Author's Note: Yes, I got this chapter done, but this overall took me a lot to think over. Let's get all of you good readers going, so review and enjoy!
Chapter 15
"So you're telling me that Surge developed his crush on Edo-Juvia because she saved him from being captured by the Edolas guards?" It had been a good hour that Gray and Lisanna were talking with one another after her quick surrender and they've made pretty good conversations thus far. It mainly consisted of each other's version of what happened during the two year gap she was missing.
"Well if you count rolling him off the side of a cliff saving, then yeah that's when it all started." Lisanna had learned an interesting amount from Gray, things her sister and Elfman hadn't covered before; she felt a weird sense of happiness when she heard that Natsu was one of the people who took the longest to overcome her "death".
"He doesn't quit easily, I'll give him that." Gray gave Surge credit for determination, but there were still a couple of faults his counter part had that he couldn't shake.
"After meeting this world's Juvia, I'm pretty sure they'd hit it off pretty well." Lisanna joked has Gray simply smirked at her, but he too thought the same thing. Those two did share an interesting quality of trying their hardest on getting the one they like, although Gray's happy that her attempts on him seem to be decreasing lately.
"I guess they might, but you never know. Also, I already said we'll hardly talk about her so do you have another topic to talk about?"
Gray and Lisanna talked about a variety of topics that had created enough small conversation to lead up to another one. However, the white haired mage still hadn't gotten much of anything on Gray's opinion of the other girls and was trying to get him to slip up. Of course this was proving futile since he seemed to be good at keeping certain details under wraps. Every now and then she'd try to suggest something that related to one of the girls' personalities, but he'd find a way to sway it out of the conversation and it would take her a little to bit to realize that he changed her quick suggestion into a completely different subject.
It became a back and forth thing between them; Lisanna trying to get Gray to say something about any of the girls and Gray simply cutting it short before anything was said. Before Lisanna knew it, they had arrived at the Toric station and was disappointed that she hadn't received any information and decided that she'd just try again later, but she did manage to learn a few things.
Lisanna did find some similar traits between the two Gray's during their conversations, although the differences were still prevalent; Surge was like an open book to read that didn't require her to try so hard, but this Gray was like trying to read in the dark. However, she was expecting this since Edolas and Earthland are two different places completely. Returning to the task at hand, Lisanna tried to keep in step with the ice mage as he unloaded their things off the train.
They walked down the streets for sometime looking for the mayor's office, taking in the scenery around them. Decorations covered the lamp posts, banners were being put up and the people were quickly rushing back and forth with different items in their hands. They had to stop someone to ask for directions since they were getting turned around every time they came across people moving equipment towards a large hall. Luckily the person, even if he was rushing, was kind enough to tell them to head straight down the street and make a left near the fountain until they come across a large building with a statue in the front.
They followed the directions to the letter and were glad that both the statue and building stood out compared to the rest of the town. The statue being that of an old man with a very antique looking magic gun, obviously the town's founder and the building had more decorations on it versus the buildings they had come across before. As they stepped in, there were people who were going back and forth, but the receptionist looked to be waiting for something as she sat in her seat looking on at the others. Both mages walked up to her, full knowing that she was their guide to where the mayor is.
"Hello we're here on a request, we're the Fairy Tail mages who accepted." Lisanna said as the receptionist quickly activated a communications lacrima, no doubt contacting the mayor that the mages have already arrived.
"The mayor's been expecting you, please follow me." She said as Gray and Lisanna followed after her, walking past portraits of previous town leaders and landscapes that span as far as the neighboring countries.
The two mages followed the receptionists all the way towards the front of two double doors as she signaled them to go inside. Once they entered, it reminded them a lot of Natsu's living room. Stacks of papers were strewn across the floor, books littered the mayor's desk with the man himself furiously scribbling away at a number of documents in front of him. As he looked up towards the two arrivals he sighed a breath of relief, glad that he could get a few minutes away from his work.
He was a rather pudgy man, standing nearly as tall as Gray but he had this air of jolly to himself that seemed to suit him well. The mayor was well groomed given the state of his office, the signs of grey hair already showing; whether from stress or age the two Fairy Tailers wouldn't know. However, he wore a grateful smile that looked as if he had finally found an answer to all his troubles, which might actually be the case.
"Welcome Fairy Tail mages to the town of Toric. My name is Mathew Hansworth, as you may already know as the mayor of this fine town, but please call me Mr. Hansworth." He said as he began settling the documents he was writing on in order.
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Hansworth, I'm Lisanna Strauss and my partner here is Gray Fullbuster." Lisanna said introducing themselves as common courtesy, although Gray would've chosen to just say his name, but he was on Lisanna's mission after all.
"I'd like to thank you both for coming on short notice, I had barely posted the request two days ago and was afraid it might be too late before someone were to see it." Mr. Hansworth had finished putting away the more important files and chuckled lightly as he looked at the condition his office was in. "Please don't mind the mess, my office is much cleaner than this. I've been rather busy lately so I hadn't gotten the chance to clean up yet."
"That's alright with us, but if you don't mind can you tell us the details of the request so we could be prepared for later tonight." Gray said as he knew that preparations could boost their chances of an incident not occurring.
"You're right my boy, I need you to be undercover bodyguards at my son's wedding party."
"That explains why there was so many people running around." Lisanna mused as she recounted the people they passed running with items and articles in their hands.
"Why do you need security at a wedding party?" Gray's never really been to a wedding before, but he's sure that you don't need mage security for one unless some pretty nasty people are trying to crash it.
"The problem is that the young lady my son's marrying use to be a part of a nasty crew of degenerates that hang out on the outskirts of town." Mr. Hansworth said, as he remembered hearing a few rune knights seeing them flee towards the outskirts before. "They were no problem for our law enforcement and the rune knights that pass by to spend some time to recuperate, but as of late some of them now have access to magic and have threaten to attack the town if we were to go through with the wedding."
"I see, well don't you fret any longer Mr. Hansworth because we'll be ready if they try anything on your town." Lisanna said as the pudgy man smiled in appreciation towards the two mages sitting in front of him.
"Thank you again for your assistance, we have a room prepared for you two at a nearby hotel for you to relax in before the time comes." Both mages were glad to hear that, however Gray quickly picked up the word room, as in singular.
"Did you say "room", as in just the one?"
"Why yes I did. You two are a couple, are you not?" Gray awkwardly coughed to the side at Mr. Hansworth's question, while Lisanna began blushing immensely.
"Me and Gray, a couple!?" She didn't think anyone would view them like that, sure the mission says for a couple, but Lisanna only thought you had to just portray one not be the real thing.
"I-I'm sorry sir, but G-Gray and I are only guild mates. We're not actually...together." Sure he was attractive and all, plus she joined Mira's team for her sister's sake, but it was a simple moment in which Gray looked, in Cana's words, like one hot ass guy that started her job in spying and tailing for Mira.
"I'm terribly sorry for the confusion, I'll ask the management to prepare another room for you." Mr. Hansworth had honestly believed those two were together, they looked to be the perfect example of the age old saying that opposites attract.
"Uh, thanks...we'll see to it that everything goes on without a hitch." Gray spoke up, he too hadn't expected someone to quickly assume that he and Lisanna were an item.
The two mages bid farewell to the mayor and made their way towards the hotel they would be staying in, still feeling awkward at being viewed as a couple by the mayor. It was just the same once they made it to the hotel as they both took their things, bid farewell until the wedding and went into their separate rooms until the time would come. The ice mage had this sudden feeling to try and remedy the awkward silence between them sooner rather than later, but he'd need time to come up with a way to speak to her without it being weird.
"I'm sure the other's back home are doing something fun." He said to himself as he searched through his bag for the outfit he was going to wear.
"Finally you guys agreed to something!" Natsu exclaimed as each group had finally come to a conclusion of how they should deal with their ice mage.
"It's settled then, if you manage to get Gray to spend time with you when he gets back then we won't interfere at all." Mira said as the others nodded their agreement, all except Juvia who was fuming that she had to compete with the others to reach her Gray-sama first.
"I'm sure I'll get the stripper first." Gajeel claimed as the others turned to him with challenging stares, although a small cough from a petite blushing blunette drew their attention.
"I...umm, actually got Gray to spend time with me already after he completes his request." There was a consensus of silence from everyone before a squeal of delight came from Lucy.
"What!?" Was the response she got from everyone else as they stood from their seats, shocked by the fact that their bookworm was already a step ahead of them.
Erza quickly settled everyone down and made sure that they go about their daily business now that this was the end of the meeting. Obviously many people complained that they were beat to the punch, but they accepted it and helped Mira put back the chairs and tables. As they moved away, Erza had noticed Loke making his way over towards Freed, but she didn't have any idea as to why he'd be talking to him.
She would've gone to talk to him about this, but she soon remembered that Mira had an extra seat with her, which was the one she was already putting away. The red head needed to find out who her mystery partner was before her team was blind sided from getting to Gray, even if Levy got to him first. Erza needed to confront Mira about this, the she demon was capable of so many things thanks to her years of being a match maker.
"Mira I've been meaning to ask, but who was the empty seat for?" The question had earned her a look of slyness from Mira as she giggled sweetly.
"Oh, I accidentally placed one for Lisanna, but I forgot she was on a mission with Gray. Then again it's the thought that counts when thinking about my team mate." Instantly Erza had realized what Mira had in mind when she sent Lisanna to look after Gray, she set the whole thing up when she got the chance.
"Well played Mira, but don't think you've got an easy victory just yet." Erza replied giving the white haired barmaid one of her own challenging smiles.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from the Great Titania." She replied and a dark aura surrounded both woman, leaving many to walk away from them in fear of their own safety. Many turned glad once those two had parted ways and were going off to do their own thing.
"My Gray will be alright, there's no need to worry." Erza thought to herself, yet she still felt that things weren't as well as she thought. Hopefully her ice mage wasn't doing something reckless like Natsu tends to do on requests.
Gray was laughing alongside the groom and his best man as they walked towards the church; the ice mage set up as his bodyguard for the reception, although the groom was having cold feet before they left his home. He felt very nervous about getting married so the ravenette started talking to him and cracking a couple of jokes to lighten him up. The best man had come to get him and all three began telling jokes as they walked, putting the nervous groom at ease once they made it to the church. Gray bid him good luck and took his place at one side of the building as a look out, since Lisanna was taking the other just as they planned.
The reception had finished without interruption, not a single threat to be spotted on either mage's side. Gray had believed that they only needed to attend the wedding party only, but Lisanna had informed him that the entire ceremony could be in danger so they opted to go to both. Nevertheless, Gray agreed and did his part, but he quickly congratulated the happy couple before rushing off towards his room to get his suit off. He found the thing somewhat constricting and was glad to be back in his original clothes. He waited for Lisanna to get back and changed, so they could discuss the next phase of what they were going to do. Once she arrived and was back in her regular clothes, Gray had came into her room, but the white haired mage was a little too happy after the wedding and decided to tell Gray about the couples' past.
Apparently Jessie, the bride, was the degenerate's leader's girlfriend for quite some time, before she couldn't take it anymore. Her life was going nowhere, the guy was nothing but an abusive prick that seemed to care for only her body, and she wanted to start fresh again in her hometown. He became pissed, beat her for a bit and left to go drinking and causing chaos, which is where she took the chance to escape and head into town looking for a place to stay until she could get herself straight. At this point she had met Christopher, the mayor's son, who decided to take her in and help her out with what she needed. Through the following year since her escape they had become good friends, but the crew of degenerate's had begun harassing the town more often now that they discovered where she was residing.
Life continued for the two, until Christopher and Jessie got together as a couple to which the attacks had become much more violent and some people were becoming concerned. They didn't call for help from local guilds, since their own law enforcement was capable of handling them and the extra help from rune knights that came across the town helped them get by. Christopher finally asked the big question and Jessie happily agreed after chalking up to three years of being together and a number of attacks on the town. Contact for assistance from local guilds came around when a few days prior to the wedding the attacks had now consisted of magic as well and the mayor began to fear for the safety of the townspeople. Lisanna ended it on that note, but she still claimed it to be a good love story about a girl who's lost her way and begins anew with the help of a caring guy.
"A lot like Mira that's for sure." Gray joked inwardly, amused that they sure do share so many traits with each other. "Helps shed light on the matter at least, so we're dealing with an ex-boyfriend feeling betrayed and doesn't want her to be happy."
"That sounds right to me, sad truth, but it may sum up why those degenerates keep coming after this town. What I don't get is where did they learn magic?" It was a troubling question to know that they figured a way to use magic and are prepared to fully use it against a town without a single mage.
"It's much more likely that their previous threats were being brushed off to stop the wedding, so their now resorting in an "all-or-nothing" stand off." Gray replied, giving his own hypothesis on the crew's actions.
"Then we're better off securing the area to make sure there's no way for them to get in and make our way inside the hall to keep a look out." Lisanna said forming their strategy of defending both the newly weds and the guests.
"I'm impressed Lisanna, I didn't know you were good at coming up with defensive strategies like that." Gray said as he didn't take the white haired mage for a strategist.
"O-Oh, thank you...It was a useful thing back in Edolas when we were about to be attacked by the royal guards." Lisanna could feel a blush forming from the compliment and hoped the mage wouldn't notice it of all things. Not that it helped that he stripped his shirt off. "Gray your shirt"
"Whoops, sorry about that Lisanna. Anyways, I gave it some thought and your plan will work good for us. We'll just get rested up for now and make sure to arrive early so we could get a start on securing the building." Gray said as he got off the wall he was leaning on and said his good bye for the meantime.
The white haired girl let out a sigh as she could finally relax, sure she still had her sights set on Natsu, but being alone with a guy who rivals his body type was tiring. Hopefully she could get through this night and figure something out for Mira, she did agree to find out his opinions of the girls. For now she'd take some time to cool down, relax for a bit and get her clothes prepared for the wedding party.
A few hours had passed and the sun was close to setting, Lisanna had finished getting ready and waited for the ice mage to arrive at her door. She truly wondered how good Gray would look in a suit up close, since she didn't get a chance to see him at the reception. Her mind drew a mental image of the ice mage and quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts, this wasn't the time for to fantasize about Gray and why him all of a sudden? She needed to clear her head from those thoughts so she decided to pass the time by double checking if everything looked alright.
Lisanna wore a sky blue strapless dress, lightly dazzled around her bosom with silver beads, that reached just a bit below her thighs. Her ruffles were neat and swayed evenly as she turned and a black sash went across her waist, held together on her left side by a white flower pin. She completed her attire with a pair of heels which gave a bonus to her figure, giving her an air of a model's beauty. She smiled at her reflection, pleased by the way she looked and was glad that Mira had given a few tips and suggestions before she left for the request. Not long after she was through with her mental checklist there was a knock at her door and she quickly answered it, just for her to momentarily stare at the eye candy, I mean man in front of her.
Gray stood at the door wearing a black tuxedo, completely pressed and lint free with an added rose to his blazer's upper chest pocket. A smile plastered on his face as he waited for his partner to say something while she on the other hand was close to drooling.
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." He said jokingly trying to make sure they didn't build up another awkward situation like they did back in the mayor's office. Lisanna snapped right out of her stupor, increasingly blushing with each passing second.
"I wasn't staring!" She tried to defend herself although it clearly wasn't working and hid her burning cheeks behind her hands, turning to avoid facing him. Gray chuckled to himself before patting her head gently.
"Sure you weren't, don't worry you look great too." He said in an attempt to calm her down, but even he was still feeling weird about the whole couple act he had to do with her.
"Thank you" Lisanna replied shyly turning back to look at him as the pink tint wasn't going to leave her face anytime soon.
"You're welcome. Now shall we go my lady?" Gray asked as he out stretched his hand to her, gotta play the part as best you could you know.
Taking his hand Lisanna nodded and off they went together to the carriage waiting for them outside, courtesy of the mayor. The duo looked on upon all the decorations the streets had for this special occasion and Lisanna had a bright smile on her face admiring the beauty. This unconsciously brought a smile onto Gray's face as it had been some time since he's felt at peace without having to worry about the other things on his mind. From the corner of her eye, Lisanna had noticed the smile on his face and wondered what brought that there.
"Why are you smiling Gray?" She asked as Gray slightly stiffened before he relaxed once again.
"I'm just feeling at peace, you know?" He replied, Lisanna seeing a new side of him for the first time.
She's never really seen a Gray that looked untroubled before, he's always worn a face of someone that has too much on their mind at all times.Thump went her heart as heat slowly crept up to her cheeks; she couldn't help feeling fuzzy from looking at him. An interesting feeling towards someone she was barely getting to know.
The two sat in a companionable atmosphere making small talk here and there while they rode along to the party. Their trip didn't last too long for them and thankfully they made it in time to have a first sweep of the area before going inside. The party was being held at a large hall, that seemed to be more of a ball room, often used to host many large events and parties, so it took them some time to make sure there wasn't any suspicious activity going around or places for someone to secretly enter through. With nothing to note as suspicious the pair went in and enjoyed the party while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
A few hours into the celebration Lisanna decided to have a little fun and dance the waltz that the musicians began to play. Every so quickly she grabbed Gray by the arm and dragged him to the dance floor as many other couples began to take part as well. The ice mage didn't want to, especially now that he's trying his hardest not to strip in front of all these people.
"Come on Gray this will be fun!" Lisanna said happily at the awkward standing ice mage who passed a hand through his hair.
"I don't dance Lisanna, I'm sure you know that already." Gray said as his hands were making their way to remove his jacket, but were stopped when two smaller and softer hands took hold of them.
"Don't worry about it Gray, just focus on me and I'm sure you'll do fine." She said kindly before the music began and she placed Gray's hands properly in place while she did the same. Though stiff and awkward he moved in the beginning, Gray had managed to mellow out and move just as well as Lisanna did. Unknown to the two, many of the spectators had begun complimenting the two wizards as they danced along with the tune.
"So I've got to ask." Lisanna began as Gray looked down at her, his dark eyes meeting her bright ones.
"Alright, what do you need to ask me?" He responded keeping pace of the movement of his steps as they continued to dance, thankful that his hands stayed in place rather than removing his clothing without his knowledge.
"Throughout this whole time that we've been here you haven't stripped as much as you do when you're at the guild." She said as he twirled her around before placing his hands again in the right place.
"So you want me to strip, is that it?" Gray sarcastically remarked causing Lisanna to develop a pink tint to her cheeks as she playfully slapped his arm.
"No you pervert, I was just wondering why is all." She said sticking her tongue at him, which he chuckled at.
"I'm not a perv and to be honest, I'm trying pretty hard not to. You're sister would kill me if I were stripping with you so close to me." He replied stifling his chuckling at how true those words were.
"Mira-nee has her way of being very protective of her siblings, but what about when you hardly strip with some of the other girls?" She asked as he gave it some thought since the question had come out of no where.
"I'm most likely comfortable around them that I don't feel agitated or bothered. It's got to do with my nerves or something that makes me strip" He replied to her, until something caught his eye from across the room. "I'm going to turn us around so you can have a better look at a group of men near the bar counter." Gray whispered to her as he fully turned them so Lisanna could see.
"They look like waiters, what's wrong with them?" Lisanna asked as they danced their way closer to them.
"When's the last time you saw a waiter put a magic pistol into their vest?" Gray had caught the shine of the magical weapon before it was stored away, coming to the conclusion that the crew they were after had disguised themselves.
Shots soon rang within the building as the weapons were soon drawn, the main security beaten to unconsciousness which left Lisanna and Gray as the last line of defense. The townspeople began to panic, but were all drawn together into the center as the newly weds were still at their table; Christopher standing to defend his wife as she held his hand. More shots were fired before the main doors burst open to reveal a gruff looking man, clad in leather accompanied by three more of his henchmen. Gray grabbed Lisanna close to him to make sure that they could devise a plan to make sure no one would get hurt except for the crew.
"Hello ladies and gents, my name's Marco, but all of you could refer to me as the Psychonaut. These nice gentlemen with the party favors are my crew, the Berserkers." His crew began to laugh or shoot their weapons, scaring more of the party guests. "This is such a nice party, it's too bad me and my boys weren't invited though; especially for the fact that the bride use to ride with us." Psychonaut made his way towards the table while he let his men loot his captives for whatever they had.
"I left that life behind me Marco, this is my new life!" Jessie held her husband's hand tighter as her ex kept walking towards them.
"Oh don't say that babe, you're still mine and you know it. Now let go of this sorry excuse of a man and come back with me." Christopher stood in his way from reaching her, both men having a stare off before Psychonaut sent a powerful blow straight into the man's chest.
Christopher fell to his knees, trying his best to regain all of his wind that had been knocked out of him, but Psychonaut wasn't done yet. Grabbing his face, the vile man was prepared to knee the grooms face until he was stopped by a new voice.
"Don't you dare lay another hand on him! If you want to fight someone, fight me!" Gray spoke up as he stood from the kneeling crowd, making sure that no one was around him that could get hurt.
"You're actually challenging me? You're just a nobody riding on his imaginary high horse, but I'll give you credit for bravery kid." Psychonaut sarcastically remarked as the rest of his men laughed. "Or is it stupidity? Doesn't matter really, since I'll reward you with an instant death for your chivalry."
"Go ahead, give me your best shot." Gray was taunting him, hopefully the guy would fall for it or else he had to improvise.
"No problem..." With that, Gray was pierced with a flaming shot that came from Psychonaut's finger as he laughed at his foolish opponent. "Shouldn't have messed with fire kid."
Many of the party attendants were in shock was the young man was hit, his body crashing towards the ground as they witnessed the first of quite possibly a series of deaths. Many were prepared to hear the thud of a body, but instead they heard what sounded like a mirror shattering. They turned to see the young man's body break away into millions of pieces until there was nothing left, leaving them fearful that the despicable man's magic may have the same effect on them.
"Now Lisanna!" The shout resonated from everywhere until everyone saw a girl with wings and bird talon's scoop up the bride.
Lisanna had managed to slip away from view and waited for Gray's signal so she could use her bird soul and rescue Jessie. Now that she was out of the way, there was still the need to get Christopher and the others out of here without getting hurt. Hopefully she provided enough of a distraction for Gray to get into place.
Her hopes were right as she noticed the igloo surrounding the guests and the small cocoon around the groom, now that all the bases were covered they could get rid of these guys. She immediately transformed into her tigress form and attacked as many foes as she could, remembering to disarm them before they could get the upper hand on her.
"Well the old man finally saw us as the threat were are if he called in help from guilds. Too bad we've got to make sure you two go back in body bags." Psychonaut said as he began to fire at Lisanna's directions, but his attack was stopped when an ice shield formed in its path.
"This is how it's going to go down; I kick your ass, we send you and your "boys" to jail and the happy couple plus the town live in peace." Gray said landing right beside Lisanna, already in his casting stance as an icy mist surrounded him.
"Gray where are your clothes?" Lisanna asked as her partner was naked from the waist up, while he simply smirked down at her.
"I didn't want to get my suit dirty." The ice mage replied as Lisanna sighed to herself, knowing that was something she should've expected.
"If you truly want to die than by all means come at me. Get ready because I'm fired up now!" Psychonaut exclaimed as he lit his fists on fire, finally getting some real action for once.
"Geez, do all fire mages use that pink idiot's catch phrase or what?" Gray thought as he got ready for his second wedding showdown.
Author's Note: Ugh! Man I'm not the best at writing people's clothing descriptions or fight scenes so this is the best I could do, hopefully it was alright with all of you. On another note, it's nice to know you all finished the chapter to be reading this and I'd like to ask a question for anyone who hasn't answered it already. It's from the last chapter in the second author's note so stick around if you haven't seen it or you just don't want to go back to the previous chapter. If you have and given me an answer than thank you and enjoy the rest of your day/evening. Anyways, here's the question...
After Gray has returned from the request and his little date with Levy, what character(s) do you want me to pair Gray up with for a bit before the ending?
Like before 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.(P.S. I'm not that big of a Gruvia fan, but if that's what the readers want than I'll swallow my pride and write a chapter on it.) Once again, thanks for reading everyone!
