Chapter Twelve: Friendship
"Freya?" I cried, "You said she was dead!"
"No, I said she was dying," said Retina, emphasising exaggeratedly, "There's a difference. Of course she was stabbed in a crucial area and I would expect she's most likely dead but miracles happen, you know. She might have escaped by some chance. Anyway, it seemed my shadow thought I had deliberately left Freya to die and tried to kill me of course. But then Freya's shadow came out to tell her I was taken against my will. Then my shadow apologised and Freya's shadow said 'Gomenasai, my daughter. But we will meet again soon.' Speaking of such, what did your shadow say to you?"
"Edo…" I said, thinking back, "'Gomenasai… what you have is rare, don't lose it', I think. What did she mean by that?"
"We don't know," said Aston, shaking his head, "Shadows… they have a gift for predicting things that will happen and they try to give warnings to people involved. Of course, not everyone is capable of summoning them so shadows try to warn them in other ways such as dreams. People commonly mistake these warnings as nightmares but it's just shadows trying to alert them of coming dangers. That's why in your nightmares, there is often shadows or something dark."
"I see," I said, "Wait, how do you two know so much about this stuff?"
"I learned everything off Aston," said Retina.
I looked at Aston curiously.
"Well…" said Aston, "Retina told you I was in Demon Cross since I was five. Have you ever wondered where I was those other five years?"
"The Shadow World," I said.
Aston nodded, "When I was born, I was only one when my parents died in an accident. Before that though, I always saw Miya, the Shadow World's former princess. She appeared all the time, invisible to everyone but I saw her. I always played with her and loved her. So when my parents died, she took me in and I lived in the shadow world. The only problem was, humans were strictly forbidden from the Shadow World. I lived in hiding for four years, Miya taking care of me. Finally, I was found out and Miya died for her crime. Her last wish was that I would live and since Miya was the princess and was loved dearly by the citizens, her wish was respected and I was dumped into Demon Crosses. In those four years though, I learned everything about the shadows."
"So you can summon them?" I asked, awed by the story. These people were so strong and yet they had such pasts.
Aston nodded, "At first I nearly got killed by the shadows since I was the reason their princess died but then they took a liking to me," he smiled, "They're like older brothers and sisters, always taking care of their stupid younger brother," he laughed as he referred to himself.
"So," I said, "You two… what are you going to do now after this?"
"Search for Freya," Retina immediately said, "I will definitely find her and repay her for everything she's ever done for me." She tossed a lot of green jewel pieces on the grass carelessly, "I've lost the eye magic. And Aston's lost the rune magic. We'll definitely get stronger and stronger everyday on our own so we can one day be strong enough to protect those we love like Freya and Miya did."
"I'm tagging along with Retina," said Aston, "I've learned a few things from you Luce. Now whenever I summon the shadows, I'll definitely fight alongside them. I'll always love the shadows. Maybe I'll join a guild along the way."
"That's great," I smiled.
"Hey, you three!" yelled Natsu's familiar voice, "We're leaving, Luce! We have to go back before the Estonia people ambush us for blowing up their trees and the Council arrives!"
"R-Right!" I said, getting up. I turned to Aston and Retina, "Good luck on your journey, you two!"
"You too," they both said, "Thanks for everything, Luce."
I smiled before running after the Fairy Tail mages, "Oi, what happened to Infra and that?"
"They left already," said Erza, "They didn't want to bother with the goodbyes and everything. They miss you already though, don't worry."
"I miss them," I said and meaning it, "But it's nice to be back with everyone."
"Don't think you're getting off the hook, missy!" said the Master sharply, "You still made everyone worry over your whereabouts and whether you were still breathing or not! Wait till we get back to the guild; mark my words!"
"Now he actually sounds like an old man," muttered Gray and the rest of us laughed.
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"We're back!" shouted Natsu, running through the doors of Fairy Tail.
"Mina!" yelled Levy, greeting us at the door, "And Lucy too! Where have you been, huh?" she demanded of me.
"Visiting relatives," Erza cut in before I could speak.
"You didn't even tell us, Lucy!" said Juvia, appearing beside Levy.
I was about to tell her nothing terrible happened when the Master walked past, "Come on Lucy."
I stiffened and walked after him sheepishly, "Hai…"
For the next thirty minutes…
"Gomenasai!" I said, bowing for the thousandth time, "Hontou gomenasai!"
Makarov was glaring at me the whole time, spouting off his lecturing so fast, I could barely make out what he was saying.
Finally he was all out of breath after hollering at me for half an hour. He sat down in the nearest chair, sighing and pressed his fingers to his head, "Well, I suppose you did make it back safe and sound. You helped two people realise they should use their own abilities so the mission wasn't entirely pointless. But you have learned from this experience, right?"
"Yes sir," I said.
"All right. I think I've covered everything now. Dismissed."
I walked out, finally giving my vocal chords a break from saying 'gomenasai' over and over again.
"Was it as bad as it sounded?" asked a male voice. I looked up eagerly but only saw Natsu. No offence, I did like Natsu but he didn't quite give me the same adrenaline rush as Gray except if Natsu got us in trouble and adrenaline soared because of fear. Still…
"Yes," I groaned, "Did you hear how many times I had to say 'sorry' so he would be satisfied?"
"You scared us all, Luce," said Happy.
"I know that," I said, "Do you think the Master didn't point that out?"
"Right. Sorry," said Happy.
"No, I'm sorry," I said, sighing, "I'm just still pretty hungry." Since being half-starved in Demon Crosses barely three days ago, my stomach decided to upgrade the amount of food I could take and I was hungry most of the time now, making me grouchy.
"Still?" said Natsu, raising an eyebrow, "Well, let's go out and eat then! There aren't any great missions today."
"OK," I shrugged.
"Um…" said Happy.
"Nani?" asked Natsu.
"I actually wanted to spend some time with Charle today…" said Happy, looking down sheepishly.
"Go on," said Natsu, smiling, "I'm a friend, not a prison guard."
"Thanks, Natsu!" said Happy eagerly, flying towards Wendy and Charle.
We walked a couple of streets down and found a nice sushi restaurant. We went in and sat down at the counter. The place was fairly busy so the chefs weren't really paying attention to us.
After Natsu ordered for both of us, he turned to me, "So… you and Gray… what's going on with you two? You used to be good friends but now you hardly look at each other. Did you have a fight or something?"
"No," I answered, "And we're not avoiding each other; we're just spending some time with some other friends. Balance, you know." Actually, the real reason I never even looked in the direction of Gray anymore was because I couldn't bear seeing that pain on his face that was most probably because of me.
"Well, yeah," said Natsu, "But I thought the point of 'balanced' was supposed to be that you still spent time with person A while also spending time with others. You and Gray never spend more than five minutes with each other anymore. It's pretty noticeable, even on the train ride home. Every time one of you moved, the other would adjust so you two were looking in directly opposite directions. It was weird and Erza and Mira were pretty worried too."
"There's nothing wrong between us," I assured him as the chef placed down two plates of sushi in front of both of us. I immediately dug in, wanting to direct this conversation as far from Gray as possible, "Good sushi."
"Seriously, Lucy?" said Natsu as he put a piece of raw salmon in his mouth, "You're falling for and using all the oldest tricks in the book. But since you're uncomfortable talking about Gray which is weird because you two are just friends or so you claim; I'll change the subject."
"Thank you," I said.
"That was a hint, Lucy," said Natsu.
"It's just a personal issue, Natsu," I said, "The point is I'm just avoiding him until the whole issue just becomes forgotten. I don't have the guts to go up to him and talk about it so that's the only other solution."
"What issue?" asked Natsu, "I have no idea what the heck you are talking about."
"AN issue. I think I'd like to just keep the issue between us so, sorry and I hope you understand."
"Yeah, it's all right," grinned Natsu, "If you seem stressed any other time, we can always come back here."
"Yeah, sure," I smiled. I'm not sure why, since I hadn't actually confessed anything, but I seemed to be less stressed and calmer around Natsu and talking with him. He seemed to have a sort of happy aura around him which naturally calmed everyone around him.
"So I have to go and meet with Happy," said Natsu, "He's probably finished his time with Charle now."
"OK," I said, "Go."
"See you, Luce!" said Natsu, putting some money on the counter for both of us and dashing out. I looked at the money and sighed, taking out an extra 500 yen, you didn't pay enough, baka…
I walked out and thought I had nowhere to go. I could just go back to the guild or my apartment but both those places had a chance of Gray being there. Instead I decided to relax in the hot springs instead. Gray wouldn't be there since he probably never did relax in hot springs and I would be in the female's section. I started walking over there.
At the hot springs…
As I wrapped a towel around myself, I folded my clothes neatly and put them safely away so no one could break in and steal my gold keys. Hey, it could happen, right? As I walked towards the hot spring, a staff member nodded politely in my direction but then stopped me, "Excuse me, miss? We would appreciate you leaving precious items behind with your clothes."
"Nani?" I said. I looked down and noticed Natsu's 'N' necklace still glimmering on my throat. I hadn't even realised I was wearing it the whole time, even during the Demon Cross encounter, "Oh. Thank you," I said as I turned back around to the clothes room, putting the necklace inside the pocket of my skirt.
Wait… I thought, lifting out the necklace again. Since I had just talked about 'balance', I wanted to check on my relationship with Natsu to make sure I was still on good terms with him. He was my first friend when I joined Fairy Tail after all. Maybe I had been neglecting him and taking his friendship for granted lately. I remembered Gray had said the necklace would be sparkling if the relationship was still working and the pendant would dull if the relationship wasn't working.
The pendant shone like diamonds.
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Just a little note here~ I have nothing against Natsu and Lucy together; I just happen to like Lucy with Gray more. :)