Author's Note: Hello all you beautiful people, hope your days are doing fine and I'll try to make it a bit better with a new chapter for all of you. Things are coming to a close and a part of is excited for finishing my first fic and the other part is sad it's ending. I'll save all that for the ending, for now let's get this chapter underway! Review and enjoy everyone!
Chapter 20
The following day things weren't looking so good on Gray who had the mindset that the bar counter was a suitable pillow, all the while he tried to zone out all the noise from the guild. He had gotten word that Loke was looking for him all day yesterday, but the ice mage had taken the safer route of going home instead of heading back to the guild with Mira. Mainly due in part of the fact that Erza could easily tell when Mira was up to something and could crack down on those who had also been involved as well. In the end though, nothing really happened and Loke was left with no Gray in sight although the ice mage knew he could catch up with him later today if it was important.
At the moment he couldn't really think about what Loke might want with him since he was still trying to wake up from his drowsy state, but help came in the form of an iced coffee placed in front of him. Gray had momentarily flinched when it was placed down as he expected to be greeted by the ever so bright smile that belonged to Mira, but was in a way relieved when he was met with bright green eyes and dark hair. At least Kinana was someone that wasn't staring at him as if he was on display or something; of course Gray wasn't so self-conscious out of the guild, but it felt much more different when it came to his guild mates doing that instead.
"Thanks Kinana, but I didn't order this." Gray said as the purple haired girl gave a quick smile before she went away to deliver the next order.
"Don't worry about Gray, Mira said she'll put it on her own tab this time." She replied, moving away from the counter to give the person their order which left the raven haired young man without a chance at giving his own reply.
"Well thanks Mira..." He sighed as he took a sip of the welcomed coffee, while he searched in his pocket for any loose Jewel to pay Mira back with. The ice mage was too distracted to see a certain blue flying cat land right next to him with his morning fish within his paws.
"You look exhausted Gray." Happy chirped as the said mage turned to look at his rival's furry companion chomp away at his fish.
"Do I? Probably because I couldn't get a wink of sleep last night." Gray replied as he staved off the urge to yawn and get another sip of his coffee, slightly hoping the caffeine would kick in at any moment to wake him up.
"Oh, how come?" The blue cat asked as sleep deprivation wasn't a common thing when it came to the ice mage, well as of recent anyway, since it was a small problem when he was younger.
"Let's just say it was due to nightmares of a monster and a she-demon ripping me apart." In that very moment, Gray couldn't help but let a tingle go down his spine just from the retelling.
"Dark..." Was all Happy could reply with as he looked up at the raven haired mage.
"Nah, it's a lot more tamed in comparison to other ones I've had to deal with, but it's still pretty scary nonetheless." If Gray had to be honest, it was a fright fest all in one night, but they were still less terrifying compared to other nightmares he's had.
"I wouldn't really know a lot about your other nightmares, but I still get what you're saying." Gray's dreams were hardly ever talked about unless he was willing to share, so Happy really didn't know much about the things he dreams about. Although he has speculated that he might've dreamt about ice fishing once in the past.
"Guess you're right, but anyways where's Natsu?I would've thought you'd be with him or with Wendy and Carla." Gray knew that Happy was his own free spirit; however, he still would hang around places almost everyone certainly knew he'd be. So him being alone in the guild was one of the uncommon things, that's if he wasn't waiting for Lily in the meantime.
"He had some sort of meet up or something to go to and both Wendy and Carla went along with him." The blue cat replied as he continued to munch away at a brand new fish, slowly creating a pile of skeletal fish next to him.
"And he left you here?"
"No, I chose to stay behind. The guild's getting a shipment of fresh fish soon and I want first dibs on the fattest one they bring in." Simple reasons for a simple minded cat, but there really wasn't much anybody could do that wouldn't change him.
"Well, I can't fault you for being yourself, besides I was wondering if you know anything about what's been happening behind the scenes at the guild." Things sure have been getting strange and Grays began to notice the difference in people as he started taking note of the things that happen around him.
"Like what?"
"For starters; some people look pretty nervous every time I walk by or just stutter if I want to talk to them." He didn't really notice it at first, but gradually he had taken into account that they hardly look him in the eye anymore, like they just immediately stop around his lips or his chin.
"Maybe they're scared of you or Little Gray is in their face and they don't want to make eye contact with him." Happy replied as he turned to face the guild, catching a few glimpses of people looking their way for some reasoning, but he really couldn't tell what.
"I guess I do tend to lose my underwear at times..." as Gray said this he had realized that his pants were missing and Happy had now acknowledged the reason why everyone was staring. "When did that happen?!" After a little search and dusting off his legs, Gray sat back in his stool next to Happy.
"Okay back to what I was saying, then could you give a reason as to why Laxus gave me death glares when I wasn't facing Evergreen as she tried to talk to me yesterday before I left with Mira?" He could feel a cold hard gaze on him and it was unsettling after he made eye contact with Laxus, needless to say that the blonde haired lightning mage didn't look so pleased.
"That's Laxus for you. I'm sure he wanted to make sure people respect both him and his Thunder Legion." Happy replied taking a quick glance over Laxus' table as they all sat together talking to one another as the big man himself sat with his eyes closed and his arms crossed.
"I'm surprised that you seem to be on top things like this Happy." Gray knew the blue furred cat was just as gullible as his care taker, but he truly seemed informed based on the things he's asked so far.
"Aye, people don't give me enough credit on how smart I can be. My eyes and smarts can tell a lot, even where your eyes have been looking at Gray." Happy said with a teasing tone and a knowing look, although Gray was a bit lost on what he meant by that.
"What do you mean?"
"Everybody else may not have noticed, but you do look at Lucy differently then the rest of the girls." Quicker than the eye could see, Gray's gaze hardened as he looked down at Happy who felt the air grow colder around him and with that so did the bar counter and his fish.
"Who told you?!" In an instant, Happy felt that he may be in danger as Gray continued to glare at him and with the low tone of his voice didn't help his confidence to say he could be wrong. "Talk now before I make a catscicle for the flaming idiot."
"Wahh, I was just joking! I don't really know what you're talking about!" Happy cried as he rarely saw Gray change moods so fast without Natsu around.
"Tch, jumped the gun again." The ice mage grumbled to himself as the cat began to calm down as he noticed Gray back off and simmer down in his seat. "I've got to stop doing that!"
"So you do like her, and here I thought you were being a pervert just getting an eye full of her shirt." Happy once again teased, but he began to feel another cold stare on him that stopped him from laughing.
"Still on some very thin ice Happy, so choose your words carefully."
"I'm sorry!"
"Look I'm trusting you to not say anything to anyone, alright? If you keep quiet then I'll let this slip and call it even." The blue cat raised his paw in understanding and Gray took it as a sign that at least he'd keep quiet for the time being.
"Deal, but do you think you could unfreeze my fish?" Happy asked as he raised his frozen fish so that Gray could see the results of what he unconsciously did.
"Oh, my bad. Let's get back on topic, for now how about giving an answer to this then. Do you have any idea as to why the others are separated in groups?" He asked as he instantly unfroze Happy's fish, but the blue furred cat didn't look like he had a care if they were still cold. "I already knew everyone had their own group to be with, but it feels like something's going on between them in the shadows."
"Sorry Gray, I don't have a clue either. Maybe there's some sort of competition going on, like a fish eating contest and everyone's training hard to out do the other." The emotion named cat replied as Gray smirked to himself at the cat's one track mind.
"Fish is almost everything on his brain..." Gray thought to himself as he gave a short chuckle at Happy's simple answer. "Well if it's something like that then I don't want any part of it. I've got plenty to keep me busy as it is, so I don't want something like that riding on my shoulders too."
"Don't worry Gray, I'll take your place so I could get double the fish!" Happy cheered as he saw an opportunity to land him so more delicious fish.
"You have my permission to do so, all I want is time to myself so I can think clearly for a change." Gray sighed as confusion was becoming a routine thing for him in the last couple of days and he hoped the cycle would end soon.
"If that's what you need then I'll be on my way and hang out with Lily. Good luck with whatever you need to do Gray." Happy said as he sprouted his wings and went off in search of the black furred Exceed. "But I doubt being left alone is going to happen"
"See ya later Happy." Gray called out to the leaving Exceed as he turned back to what was left of his iced coffee. "Damn, maybe I should've told the little fuzzball to stay. Nothing I can do about it now though, I just got to hope nothing more'll happen today."
Gray had to eat his own words after that...
Ever since Happy left him he was quickly approached by Juvia to help her out with picking a new style for herself, something about becoming a Juvia 2.5 or whatever it was. Of course Gray had nothing better to do and he certainly wasn't about to help her change into a new style like she had been doing since the GMG, so he politely shot her down.
That did little to deter her from being with him as she went on about how it was important to change her style up for him. He quickly retorted that what she wore wasn't going to change how he thought of her, which that in itself started a whole new conversation that derailed more than once on her behalf which left Gray to get her back on topic. Thankfully (and surprisingly) enough she puffed her cheeks in determination and set out to try and "shame her Love Rivals" with a new look, leaving the ice mage alone once again if only for a moment.
No sooner did he get a second's break did Macao call out to him to come over to his table, leaving the raven haired mage to think that he was going to be needed in some sort of petty argument between him and Wakaba. After being told the argument, Gray wasn't surprised at how accurate he was when he arrived to that conclusion. As for the argument; it came about when Wakaba had argued that he had the most influence over him, while Macao hardly made a difference and vice versa. This lead into specifics on how Wakaba got Gray into smoking a few years back and how Macao shaped the young man's dress style with the use of a long coat (which did look like a better style on Gray than himself, but he wasn't going to admit that to anyone).
Gray however, had no real clue as to how this conversation ever started, but if he needed to say something than he gave them his own opinion. On Wakaba's behalf he admitted that he got into smoking thanks to the old man's habit, although it was mainly to help cope with the stress he was under at the time. He continued on to say that he quit cold turkey since the health risks were starting to get to him thanks to the old bat in the forest after his regular examinations and found other ways to ease the stress from himself. Of course Macao took this as a victory and rubbed it in the other older man's face, but Gray was far from finished.
He turned on Macao and explained that the style was very suitable for a look he was searching for, but it did have a couple of draw backs. These ran from the price of getting multiple in the event that he stripped one off and lost it somewhere to having to clean it after being in combat as dirt marks, blood or any other substance tended to fall on it. He was still appreciative for the clothing tips, but as of late he's started to wear just a regular short sleeved dress shirt or a plain T at the guild. Nonetheless he would often still wear a coat and usually took one with him when he goes off on a job, but somehow makes it back with it being just as clean as the day he left.
In the end neither one of the old men won the argument and Gray took his leave, this time going for an empty booth instead of the bar counter. Every one else seemed to be occupied with their own affairs so the raven haired mage took this as a sign that he would get some time to himself, but that thought was quickly dashed away when Evergreen had come up to him. She had looked very nervous and her cheeks had an interesting rosy tint to them which was hardly present on the green haired woman, but she still spoke in her haughty tone to him. She had asked him to accompany her and give his opinion on a few dresses she was getting, obviously Gray wasn't about to go dress shopping with the self claiming 'Fairy Queen' when Elfman could do it.
Although he agreed due to Elfman not being anywhere in sight and Laxus giving him another threatening glare which left no room for excuses on Gray's behalf. So there he was an hour later looking at the sixteenth dress Ever was trying on so he could give his opinion, to which he was being honest about else he'd get his ass handed to him by Laxus later. Gray had no idea how he was so easily swayed into doing something so girly as this, but he mostly blamed it on his lack of energy to argue about it and to put up a decent defense against a possible ass whoop from mister tall, blonde and scary. With a hidden happiness, Gray was glad Evergreen soon finished going through all of them and decided to get six out of the nineteen dresses she looked at.
The ice mage felt like he was being taken advantage of from these past request in the last couple of days and he had just noticed how demeaning it has become after he was asked (secretly threatened) to go with Ever. How he was doing something that was so out of character was beyond him, like some greater power was making him go through all this boring torment for no reason what so ever. He was just glad that he was allowed to leave and go back to the guild with some sort of his masculinity intact, but that was soon challenged just as he opened the guild doors.
Gajeel was busy riling up Elfman into a fight when he caught sight of the ice mage and tried to get him into the fight as well. Gray proved to be the stronger man as he wasn't so easily swayed, but his tired patience could only extend so far until he cracked and it came at the point when Gajeel questioned if he truly was a man. The pierced slayer taunted him by questioning if he really was a man or simply one who prefers having woman qualities, like dress shopping. Gray's blood boiled as he was ensnared into the trap and was the first to charge, much to his chagrin Gajeel simply dodged him most of the time and simply went for grapples instead of throwing punches.
Elfman had joined in as well and soon enough a guild brawl started with Gray knocking out more of his guild mates then his preferred target. Somehow, it ended with Gray being the only conscious person amidst the fallen bodies with both Elfman and Gajeel being knocked out by what Gray could only describe as a circular food try boomeranging towards some part of the guild and out of his sight as he couldn't see to whose hand it landed in. The ice mage was impressed with his work, but still was interested on who had quite the through and ability to use such a mundane item as a potent weapon. Either way the fight was over and he hoped that was all that was left of people disturbing him for the time being.
So here he was a few hours into the afternoon later, back at the bar counter with his body slumped over it in exhaustion. He couldn't believe how much he could be made to do in such a small time frame, but here he was with all of it completed like it didn't even happen.
"Been a long day Gray?" Came the sweet voice of one Lisanna Strauss who decided to sit next to the tired ice mage.
"You have no idea..." He tiredly replied as he lifted his head to look at her, glad that it was someone he was okay with talking to for now.
"Looks like you're getting quite popular in the guild, so make sure it doesn't all go to your head, okay?" She joked as he gave her a small smirk before he replied.
"Trust me when I say I rather not be and let it all fall on Mira. She's completely used to it and here I am exhausted by it." How she could do it on such a regular basis would be a mystery he wouldn't ever solve for himself.
"Her popularity stems from the kind soul I knew she had that looked after both me and Elf-nii-chan, but she rarely showed until recently. Personally, I figured she'd be very popular years ago if she would let go of her protective attitude." Lisanna had always admired her older sister and had faith that a lot of people would come to like her if she wasn't so abrasive to others most of time when they were younger.
"Guess I wasn't the only one thinking that." Gray said aloud as he propped his elbow up on the counter and leaned his chin on his palm. "At least I have someone to talk to now." He commented off-handily after a moment of companionable silence.
"You sounded a bit disappointed there Gray, am I not able to meet your standard of someone you'll enjoy speaking with?" She feigned hurt as she spoke, but Gray could see through her little act as it still needed a little work before he was fooled.
"Try a bit harder and you would've gotten me just like Mira would," the ice mage criticized before he spoke again, "But in all seriousness, I don't think of you as unqualified since it's more lined up with trying to make sure a certain she-demon doesn't skin me for tainting her pure and innocent little sister."
"Thank you for trying to keep me pure, but in all honesty I'm far from it now." Lisanna replied as Kinana had delivered the drink she had ordered earlier to her. "Mostly due in part of the Edolas Fairy Tail, where a sharp tongue and a strong fist gets you recognized easier." She continued as she took a sip of her drink and waited on what Gray would say next.
"Really now, then how does a wet blanket like Surge or Edo-Natsu manage to stay in that kind of guild?" After seeing how wimpy they were under the circumstances, such standards made them fall short in his eyes.
"Surge had it where it counts on fighting, but it was mainly due to Juvia that he wasn't pushed around a lot verbally. As for Edo-Natsu, he has similar characteristics of our Natsu, but it was much more in thanks to Edo-Lucy that he wasn't bothered so much..." The white haired girl replied, but her voice slowly faded as the subject of Lucy and Natsu came up.
"My bad..." Gray felt bad about bringing up something that upsets Lisanna like that, it slipped and he really didn't want her to feel bad.
"No it's fine, I don't mind it that much. Besides, thanks to you I'm not going to give up so easily this time." Lisanna said as determination flashed in her eyes and Gray was relieved to hear that.
"That's the spirit, so let's change the atmosphere up and tell me the dirtiest jokes you know." Gray would rather change the subject then have it be awkward, although he was somewhat curious as to how much he really helped Lisanna get a confidence boost like that.
"Eh? B-But what if Mira-nee hears? She may think you taught me these things." She was aware of what the ice mage said earlier and knew that he wasn't that wrong when it came to her sister's protectiveness when it came to someone of her own blood.
"Good point, but let's just do it anyways. I'm sure she'll understand if you tell her about your time in Edolas." Gray was willing to hear what she had to say and Mira can be understanding so long as you explained yourself properly, which is a given if it came from her sister or Elfman for that matter.
"Oh...okay fine, but remember that I warned you." With that, Lisanna had decided to recount the jokes Lucy Ashley and the Edo-Levy would tell.
~Some Time Later~
It was the middle of the afternoon as Team E.L.L.N. plus Wendy and Carla were making their way over towards the guild. They were discussing an important matter that had come up and the difficulties that followed suit which drew them away from returning to guild for quite a while. They each had their obvious concern about leaving Gray at the hands of who ever was at the guild hall and not one of them enjoyed the thoughts that raced through their heads. To counter act these images, they started talking about the key points of their meet up and Natsu had now struck an argument between himself and Lucy over what plan was better.
"Like I said it would be better to do it my way, so it's less of a hassle to deal with than what we're doing now." Natsu retorted for the fifth time to his blonde team mate as she was adamant about agreeing with the pink haired slayers logic.
"And like I've been saying, doing a battle royale isn't the best option given to what's happened in the past. Besides, this way is much more civil and no one needs to bash each other's heads in." Lucy replied as Natsu crossed his arms in annoyance while Wendy took this time to speak up.
"It does seem fair, but Gray-nii still needs to choose and the weight of that decisions lands on his shoulders alone." Wendy said she thought about the conclusion of all of this.
"She does bring up a fair point, but we'll need to discuss this matter at a later time. Hopefully the others are not ahead of us yet..." Erza said as she opened the guild doors only to hear one of the most sexiest laugh they've ever heard coming from the bar counter.
"Is that Gray laughing?" Levy said in bewilderment as the others were still in shock to see Gray laugh in such a way; however, the who that did it wasn't sitting right with them.
Natsu looked on as his love/like interest was getting too comfortable with his best childhood friend and he didn't like it. Something inside of him twisted into a knot and he felt like pushing those two as far apart as he possibly could for some reason. It felt like the pain he had when he saw Gray holding Levy after the Gajeel incident was happening all over again, but he subconsciously reached a fist close to his heart. Lucy had looked over towards her best friend to see his face contort in a mixture of disbelief and hurt.
"Hey Natsu are you okay?" The blonde beauty asked as he simply shook his head in response to her.
"To tell you the truth Luce, not really. My chest hurts pretty bad right now and I don't know why." He replied as he braced himself to make his way over to the two.
Levy's face lit up in understanding of Natsu's answer. "Natsu could it be possible that...where'd he go?" In the instant she was about to ask him, the pink haired slayer disappeared only to be found marching his way over to Lisanna and Gray.
"He's heading straight for them, we have to stop him before he breaks a rule!" Erza cautioned as she tried to lead the rest of the group to follow him in a casual manner, but she somehow lost track of where Wendy and Carla had gone.
"Gray, Lisanna if you don't mind, can I ask you two to get an aged rum bottle in the back room? Lisanna knows where to go and here's the bottle's name, all you've got to do is help her get it and make sure Cana doesn't sneak in, alright Gray?" Mira asked as she noticed the opposing team making their way over to her sister and the ice mage, of course she was going to make sure they didn't do anything to bother them.
"Sure, no problem." Gray replied as casual as he could, given that he was still pretty nervous of how to react to Mira after what happened yesterday.
"Okay Mira-nee." Lisanna replied, but she hadn't noticed the dragon slayer who was being held back by a determined Erza. Although they hadn't caught on to what Mira was having them do and followed right after them when they were sure Gray and Lisanna weren't paying attention.
Team E.L.L.N. followed close behind them and Natsu was leading the charge, but Lucy was nervous of the unknown troubles they could get into if they were caught. The whole spying thing wasn't really her style let alone the dragon slayer's, so this wasn't the best idea to follow them at twenty feet away. Luckily they stopped as her worries were just getting to her, but the next thing that she was wondering was why Natsu had his ear to a door.
"Natsu what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to listen in on what they're doing." He replied as he pushed his ear against the door again, soon followed by Erza who was also curious.
"We all agreed to not interfere when someone has him, remember?" Levy said as Natsu turned to face her with a blank face.
"I know, it's just that I don't want to see the ice princess hang out with Lisanna or for her to do so either." Levy had a knowing face as soon as Natsu said that and turned to whisper over to Lucy's ear as the other two continued to press themselves against the door.
"Lisanna is a grown young woman Natsu, you can't make her do anything since it's her decision to do whatever she wants." Erza said in a hushed tone as her curiosity was growing stronger the more she wanted to hear what was going on behind the door.
"Yeah, so? I'm doing this because it doesn't sit well with me at all." Natsu replied in an equally hushed voice. "Something about seeing those two together really bothers me."
"Hey Lucy, do you think Natsu could be jealous based off of what he just said." Levy had been whispering her suspicions about Natsu to Lucy, but now it seemed even more inclined with what she was thinking.
"I don't really know, but from what we've seen from him it is possible that he feels tat way. The question is, who's he jealous of; Gray or Lisanna?" Lucy did wonder if the pink haired teen was cautious of Gray or was being protective of him.
"Good point Lucy, we should keep an eye on him to see what he might do." Levy replied as they both started giggling at the thought of Natsu's silly attempt at finding out that he was jealous.
"Quiet down you two, we're trying to listen in and if you two want to hear then get over here now." Erza order and with a squeak, both the bluenette and blonde rushed towards the door and placed their ears to listen in.
It took a bit of time, but they could slowly make out their individual voices talking to one another about something. It was muffled, but they tried their best to make out every word they were saying.
"Sorry Gray, I just can't hold it with both my hands hard enough." Came Lisanna's voice as she sounded to be slightly struggling with something.
"That's alright, how about you climb on top and I try instead. It'll probably be easier for you." Gray's voice suggested; however, a certain person's mind was getting suspicious of what they were saying.
"Are you sure, it looks pretty big." Lisanna said, sounding a bit nervous about going through with what Gray suggested.
"From where you are it does, but I'm sure you can handle it in you're tiger form or would you rather I pick you up?" The ice mage said with a bit of a playful tone, to which Natsu clenched his fist at. Although on Gray's behalf, he thought it was a pretty good for her to use a more agile form to get to the top of a high shelved rack.
"Haha, very funny. I more than capable of doing it myself you know." The young Strauss replied in an equal playful tone as the team could hear her transformation and a couple of other noises they couldn't quite make out.
"Good, so do you want me to hold you so you don't slip off?" Gray asked as a familiar sound of clothes rustling was starting to raise a number of red flags in each of the listeners' heads.
"No,no...you need both hands so I'll just hold onto your shoulders just in case." Lisanna replied as a little more shuffling was being heard and Gray making a slight grunting noise.
"Suit yourself, here we go." After that the only thing that Team E.L.L.N. heard was the continuous grunting of Gray as he was doing something they couldn't understand it being, although Erza and Levy had an idea of sorts but kept it to themselves.
"Careful Gray you're moving too forcefully, it might break if you keep it up." Lisanna squeaked, but what the team didn't know was the context behind it, which inadvertently increased Levy and Erza's thoughts about what was happening to intensify and cause Lucy to blush as she began to follow their train of thought.
What was really happening was Lisanna sitting atop of the rum rack as she used her weight to hold it down, while Gray tried to pull the stuck bottle out with all his strength, but it painted a different picture when you can't see what's going on. The three females of Team E.L.L.N. had come to their own conclusion with all flushed cheeks; however, Natsu wasn't so aware and had yet to fully understand what was going on.
"Sorry Lisanna, just hold out a little longer. It's coming out soon, I can feel it. Just a little more." Gray could feel the bottle loosen out of the rack, but an accidental slip of his hand caused the surrounding dust to blow out in all directions, blocking his view and for him to cough lightly as it went into his face.
"Wait Gray don't grab there~!" Lisanna couldn't help but let a slight mewl escape her lips as Gray had accidentally clutched her tail that rested off to the side. She still was in her Tigress form and had noticed the dust that blew out and how he was trying to clear it, but wasn't fast enough to warn him before the ice mage's hand grabbed her sensitive tail.
On the other side of the door, all of the eavesdropping members' faces flushed red as now they truly knew that was happening on the other end. Natsu was skeptical at first and tried to think of what else was going, but that noise was something he had never heard Lisanna make before and it didn't sound like she was in pain either. His fist clenched even harder as he was now barring his teeth with the want of rushing straight into the room, but he had to control himself as he just wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even if there was plenty of (what he thought) evidence that proves it otherwise being all a misunderstanding.
"Ah, I'm really sorry about that Lisanna. Are you okay?" He asked apologetically as he let go of the fluffy appendage that belonged to the young Strauss girl.
"Yes I'm fine, please continue. I'll settle again in a few moments so there's no need to worry." She replied as she soothed her tail and herself, deciding to drop her transformation to avoid another incident like this to happen again.
"Here we go, it's coming out now." Gray said as he wiggled it a little more for the bottle to come completely out, as Lisanna made her way down the rack. Although a strange string on the side of the bottle had gained his attention. "Wait, what's this?" He said, before pulling on said string.
"Gray wait, don't!" Lisanna cried out as Gray yanked the string that held the bottle's cork in place, spilling nearly half of its contents all over her.
"Oh man, that was completely by accident Lisanna honest!" Gray exclaimed as he tried to reseal the bottle and look for something she could dry off with. "Damn it, I got it all over you."
"What the hell are you two doing!?" Natsu couldn't take it anymore and barged in with a blitz of anger, not caring about what state he was about to see them in. If both Gray and Lisanna weren't distracted by the raging slayer, they would've noticed the three girls who fell in after he opened the door that tried to make a hasty recovery back onto their feet.
"Natsu!?" Lisanna said, surprised by his sudden appearance and quickly trying to cover up where her wet clothes were beginning to stick to.
"What's it look like flame breath, we're trying to get a rum bottle for Mira." Gray said as he stared at his rival, whose eyes looked ready to beat someone into next week.
"Then why's your coat in your hands!?" He questioned, he's heard enough and wasn't going to stand for lame excuses like trying to get a rum bottle. Seriously, he wasn't born yesterday.
"So she can cover up where the rum got spilled on her, detective." Gray sarcastically replied to his questioning as he handed his coat over towards Lisanna.
"And your pants?"
"When the hell did that hap-; you know what, never mind. Look I was doing Mira a favor, is there something wrong with helping someone out?" Gray crossed his arms after locating and putting his pants back on, not necessarily in the brightest moods to deal with Natsu's stupidity. Especially in a closed off room like this.
"No, not really but how do I know that you're not lying?" The pinkette questioned, which caused an audible groan to escape Gray's lips as he found him saying another stupid question after the other.
"Don't worry Natsu, Gray's telling the truth. Besides, what else could we possibly be doing?" She asked with a smile, while awkward laughter and smiles came from the others in the room.
"Alright fine, but I've got my eye on you ice princess." Natsu said making hand movement describing what he had just said which earned an eye roll from the ice mage.
"Yeah whatever you say charcoal for brains, like I care. Anyways, what are you guys doing here?" Gray directed his question towards the fact that they all were here in the first place, rather than out front.
"We heard a commotion in this area and went to check it out." Levy chirped as she quickly thought on her feet before Lisanna could fault them for breaking a rule and telling Mira about this.
"Y-Yeah that's it, we thought Natsu might've found someone back here that wasn't Cana, right Erza?" Lucy tried to add a bit more to help boost their alibi, but she was too nervous to really go any further and hoped the red head could include something else.
"Yes, we believed that someone was elop-...er, invading our wares back here and Natsu had caught them." Erza internally face palmed at her slip up and hoped they didn't catch, which she wasn't alone in as the other girls also hoped her save might actually hope.
"Well there's no need to be on guard anymore, it's just us getting, well, what's left of a rum bottle Mira needed us to get." Gray said as he raised the half full rum bottle for them to see, a new ice cork to keep it closed since he couldn't find it's original.
"Why exactly did she have you two retrieve that one specifically, if I may ask?" Erza was trying to divert the conversation away from them so there's less chance of them getting in trouble for this encounter.
"Not really sure, probably for Gramps when he comes back from his meeting. You know how much he likes to drink a cold one or fifteen after on of those meetings." Gray suggested, since the old man was always seen trying to drink away all the pent up annoyance he had from either a guild masters meeting or one from the council.
"Although it's nice to have a chat with friends, I really should go and get changed before Cana sticks to me for smelling this way." Lisanna spoke up as she still was wet and covered in rum. "Don't worry about your coat Gray, I'll get it cleaned up and back to you in no time flat."
"Don't sweat it, wouldn't be the first time its smelled like booze and it certainly won't be the last." Gray commented as Lisanna bid farewell to them and made her way back to her sister with the bottle in her hand.
"I guess my work here is done, but would you guys care to tell me where have you been all day?" Gray asked as he began walking back with the rest of his team and Levy towards their table in the main part of the guild.
"Oh you know Gray, just doing girly things at my house..." Lucy replied vaguely as he raised an eyebrow to her.
"With Natsu?"
"She had free food, I couldn't resist." Obviously Natsu stayed with the more common thing Gray knew about him whenever he went to Lucy's house, so it should provide a good enough reason for the ice mage.
"Well alright then, but you guys better let me know ahead of time so I'm not bored out of my mind." Gray said, although he was still skeptical about Natsu's answer but he wasn't that up to dwelling on it any further.
"Duly noted, but for now let's just get back to our regular table." Lucy chimed, but she was stopped as an arm wrapped itself around her shoulder from a glittering light source.
"Slow down gorgeous, I'm afraid I need to take the prince of underwear with me for a bit." Loke said as he flashed her a flirty smile, but team E.L.L.N. was none too happy that he'd be taking away their Gray.
"Loke..." Lucy said through gritted teeth as the lion kept springing up in the most obnoxious of times as of late.
"Sorry Luce, but I need a little bro time with my wing-man." He said with a charming smile as he began to drag Gray out of the guild leaving the rest of the group with exasperated breaths as their chance literally was taken away from them.
"You've got me Loke, but if this is one of those "special" moments and you give me your blessing again, I'm apologizing to Lucy for knocking out one of her spirits." Gray said as Loke led him through the streets of Magnolia.
"Why didn't you when you hit me the last time!?" He cried out as he remembered the sucker punch the ice mage had given him when he questioned his sexuality.
"Because you were still conscious." Gray cheekily replied with a smirk which seemed to have annoyed Loke even more.
"Oh ha ha, nice loop hole you bastard." Loke said with hidden glare from behind his sunglasses, but he couldn't really be mad at him because of what he'll have to do soon.
"I try..."
"Whatever, just keep up with me and I'll tell you what I need from you." Loke guided Gray through many of Magnolia's districts for some time, but Gray quickly started to recognize the streets as old pick up spots Loke would go and find chicks.
"This better not be another elaborate plan to get more chicks for you Loke." Gray didn't recognize them at first, but after a while he started to see a pattern and it began to tick him off every time he wanted to "hang out" for a bit.
"You're not still mad about that are you? Thanks to you, I managed to beat my own record." Loke smiled at his old friend and was genuinely happy that it was thanks to his efforts, he helped him set a record that none of those Blue Pegasus boys have ever beaten.
"Yeah, while I was mostly eye candy to draw in more girl for you by the hour." Gray bit back bitterly as he'd be approached by girls in sets of two with the most being six.
"Aw lighten up will ya Gray, it's like what I told you last time; I swear you smell like catnip because all the p-..." Loke couldn't finish his sentence as a small block of ice was shoved into his mouth, by none other than Gray.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it. Just don't finish that sentence." When Loke nodded in agreement, he melted the ice in his mouth and let him cough up the water that came from the ice block.
"Can't deny it man, pretty soon the student will surpass the master." Loke commented in a joking manner as their main destination was coming into view.
"If you need me to help you get more chicks, then I'm sure I've already surpassed you a long time ago." Gray said with a smug smile as Loke slightly deflated at how solid the ice mage's reasoning was.
"Aren't we getting a little cocky? Just remember who taught you to use your features for personal and useful things." Gray did have to admit that thanks to Loke he managed to play it cool enough to get information out of someone (even intimidate), smooth talk his way through almost anything and get a little tail here and there.
"No problem oh wise master. Even so, I still got more than half a mind to say that you're buttering me up for something Loke." Gray had taken into account their surroundings and were at the park nearby the river's railing with hardly anyone around, leaving Gray puzzled as to why they were doing here until he moved his attention back on Loke who let out a loud sigh.
"You manage to deduce this so easily, but you're as dense as a rock when it comes to other things." Loke huffed as Gray was just down right confused now of what in the name of Mavis was happening.
"What do you mean Loke, I think I'm pretty perceptive." Gray replied as Loke simply readjusted his glasses with his ring finger, giving off a weird and mysterious feeling for some reason.
"No Gray, I don't think you are, otherwise you would've easily seen what I've been trying to do." Loke was being vague and one thing that Gray didn't like is when people are being too vague that they hardly leave little meaning to what they are saying.
"So spit it out then, what have you been trying to tell me?" Gray asked as he leaned against the railing with his arms crossed."
"It's not that easy to do Gray, if it was then I would've already told you." Loke replied which was now starting to piss Gray off with all this back and forth with them not even getting on the subject at all.
"Loke tell me already, before I knock it out of you." Gray said in a stern voice causing Loke to collect himself before he took a step closer to Gray.
Gray looked at him with a curious eye as Loke came closer, wondering what the strawberry blonde had to say. By the way he was acting it sounded pretty important, but then again it was always a gamble with how Loke would present something either serious or not. Loke was now no more than a two feet away and he stared into Gray's eyes with determination, making the ice mage actually cautious about what he was going to say next.
"Gray Fullbuster, I love you and I want you." He said aloud with a charming grin as he looked into Gray's dark blue eyes.
"What the actual FUCK!"
