Chapter Thirty-six
When I woke up, it was on the other side Wendy, who was still asleep but looked well rested, on my bed. I let my groggy mind work out how I got here. It took a few minutes before I figured that Laxus brought me in. I pushed myself up and looked out the window to see the sun was fully risen, but it was only maybe eight in the morning.
Cursing whatever had woken me, I sat up completely. I stretched my arms in front of me and saw the dirt and blood that was coating my arms, my wrists and hands clear from washing Wendy. Since there was very little chance of me sleeping again any time soon, I went to run myself a bath, rinsing myself off quickly as the tub filled. After soaking in the bath for a half hour, I got out and put on some loose sweatpants with a t shirt and grabbed a book because I knew there wasn't an overly high chance of Evergreen and Bixlow waking up within the next hour. I had learned that, from our time spent both here and at the council's, they are both late risers unless there was something that woke them.
Walking into the living room I see Freid sitting like a perfect gentlemen in one of the chairs that sat in the living room, one in a corner about a foot away from the couch, the other was against the adjacent wall midway between the entrance to stairway and the end of the couch. Freid currently sat in the one that faced the stairway, looking like he barely noticed Evergreen sleeping on the couch as he read his book and drank his tea. Freid never drank coffee, he said it was too bitter for his taste, though he didn't like his tea overly sweet either.
He looked up when he noticed my movement. "Good morning, Lucy." He greeted quietly, an almost nonexistent smile gracing his face. "The water is still hot if you would care for some morning tea."
"Oh, um, ya. That will probably help me stay awake a bit. Thank you." Freid nods in return, then bows his head back to his book.
I set my book down in the open chair then make my way into the kitchen area. Grabbing a small teacup and the brown sugar, which apparently isn't that common to use in tea, I begin thinking back to the time that I first actually met Freid. After the Fantasia incident, I mean.
He just showed up at my apartment, looking slightly embarrassed and annoyed. More embarrassed than annoyed, though. I remember it taking me a minute to get to my door because nobody ever knocks so I almost didn't recognize the noise. I smile at the memory of his perplexed expression when my door flew open and I immediately began apologizing. It took another minute for me to recognize him with his short hair. The long mint green hair really left an impression, so seeing it so short on the same person was strange.
I sat in the chair with my tea on a small table and opened my book, though it didn't take long for me to become absorbed in the memory and my thoughts again.
"Ah, hello, miss Lucy." I blink my eyes at the man standing on the steps to my apartment, "I apologize for arriving at your home with no notice." He continued, while running a hand through his short green hair. I notice a guild mark on his hand.
"Oh! Freid!" I state once I figure out who the man was. He looked at me with a shocked look on his face. "Oh, I'm sorry, I've never really seen you or your team, since I only joined the guild a few months ago, and I wasn't aware you had cut your hair. Like, wow, it's quite the change." I rambled, nervous about a member of the Raijinshuu being at my home.
"Actually, that's what I came to speak to you about." He interrupts before I can say more.
"If we're going to be talking, would you like to come inside?"
"I suppose it would be better than you keeping your door open."
As I turned back inside I asked if he would like anything to drink. That's how I found out he doesn't like coffee. Once we had settled down with the tea he had requested, I'd asked what brought him to my home. Turns out, it actually was about his hair.
"I arrived at the guild this morning, I was speaking with Levy at the bar about my magic since she was curious. That was when Natsu made a comment about me looking weird with short hair now, Bixlow noisily agreed, with members of the guild mumbling agreements.
I'd asked them what they expected me to do. It was already cut and gone. No way to change it back. That was when Happy flew by, mentioning something about you having a, how did he put it, a 'delicious spirit that does people's hair'. Then Bixlow started pestering me to get my hair back, so I told him I'd come here if he'd stop."
"Hm." I pursed my lips in thought. "Well, yes, I have a spirit that does hair, and he is a crab, so he would be delicious to Happy. I've only ever asked him to cut hair though, I don't know if he can grow it. That kind of defies a few laws of nature, I would think."
"I see." He states, and if I wasn't mistaken, he seemed a little upset even though he was doing this at other people's requests. He finished his tea and stood to leave.
"Slow down there. I only said that I never asked him before." I say, reaching for him before he can get to the door. He turns to look at me.
"You also said it defies a few laws of nature, which I should have realized before coming here and wasting your time." Freid allowed himself an eye roll, breaking his formal standards.
"Hellooo, they're spirits. You know, not of this world. I don't think our laws of anything really apply to them. With our magic, they barely apply to us. I mean, I don't think clothing is supposed to change colour depending on a person's mood."
Freid still looked a bit skeptical.
"At least let me ask him. The worst that can happen is that he'll say that he can't and you have to wait for your hair to grow out like a normal person." With those words he came back into the room and sat back on my couch.
I go to retrieve Cancer's key and come back to the room, Freid having not moved.
"Open, gate of the Giant Crab. Cancer!" Twisting the key in the air, a golden glow appeared, blinding both me and Freid for a second, then dissipates revealing Cancer in it's place.
"What hairstyle would you like today, ebi?" Cancer asks, bowing slightly.
"Can you make hair grow, by any chance?"
"You would like me to grow out your hair, ebi?" He asks, an eyebrow raising from behind his sunglasses.
"Oh, this isn't for me, Cancer." I answer, gesturing an arm towards Freid. Cancer looks to Freid, or, more specifically, at Freid's hair. "His hair used to be quite long, can you grow it out again?"
I was completely shocked when Cancer said he was able to grow out hair using special massaging methods on the person's scalp. I believe Freid was as well. Watching it happen was quite enjoyable, considering it involved Freid's head being washed and massaged in my own house, my initial nervousness completely disappearing when I watched Freid's face relax as Cancer worked on his hair. I never thought I would see it again.
"Thank you, miss Lucy. I appreciate you doing this." Freid spoke on my step, fingering his newly regrown hair, a small grateful smile on his face.
"Just call me Lucy. And don't worry about it. You do look really good with long hair." Freid's eyes widened slightly. I felt my face heat to an almost unbearable temperature as I realized what I said.
"I-I mean, long hair suits you better than short hair." I sputtered out. Freid had an almost invisible blush on his face at my compliment, and chuckled lightly at my embarrassment.
"Thank you." He said quietly, then spoke louder, "I suppose I'll be seeing you at the guild."
"Ya, I'll see you around. Bye, Freid."
"Good bye, mi-" he stopped when I gave him a look, "Lucy."
And with that he turned and walked down my steps.
"Lucy? Are you alright?" I blinked and shook my head when I realized someone was talking to me. My eyes cleared and I saw Freid squinting at me quizzically from his seat.
"Sorry, what?" I asked dumbly.
"You've been staring into your empty cup for a while. Are you alright?"
"Hm?" I looked down to see that my teacup was indeed empty. "Oh, when did that happen? But, yes, I'm fine. Just stuck in my thoughts." I say as I look back up at Freid with a smile.
If nothing in this blurb makes any sense, or is gramatically wrong, it is because I have been awake for almost thirty straight hours.
Hello, my Muses. So, to the point, I lost my internet a couple weeks after the last time I updated this story. It actually happened maybe three days after I put up the third chapter to 50 Random words. I had internet for extremely short periods of time, but it was never strong enough for me to upload the chapters to my archive and then put them up for you all to read, I'm sorry I haven't been able to put anything up even if it was small.
Also, I'm ashamed to say, during that time I barely worked on this story. I did try, I'm just stuck in one spot because there is something I wanted to do but I can't figure how to work it in naturally, so I'm trying to change it and I don't think I like the change. Instead I worked on other things, none of which are finished.
So, again, I apologize for being gone so long, but this time I will most likely be back sooner. See you then, don't forget to send lots and lots of inspiration and let me know what you guys thought or if there's anything you want to see happen. Maybe that will be the thing that inspires me.