest inquired.

#~#~#~#

"Us" turned out to be a small guild party. Cana had already drank a few barrels. Elfman was having a hard time standing without Ever's support. A few guild members that Tempest didn't really know were unconscious in the corner. Gajeel, Gray and Loke were playing cards at the table. Tempest sat on a couch sipping on a drink feeling slightly out of place. She flopped back against the couch with a sigh, beginning to worry about the mission tomorrow.

"You alright?" Gray said flopping next to her. Looking up, Tempest noticed that the card table had been flipped and Gajeel was being told to pick everything up. How had she missed that in the two seconds she looked away. It was Gajeel though, and alcohol was involved.

"Yeah, just thinking about the mission." Tempest tried to smile, but the uncomfortable feeling she had squashed the attempt.

" You'll do fine. Look, I want to apologize about this morning. It was rude of me to go through your cabinets, Lucy just never minded, so I didn't think about it" Gray rationalized.

#~#

Lucy was laying in bed with Natsu when she had a sudden sneeze, and for some reason she was annoyed. Chalking it up to pregnancy hormones, she cuddled her love and went back to sleep.

#~#

"I'm not Lucy. But I suppose I should apologize about yelling... and throwing the frying pan... Just try to keep in mind that I've been on my own for a long time and, I have boundaries." Tempest mused.

"I understand. And about the strip-

"Lets not talk about that!" Tempest's face turned scarlet, remembering her mid-night peek of the sleeping Ice mage. And then her own horrible naked mishap. Gray must have been thinking about it too, cause his face flushed as well.

"What are you two blushing about?" Cana had stumbled over just in time to catch someone's embarrassment.

"Nothing! Just had a little too much to drink, I think. Time to go home!" Tempest stood up quickly but Cana grabbed her arm and began to drag her to a barrel.

"If you can still think, you haven't drank enough!" Cana insisted. From the corner of her eye, Tempest saw Gray whispering something in Loke's ear. And she could only imagine what.

#~#~#~#~#~#

The next morning Tempest felt like hell. It had been late when she stumbled home. Cana had forced a few more drinks down her throat, but she had slipped away when Loke had suggested something about wet t-shirt contest. She threw a few things into a bag, took some headache medicine, and made her way to the train station to meet Laxus.

Once on board, Tempest laid down in her seat, hoping not to vomit. Laxus just shook his head.

"You know its not a good idea to drink the night before a mission, right?" He chided.

"Listen, mom. I'm aware of that. Ok? I know you're just looking out for me and all, but I can take care of myself." Tempest snapped. Then she began to feel guilty. Its not that she doesn't like Laxus. But she just had this tiny nagging thought, that he was only being nice to her because everyone was expecting him to have a dragon slayer buddy. And that just wasn't her thing. She wanted to make her own friends. Her thoughts her stopped short, and the train began to move and intense nausea rolled through her, made worse by the alcohol in her system.

"I'm not taking care of you if you get sick, if you're gonna be a bitch like that." Laxus stated, only a few shades of lighter green than Tempest was.

#~#~#~#~#

Tempest was running. It was dark, she didn't know where she was. She shouldn't have taken this mission. She should have trusted her instincts. Shouldn't have let her curiosity get the best of her. It had been a trap all along, and now she was lost, she was bleeding. And she had no idea how to get back to Laxus, or even if he was alright. All she could do was keep running, and hope that she would find her partner.