Author's Note: Hello ladies and gents, I'm back with another chapter for you! Plus, Happy Halloween and if you're reading this chapter after it passed than good day or evening to you. There'll be an author's note at the bottom so please take a look at it when you've finished the chapter. As always review and enjoy!
Chapter 14
"Natsu! Get your ass down here now!" Came the frightening shout of the one and only Titania who was livid this early morning.
The three women of Team E.L.L.N. had all met up early in the morning to bid good bye to their ice mage, but needed Natsu to be there too since he would want to as well. It was a simple early walk towards his home, nothing to set the requip mage off, unless you're Natsu and made her late, than you might as well suffer her wrath. They were trying to call him down for the past 30 minutes or so, but haven't gotten a response and before they knew it Gray's train could be heard leaving the station. Erza was stunned to hear it and soon it became anger as the dragon slayer was the one who had delayed them to say goodbye to Gray.
Lucy and Levy were standing a few feet away from the raging red head as she continued to bang on Natsu's door, however they were becoming worried for the pink haired mage. It wouldn't be long for Erza to cut down the door and rushed in to get him, yet they feared for their lives when the thought of trying to get in the way of Erza's war path came to mind. Both girls hadn't expected it to turn out like this, but they each knew if there was anyone who could survive Erza's rage than it would be Gray, Natsu and a few other guild mates as well.
It continued for about five more minutes before the door slowly creaked open and a scared Happy stood in the door way, afraid to look up at the angered mage in front of him. Lucy and Levy took this time to come closer and see what was going on with Natsu and find out if Happy would know anything about the unresponsive mage.
"Happy where is Natsu? He needs punishment for making me late." Erza said as the blue cat hugged onto the door frame in pure fright.
"H-He's up stairs in h-his room!" He answered terrified, running away into the giant pile of mess they had in the living room, knowing that it would be a safe place until Erza cooled down.
"Alright let's see why he didn't answer. Move it you two!" Erza said marching up the staircase as the other two squeaked in fright and immediately followed after her, just hoping that Erza wouldn't over do it.
It wasn't that high of a staircase and Erza had already burst through the door once Levy and Lucy had made it to the top. Both girls looked around the dragon slayer's room for any sign of him or Erza, until they caught sight of her looking at the pink haired mage. Natsu was sitting in one of the corners of his room, his head hung low as his hair shadowed his face and his hand holding his scarf in a tight grip. The girls hadn't seen Natsu do something like this before and wondered what happened to him to act like this. Erza quickly stepped up in front of him, placing her hands on her hips taking the very recognizable stance of the Fairy Queen who was going to have her way.
"Explain yourself Natsu, why didn't you answer the door?" Erza waited for a response, the other two worried about the pink haired mage's behavior, but he simply mumbled something out.
"What did he say?" Lucy asked as not even Erza heard him either.
"Natsu look up at me and answer me." She commanded and the dragon slayer obliged, but shocked the group in front him.
He faced them down, eyes puffy as if he was crying and a look of disdain was in his them, something that they knew he'd do to enemies of the guild. However it was Lucy who noticed that he wasn't trying to look at them like that, it was more like he was viewing himself in that way. She immediately ran to his side and placed a concerned hand on his shoulder, hoping he would tell them what happened to him.
"I said that's all I wanted to do!" He yelled as a stray tear fell from his eye, Lucy quickly embracing her best friend as she didn't want to see like this.
"What do you mean Natsu?" Levy said as she stepped closer, witnessing for the first time that he was actually crying about something.
"I messed up...I messed up...I told him I was sorry, but he wouldn't let me explain" He said as he tightened the grip on his scarf, now worrying even Erza as he seemed to repeat himself. "It was a great moment and I messed it up."
"Talk to us Natsu, what happened?" Erza asked as she kneeled down so she could be face to face with the pink haired slayer.
"Me and Gray were having a moment...and then I just couldn't help it" He replied as the girls were trying their hardest to figure out what exactly happened to these two and why was Natsu crying about it. "I knew I messed up and I just wanted to explain it to Gray, but he wouldn't let me."
"You've got to be clearer than that Natsu, we just want to help." Lucy said as the grip he had on his scarf loosened up, his hand slowly falling down towards his lap.
"I...kinda jumped on Gray... I couldn't help it!" Natsu never truly understood this feeling of liking someone so much, so boundaries were something he didn't have a clue of until last night.
"You did what!" Erza was once again angered, it was one thing if you confront Gray about your feelings for him, but to force yourself on him was something completely different.
"Now Erza please calm down. We've got to understand that this is Natsu. I'm sure he had no idea what personal space is about and what to do when someone you like is around." Lucy was once again defending the dragon slayer from the wrath of Erza, but this time he wasn't being careless for her to give up on him.
"She's right Erza, I don't think he understands the concepts of relationships as well as we do...amongst a few other things." Levy added as she too knew that Natsu wasn't the greatest when it came to romantic relationships, although she did wonder how Lisanna managed it with him when they were kids.
"...I'm still here you know." Natsu grumbled to himself, but he was still grateful that they were defending him from the red head.
"Fine, I can't necessarily blame Natsu so much since he has no clue, but you better make sure you don't do it again." Erza said as he readily agreed with her, still feeling down for what happened but a small chat between Lucy and Levy helped him get over that hurdle of a troubled mind.
It had taken some time to get Natsu to understand that he has to have self control around Gray or else something like last night would happen again. Slowly but surely the dragon slayer was starting to understand it bit by bit and the girls were more than glad that Natsu's ability to shift between moods easily came around. He was back on his feet, using what happened as experience on what not to do and as a form of motivation that he wouldn't give up so easily. With a new conviction in mind Natsu had finally brought himself around to help support his team for the meeting.
Team E.L.L.N. set out of the Dragneel household, with Happy in tow, and made their way towards the guild hall where the meeting concerning Gray was going to take place. The team was ready for anything to come their way and were prepared to mark their right on Gray if they were singled out during it.
As they entered the building they noticed a number of people weren't present and knew that the little threatening that had been done had actually worked. What remained were the true opponents they had to face, all sitting in a large circle made up of multiple tables. Erza glanced over towards Mira and took notice of her team, being made up of two other members plus an empty seat; the two who were present are Cana and Elfman.
Natsu had glanced over to the other group after Gray and was surprised to see Laxus and his Thunder Legion. He of course looked bored, Bixlow was joking around with Freed who looked like he wasn't caring much about it and then there was Evergreen who had a slight blush covering her cheeks as she refused to look up from her table. Out of all the people Natsu thought to see, Laxus was one he hadn't expected to have a thing for Gray. Then again he didn't expect to have a thing for Gray himself.
Lucy had noticed the threatening aura directed at her and could feel Juvia glaring holes into her head from her side of the circle. She noticed the water mage sitting in between Mira's and Laxus' group, but she was surprised to see who she partnered up with. Sitting right next to her was the long haired iron dragon slayer and if Lucy was surprised to see him there, than Levy was beyond words when she noticed him there. The bluenette heard of the possible people that would show up, but to see her crush sitting at the circle with her group's main opposition completely tore her. Sure she may have wanted to get at Gray too, but she was smart enough to know that something like that was a long shot and hoped Gajeel wouldn't find out.
Too bad he did in this way, but what lifted her spirits a bit was both Jet and Droy were sitting at the circle with four available seats next to them as they waved. She didn't know if they were in on this too or if they came to support her like they usually do, but it didn't really matter so long as she still had them at her side. Team E.L.L.N. took their seats alongside them and Levy took the seat closest to them to get some answers.
"Jet, Droy what are you two doing here?"
"We're here to support you Levy!" Droy said as he gave a thumb's up with his free hand since the other had a chicken leg in it.
"When we learned that you had a thing for Gray we knew he was an alright guy for you to date, even though it still needs some getting used to." Jet added as Levy smiled in gratitude that these two had actually supported her curious fling for Gray, she was hopeful that this meeting would run smoothly.
"Wait, how did you two find out that I had a thing for Gray?" Levy was cautious now since these two had found out, it would mean that even if her group was being stealthy about their conversations, someone was still spying on them.
"Loke told us, he came around when we noticed a lot of people who looked scared out of their pants." Droy replied as Levy nodded in understanding, making a mental note of asking Lucy to punish her lion spirit for mouthing off her personal life to others.
It took a few more minutes to finish off a few more things that Mira needed to do, but as soon as she was done the meeting had gone underway. Many people had to get over the initial shock of seeing their guild mates going after the same guy and those who harbored secret crushes were the most blown away from seeing there hopeful partner in the future at a place at the circle. The clamoring went on for about ten minutes while Erza was trying to think of who that empty seat belongs to on Mira's team before she couldn't take the noise level anymore.
With a commanding voice she settled everyone down and Mira gave the requip mage her thanks, although Erza remained weary of what she had up her sleeve. Now that everyone was quiet, Mira took this time to speak up for she was the one who was leading this meeting for Gray.
"Now that we've gotten settled, let's get down to business." The eldest take over mage said as everyone sat attentive. "Each one of us here are after the same person, Gray. While I personally don't like having so much competition, I created this meeting to settle this matter peacefully before it gets settled the old fashion way."
"Mira's right, the last thing we need is to have an all out guild brawl amongst ourselves just for one person." Erza added as many of the other mages nodded in agreement, but Cana was still upset of what happened yesterday and wanted to knock Erza off her high horse.
"Alright then Scarlet, then what do you suggest?" Cana asked as she crossed her arms in a waiting fashion, testing the red head for what she's got.
"At the moment I'm open to any suggestions." Erza had no real idea to settle this peacefully as the only people she was concerned of at the moment are Mira and Cana. Cana on the other hand was very pleased that she got Erza good, knowing that the red head didn't even have one idea of settling this.
"Why not test to see who knows Gray better?" Came the unexpected voice of Wendy as she sat off at the far edge of the circle nearby Team E.L.L.N.
"Wendy what are you doing here!" Lucy was embarrassed, to say the least, that the little dragon slayer had arrived at this meeting to depict the course of action concerning Gray.
"I decided to take a break and play with Romeo, but he went on a mission with his father last night and won't be back until tomorrow, so I decided to come to the guild." She replied as the other teams began to feel self-conscious that Wendy had interrupted their meeting.
"So you understand what's going on here, right?" Levy asked as the dark haired girl nodded shyly, realizing that everyone's focus was placed on her.
"I-I do and I think that it's nice to know this many people like Gray-nii." She was actually surprised to see this many people since as far as she knew, it was mainly centered around two girls for him compared to these fourteen people in front of her.
The thought of Wendy calling Gray her brother worried a few of those in the circle as they were unsure what may occur if they spoke out with her around. If she could call him brother, than that meant she has built a close relationship to the mage and can go to him if she needs to. Which doesn't work in their favor since she could always go out and tell the ice mage what happened when he gets back, but they had faith that little Wendy wouldn't say a word about this. The nervous silence that the others were maintaining was getting on Evergreen's nerves so she decided to end it before it goes on any longer.
"Ahem...Well it's good that you understand the situation, but your suggestion is a little unfair." Evergreen spoke as she hid her slight blush of embarrassment behind her fan.
"She's right, most of us don't exactly know the Stripper that great." Gajeel said as many nodded their heads in agreement, except for Erza and Cana who knew him pretty well.
"Than why do you want my Onii-san for?" Wendy thought as she didn't understand how a person would want someone that they have no definite idea of how he's like.
"Thank you for the idea Wendy, but we want it to be fair for everyone." Mira said as Natsu immediately jumped up from his seat to say his idea. "And no Natsu, we can't do a fighting tournament either." At once the dragon slayer deflated into his seat with a small pout as he mumbled to himself that it would've been a great idea.
For the next hour a number of suggestions had been given and each was vetoed on the basis that it didn't have a fairness to it for a certain group of people. Tensions were running high between Natsu and Gajeel as he kept smirking at him and the pink haired dragon slayer was still annoyed with what he said to him a few days ago. That was between them, now in comparison with the female division, that was a cooking grenade ready to explode. As it was more of a subtle battle between Mira and Erza, a stare down with Juvia and Lucy with Levy gauging both Cana and Evergreen.
Thankfully their little mediator Wendy had decided to intervene and have everyone take a break before things got out of hand and the Master would come back to find a destroyed guild hall. Everyone had agreed and left the circle to take a quick breather to collect themselves so they could continue in a peaceful manner. For the young dragon slayer, it was quite interesting to see so many people riled up for just one person, luckily for her he's her older brother, in a sense so that she doesn't have to compete for him. However, there was Carrie she had to deal with and hoped to settle it fairly amongst themselves to make it much more easier than with Gray's option of having them both. Wendy was brought out of her thoughts when she noticed shimmering light forming next to Lucy.
"Wow, this many people are after that cold prick?" Loke said as he materialized beside Lucy who sighed to herself as the spirit casually winked at her.
"You said about four others were after him besides us Loke. You missed the other ten people." Lucy said as he laughed nervously for the unexpected amount of people that liked Gray.
"Well it's too late to complain about it, we're just going to have to deal with it for now." Erza said as she watched everyone speaking within their group, however it looked like Bixlow was complaining about something with Evergreen. Along with Juvia and Gajeel missing from her sights.
"Things will smooth out in no time, so keep your heads held high. We spirits got high hopes for all of you to come out on top." Loke said as they smiled in appreciation for his reassuring words.
Loke spoke to them for a while, telling them that he and the other spirits were watching the entire thing go down. There had been a number of suggestions that they agreed to as well, but when they heard a bit more of the other side's argument they realized that it wasn't equal in terms of chance. However, he had mentioned that Aquarius made her own suggestion that this meeting wasn't really going to work out and that they should've gone with Natsu's idea.
The dragon slayer was happy that someone had agreed with him, but the others still believed that wasn't the best course of action. They spoke with one another for a few more minutes before Mira was calling everyone back to complete the meeting, but no one had seen the Phantom Team anywhere and no one volunteered to look for them. In the end there was a unanimous vote to send Loke to retrieve them since he wasn't being a part of this meeting and the lion spirit sighed in defeat as he went off to search, with Mira directing him to head further into the guild.
Loke walked through the halls, looking through every door he came across to see of those two were in any of them and was amazed that the new guild building had this many rooms. One after the other they were empty of anyone inside besides being extra storage areas or rooms for those who were too drunk to head home at times. He was growing bored of searching until he could hear the sounds of an argument going on further down the hall. He quickly made his way towards the slightly opened door to tell Juvia and Gajeel that the meeting has started up again until he heard what Gajeel was saying.
"See what happened rain woman! That little stunt you pulled has this many consequences!" Gajeel was angry by the amount of people that showed up, to him he had believed that three or five other people would show up. Instead he sees fourteen others and one of his own calling the mage "brother".
"Juvia is sorry Gajeel-kun, but Juvia has already told you what had happened at the celebration and this is the result." She tried to calm down the angered dragon slayer who kept pacing to avoid destroying anything in the room. His frustration mainly coming from seeing Salamander and Laxus in the same room.
"Out of all your ways of trying to gain the Stripper's attention, you end up using that potion you bought to help. Like all the other times, you failed and this time you've involved all these people including me in it. This is how you feel for him and now we are experiencing your own damn feelings!" He knew he agreed to help her, but the sight of Levy entering with the pink haired idiot's team made him question if this was worth it.
"If it weren't for Natsu-san bumping into Juvia, than Juvia wouldn't have dropped the potion in the punch." Juvia argued back as she too was frustrated that her Love Rival had Erza on her team, which didn't help her chances at all.
"Wait, than no one feels that way for Gray on their own!? I'm positive Lucy does though, I just know that her feelings are genuine." Loke couldn't believe that this was all happening because of a mishap and that all those people didn't even like Gray in a romantic sense at all, save for Lucy of course.
"You're right, Salamander's idiocy had made you drop it, but why go as far as using a potion? You've been trying hard these past few weeks to get his attention more than usual, why is that?" Gajeel has notice the increase of attempts that Juvia has been doing recently and now truly wondered why she was getting very close to being desperate.
"Juvia...Juvia can't answer Gajeel-kun." She averted looking at him since this was a personal matter that made her do this. Juvia has her reasons in doing so, but wasn't prepared to say anything about them even to her dear friend.
"Oh no, this is serious rain woman. You have to tell me why this is becoming a continuous thing with you and your plans. I have a right to know since I'm both your partner in this and your...ugh...f-friend." Gajeel wasn't about to say out right that he really cared for the water mage, but he had taken notice of how sullen she became and worried for her.
"No, Juvia can't say. This is her resolve to keep trying." This is what she uses to remind herself to keep trying on getting her Gray-sama's attention.
"Don't give me that, for all the years I've known you this is something that's troubling you. Just tell me!" Gajeel had to push his demands, he wouldn't get anything if he didn't try.
"It's because I can't lose Gray-sama again!" Both men reeled back slightly after her outburst, Loke surprised to hear her not refer herself in the third person, but Gajeel knew this was serious if she actually used "I".
"What do you mean "again" rain woman?" Gajeel had caught on to that bit since he hadn't expected to hear "again".
"It was during the battle against the dragons...Gray-sama saved me from being hit by those baby dragons, but he was hit several times instead." Juvia couldn't get rid of that memory from her mind, seeing her beloved being shot down by so many of their beams.
"Gray-sama died protecting me and I couldn't do anything about it, even if you think I'm not telling the truth I wasn't alone. Lyon-sama and Meredy-san could tell you the same thing of my beloved's demise." In the moments she believes that she will only continue to fail that memory pops up into her mind, telling her of all the things she would never got to do with him, how Lyon raged against the baby dragons after witnessing his fellow pupil's death and the tears Meredy shed for the man that Juvia managed to change her opinion of.
"Gray died during the battle!? There's no way that icy bastard would die, but the way Juvia's speaking..." It was surreal to hear that his best friend had died that night, but he just didn't want to believe that it truly happened.
"You're saying that he died, but that's impossible. We all saw him yesterday." The iron dragon slayer could see her eyes watering as she told him that, but he couldn't up and believe that the ice mage had died in battle.
"I thought so too, but it all reset and appeared again like deja vu although this time we managed to stop his death." She remembered the relief that swept over her when she saw the ice mage still breathing and standing in front of her. "But I know it wasn't; it couldn't be because it felt too real."
The long haired man wanted to say something that would counter that claim, but he too had experienced a moment where he was critically wounded by the dragon he was fighting until everything reset and managed to dodge the attack. He knew the water mage was telling the truth and could now see why her plans came one after the other, she wasn't being desperate to gain his attention at all. She was just trying to do whatever she could before something like that happened again and he doesn't make it.
"Don't worry so much about it rain woman...the Stripper's alive now so why are you tearing up?" Gajeel was trying his best to cheer her up in any way possible, but he hasn't even tried to comfort someone before in his entire life time so this was a first. "For now, it's up to you and me to kick some ass and get the ice boxers to ourselves."
"I can't believe that this is all happening just because of a potion. Plus Juvia's motivation for doing so was all because he died during the fight against the dragons." Loke was trying his best to wrack his brain around everything he's heard, but could only come to the conclusion that whatever's happened to Gray these past few days was just an accident and no one truly feels that way about him. However, the thought came up of how Gray might feel if he found out that it was all a lie and all that happened between him and Erza wasn't true. "What am I going to do!?"
Gajeel gave the water mage a cloth to dry her eyes and waited for her to settle down, but could smell the faint odor of something close by. Loke could hear the dragon slayer making his way towards the door and immediately returned back to the spirit world, worried that he couldn't come up with a good excuse to rely on if he were caught. Gajeel had opened the door further to see no one was there and questioned if someone was spying on them until he could hear the sounds of multiple chairs being pulled out and people talking, which he took for the meeting to be starting up again.
"Let's get going rain woman, break time is over." He said as Juvia walked alongside him a small smile forming on her lips as Gajeel gave her a questioning stare.
"Thank you Gajeel-kun for trying to cheer Juvia up." She was back to her normal self and the dragon slayer could feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment.
"I-I just did it so that the others don't think up random reasons why you were crying." It felt weird to help his friend out on an emotional basis, so he wasn't very comfortable with receiving gratitude for anything he did. "W-We can't look weak in front of our opposition."
"Gajeel-kun's right and is truly Juvia's friend." The blue haired woman replied as he simply clicked his tongue and kept walking back to the group.
However, things are still not looking so high for Loke as he rested his form on his bed, still trying to process everything. How could such a small mistake do all this? Not to mention if there was any way of undoing it before things actually go Natsu's way. He'd stand by Lucy's side no question, but this is truly a battle between her and Juvia as the others are just accidental players in this mess.
"Damn Gray, looks like I'm going to bail your ass out of this one too." Loke joked ruefully as he now needed to find a solution to undo the damage Juvia's caused.
At another location on-board a train heading for Toric, a small town a few miles east of Magnolia, a quiet ice mage sneezed out of the blue, which in turn got the equally quiet animal soul mage to look away from the window.
"Bless you" Lisanna said as Gray thanked her, but she wasn't to give up on starting a conversation with him. They have been riding in the same booth together for the past two hours, with only less than ten minutes of speaking to each other at the start of their ride.
"Hey Gray, do you...um, think we'll see any rain there?" "Way to go Lisanna, use the lamest thing to say." She mentally face palmed, upset that that was the only thing that came to mind, since she doesn't really have a clue of what to say to him.
"I doubt it, the skies look pretty clear for the next few miles so there isn't really much of a chance that'll happen." Gray replied since he was getting bored of not doing anything and he wasn't so tired to take a nap at all, rather he was on alert for no real reason.
"Well that's good..." And that was it for that conversation as they both fell into a quiet atmosphere and Lisanna was unsure how to continue speaking with him. She was trying to think of a topic, but it was difficult to do so with someone she rarely spoke to.
"You don't have to try so hard you know." Gray spoke up, surprising Lisanna out of her small frustration.
"Huh? Was I really that obvious?" Lisanna hadn't really expected for him to see her like that, let alone notice the difficulty she was going through.
"You knit your eyebrows together and do a little pout when you're trying to think of something to say, just like Mira." Gray could see the resemblance between the twp sisters and he found it amusing how much alike they were at times.
"Well...That's because you're different from what I'm use to." She was being opened about it, and if Lisanna was right then Gray would at least continue the conversation.
"What are you used to then?" Gray wondered what she had to put up with when talking to that pansy of a counter part called Gray Surge.
"For one, I'm used to seeing a lot of layers on your body, two there's a cheerier attitude present all the time and three, Juvia comes up in the conversation more than once." Lisanna replied as she could tell that Gray was not pleased with Surge.
"Well now you'll have to deal with a single coated me, a more serious attitude around if that's what you want and I doubt you'll hear much if not nothing about Juvia on this job." He knew Edolas was a pretty different place compared to Earthland, but he didn't expect his other self to be like that at all.
"Oh? I'm fine with the first one, a little on the second; I prefer some fun around that attitude and if we aren't going to talk about Juvia than who will we be talking about." As Mira had told her, her job during this request is to extract some info on the opinions Gray has of the other girls.
"Don't think I'll openly say it that quick Lisanna, especially now that the leverage I have is that you still can get your Natsu." Gray said cheekily as a blush adorned Lisanna's face, unprepared for the ice mage calling out her small crush on the pink haired mage.
"You wouldn't dare say anything to him!" Lisanna may have openly expressed how much she cared for Natsu when they were younger, but it was a completely different matter now that they were much older.
"You're right I wouldn't, but that doesn't mean I won't go to Mira about this." The white haired mage knew that of all people her older sister knew about that, the problem was that if someone else knew about it than she'd make it a bigger deal.
"Fine...you win, even though I didn't get a chance to defend myself." Lisanna couldn't believe how fast he turned the whole thing on her, just with a few words between them and she now surrenders to him.
"Alright then, for now we'll just talk. We've never had a one-on-one so right now is as good of a time as any." Gray said smirking to himself, amused at how fast he changed the spot light from him to her, yet he saw this as an opportunity to communicate with someone other than his team or the people he punches during guild brawls.
Lisanna on the other hand realized at this moment that she was on the road to acquaint herself better with the Earthland Gray. He may be more mischievous than Surge with more confidence to boot, but she still believes that there are some aspects they both share somewhere. For now, she'd just have to humor him until they reach their destination, hopefully they could break the ice (no pun intended) enough so this request would seem less awkward.
Author's Note: Awesome you read the whole chapter! Anyways, I may be slow on chapter updates thanks to research papers I have to do for my college classes, hopefully not though because I want to bring you guys more to read.
The plot has now advanced and it's up to Loke to right the wrongs that have been done because of Juvia's potion accident. As of recent, I have plotted the course of how the story will end (sadly) to which this has led me to ask you guys this...
After Gray has returned from the request and his little date with Levy, what characters do you want me to pair Gray up with for a bit before the ending?
Keep in mind that I already have ending pairings done, but I'll do my best on your choice(s) for who Gray's time will be spent with before Loke finds a way to save his best wing man. PM me for the characters or write it in your review, whichever you wish to do. Thanks for reading everyone, hope to see you in the next chapter involving Gray, Lisanna and an unexpected development. (P.S. I'm not a big Gruvia fan, but if that's what the readers want than I'll swallow my pride and write a chapter on it.)
