"Hearing yourself sing in the shower and wondering why the hell you haven't made an album yet."
-Teenager post # 3389
CHAPTER 5: FREEZING
8:08 PM
Magnolia Cake Shop, Magnolia, Fiore
"Is strawberry cheesecake your favorite, Scarlet?" he asked, thinking about how he actually didn't give a care about cakes in all of Earthland.
"Yes, it is. And you have an attention span of a Yeti, by the way." Erza Scarlet held a hand up to order her twenty-first serving.
Gray's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. 'Why a Yeti?' he thought, deciding not voice it out for the best though. A second later, he felt his phone vibrate, quickly reading the message and thinking, 'Finally. Fi. Na. Lly.'
"Anyways," the raven-haired student finally got up, "This has been really nice-"
"No, it hasn't." Erza snapped.
"-but I've got to go." Quickly, Fairy Hill's head girl tightly grabbed a hold his wrist, to which Gray Fullbuster stopped in his tracks and tensed.
"You've got a ride, don't you?" she suspiciously asked, seeing as the rainstorm did not cease in the slightest bit.
He smirked, "Are you asking me a favor, Scarlet?"
"No, I'm not. And," she stubbornly replied, intensifying her grip on the ice mage's wrist, "I'm coming with. Destination's Fairy Hills."
8:08 PM
Vacant Room, Third Floor, Fairy Hills, Magnolia, Fiore
"It was a dark, cold night. And the thunder coming in with the rain was intense. Like, seriously, it's got nothing on Laxus' thunder. Which I bet my Karyuu no Tekke-"
"Would you just get on with it?" Cana Alberona irritatingly asked, as Natsu the narrator cleared his throat.
The lot sat in a half-circle, a candle in the middle and facing the queen-sized bed where the blonde-haired girl lay still unconscious.
'So, I was in a nearby magic shop,'
"You mean magic prank shop?" Evergreen asked, to which Natsu only cleared his throat one more time.
"Moving on. I was in a nearby magic shop when I saw her running through the rainstorm with an umbrella. But then she stopped beside the river. I thought she might've seen a dragon, because who would stop in the middle of a rainstorm, right?
A second later, she dropped her umbrella and jumped into the river!"
"Maybe she was trying to commit suicide?" Bisca questioned, but the fire mage shook his head in disagreement.
"That's what I thought at first, but when I rushed outside, I saw her one-handedly clinging on a tree root, while her other hand held this fluffy, white stuff."
"And you jumped into the river, right? Please tell me you jumped into the river a second later. Because if you had been staring and figuring the situation for a minute; it's your fault she's in this state." Lisanna reprimanded.
"Well, yeah, I kinda jumped in after; but that was when she let go of the branch."
Everyone face-palmed.
"The current was very strong, but she was still struggling really hard under the water. It was crazy! We were repeatedly being shoved to the rocky side of the river and bits of floating debris and wood kept hitting us. That was when things got really weird."
"What? What happened? Don't tell me you saw a dragon." Laki commented, earning a pout from the fire mage.
"Hey, no jokes about dragons. Anyways; suddenly, this huge, bright, white light covered her entire body, and stopped her being carried away by the current.
It was really bright; like, you have to wear magical sunglasses to-"
"Um, Natsu? Can we go back to the story?" Mirajane Strauss intervened with a gentle smile.
"Why is everyone interrupting me?" Natsu Dragneel comically frowned.
"So this white circle of light was pushing away the water in mysterious, glowing swirled forms, and I could perfectly see her in a fetal position, embracing something definitely white and rounded.
Once I touched the circle of light, however; it burst! And then the river current returned. But that was enough, though. I successfully caught her and we blasted through the river with my Karyuu no Kagizume.
Pretty cool story, right?" he finished with a satisfied grin.
"But what was the white, fluffy, round thing she was holding?" Juvia asked, as the fire mage remembered in a jolt.
"Oh, yeah. Here he is." Wrapped his scarf, was a cute, definitely white, fluffy and round thing. The creature, after being unwrapped, opened his dainty eyes and got up with little, shaking feet. The girls gasped at the adorable creature.
"So Natsu, what is it?" Lisanna asked, to which the fire mage shrugged in less care.
"Beats me." Natsu replied.
"It's so white and clean." Mirajane added, patting the cutesy, unidentifiable thing on the head.
"And it has a carrot for a nose." Laki poked the hard, shiny, carrot-like cone the little guy had for a nose.
"Oh, I know what it is." Sherry clasped her hands, as the white creature turned its bland eyes to the speaker.
"What is it?" Levy asked, lifting one of its shaky arms. Everyone waited in anticipation.
"Its… love." The pink-haired girl replied, to which the eight girls and fire mage had literally nothing else left to say.
Cana shook her head, "It's a snowman." she stated obviously.
"Nope, now that I think of it, it's a dog." Natsu Dragneel joined the conversation,
"Juvia thinks it's a silver key celestial spirit." The water mage added, to which everyone looked at her with indescribable poker faces.
"Yep, it's gotta be an enchanted snowman." Cana Alberona stated once more.
"Definitely a dog, just look at its little paws." Natsu mentioned.
"Puu-puuun," The white creature stumbled across the floor, resulting in cuteness overload that was too much for most of the girls to handle.
"Well, whatever he is, I'm keeping him. He'd find my garden-for-the-fairies suiting enough!" Evergreen adjusted her glasses, to which the little guy replied with another 'pun-puuun'.
"Pets aren't allowed in the dorm, Evergreen." Bisca Mulan reminded reprimandingly,
"As if I was the one who kept a zoo in my room." Evergreen retorted, watching the snow-like, dog-like thing get up once more and shakily make its way towards the bed; where Lucy was currently being tended to.
"She's still freezing." Wendy Marvell wiped the sweat off her forehead and frowned, now unable to heal the few remaining bruises and cuts on the blonde-haired girl's arms and legs. "If only I had more magic energy." The blue-haired girl pouted.
"Its fine, Wendy; you've done alright." Mira soothed the young girl, a bright smile on her angelic features.
"She's freezing, huh?" Natsu Dragneel got up with a sigh and walked towards the bed. He stared at her shivering form, before messing his cherry pink locks, mumbling a quick 'got no choice, then.'
The girls stared in silence, before their passive expressions broke with jaw-drops and gasps.
Natsu, with a nonchalant expression, got in the bed and gathered the shivering blonde-haired girl in his arms; particularly trapping her form between his legs and his arms in a tight embrace while her head gently leaned on his chest.
"Puu-puuun!" the little guy raised a hand.
"T-That's not legal!" Laki hastily covered her blushing cheeks, pointing an accusing finger at the fire mage. The fire mage tilted his head in bliss confusion.
"What's not legal?" he asked, as the majority of the girls shook their head in frustration.
"That's a very intimate position, Natsu." Lisanna remarked, to which Natsu responded by raising a confused eyebrow.
"What is?"
"Yep, be glad the surveillance lacrimas aren't working. Or else…" Bisca shivered at what their strict housekeeper would say. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Juvia's more worried that Erza will deep fry and serve you at dinner alive if she catches you doing 'that.'" Juvia thoughtfully commented. Everyone, with more vigor, nodded in agreement.
Natsu looked at them with annoyance, "But she'll freeze if-" before the fire mage could even complete his sentence, a new, very familiar voice echoed through the dimly lit room.
"If what, Natsu Dragneel?" the dark aura seeped through everyone's skin.
"Natsu?! That fire-breathing lizard is here?!" another voice called out, before his eyes landed on said fire mage and the familiar blonde in a compromising position.
"Isn't that girl in our class?" Gray Fullbuster asked Erza, the latter ignoring the former.
"W-welcome back, Erza. And unknown shirtless person," Wendy tried to smile, which resulted in it coming out like a sad, pitiful upwards-turn-of-the-lips.
"Unknown person?" Gray voice out, after shortly being drowned by Erza Scarlet's authoritative voice.
"And may I ask why you're violating dorm rule number one-o-one on Public Display of Affections?"
'May the Almighty Spirit bless his soul.' The girls thought at his oncoming demise.