I am a benevolent god

VII.

Just Around The River Bend

No new messages.

Levy frowned at the computer screen. She closed her emails, then opened them again to check one more time.

Not that her father knew her email address. Levy didn't know why she expected anything. But she didn't have a phone, so he had no other way of reaching her. After the hasty message she left him, Levy...well, she wanted some kind of recognition from her dad that she wasn't living with him anymore.

But nothing. For all she knew, he hadn't checked his answering machine. Heck, for all she knew, he didn't even know she wasn't there.

Levy wondered if the god of family relations were laughing at her. Like, 'you haven't been living at your house for an entire week! Guess who hasn't noticed? That's right, your drug-dealing, alcoholic father!' She rubbed the heels of her hands over her eyes, frustrated.

"Hey, you up?" The door to the guest room creaked, and Levy quickly closed the window on the computer as Gajeel entered the doorway.

"Yeah," she said, clearing her throat, which had closed up. "Yeah, for a while."

He grunted. "How long, exactly?"

Levy glanced at the window. "I don't know. A few hours, maybe?"

Gajeel's face twisted. "A few hours? It's like, fuckin' noon."

"So?"

"It's Saturday."

Levy sighed. How typical. Gajeel would be the kind of person who slept well into the afternoons on weekends. Not Levy. She was an early bird. "You know, some of us enjoy the morning air."

"Yeah, well, some of us are idiots," he retorted. "What the hell do you do the whole time?"

"Things." Levy turned off the computer, silently resolving not to make any more desperate checks to her emails. If her dad didn't care, fine. She didn't care about him, either. "I made pancakes."

Gajeel perked up. "Pancakes?"

"Yes, and there's some left over. You would know that, if you got up on time."

He made a face at her, then turned to trot down the hallway into the kitchen. Levy got up and followed, making sure to close the door behind her.

The guest room was, like every other room in the house, gorgeous. On the bottom floor, with windows looking across the backyard, it was huge. It had a queen-sized bed and a TV on the wall, and its own computer. There was an armoire in the corner that Levy had at first avoided using, but eventually it had been too good to resist.

Last Saturday, she and Gajeel had taken his monster truck down to the trailer park to grab some things. Her father was out and the door had been locked, but Levy hopped in through the always-open kitchen window and packed most of her clothes in an old suitcase. Gajeel teased her for breaking in, but she thought he was secretly a little impressed.

Now she'd been living in his house for an entire week. It was already starting to feel like a home, and that scared Levy.

Gajeel was already in the kitchen when she entered. "How many did you make?" he marveled, stacking his plate with five pancakes. "Oi, Lily! Get up here, you can have some, too."

"You could have had more, if you were up early enough to ask for them," Levy jabbed lightly. The black cat hopped up onto the table beside her and she scratched his chin. "Hi, Lily."

"Don't be a kiss-ass," Gajeel told Lily as he started to purr. Levy giggled, and continued petting him.

As Gajeel started munching on a stack of five pancakes, Levy took to staring out the window. She could see out into the front yard; compared to how nice the inside of the house was, Gajeel's garden was a disaster zone.

"Hey," she said. Gajeel paused, fork halfway from his plate to his mouth. "Why don't you clean up outside?"

He frowned and took a bite. "I 'unno. 'oo lazy."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," she admonished, and hopped off the chair. Lily padded onto the floor and followed her as she headed for the front door.

"Oi! Where're you going?" Gajeel scrambled to his feet.

Levy was already outside when he caught up to her. She surveyed the lawn, hands on her hips. "The garden's overgrown, the paint on the house is chipping, the lawn needs to be mown, and everything is covered in cobwebs."

"Yeah, you just noticed that now?" Gajeel's voice was irritable, but Levy knew him well enough now not to be unsettled.

"I think this weekend, we should clean it," she announced.

"What?" Gajeel choked on the last of his pancake. "You're kidding right? Please tell me you're kidding."

"If I'm going to be staying here, I want to at least enjoy it," Levy said. "And I can't enjoy it if it feels like a ramshackle castle."

"What the hell does 'ramshackle' mean?"

Levy ignored him. She started walking towards his garage. "Do you have anything useful in here?"

Suddenly Gajeel broke into a run. He skidded to a stop in front of her, blocking the garage doors. "Ah, no. You're not getting in there."

"Yes, I am."

"No fuckin' way."

"What is in there that you don't want me to see?" Levy tried to peer over his shoulder. It didn't work. She was too short and he was too tall. "You don't keep your truck in there, why not?"

"Reasons," Gajeel stated, crossing his arms. "Now back off."

"No."

"Yes."

"Come on!" Levy stamped her foot in frustration. "I can't do any cleaning if I have no tools!"

"What makes you think there'll be tools in there?"

"It's a garage!"

Gajeel growled. "I said no."

"And I don't care, let me in."

He threw his hands in the air, making strangling motions. "You are so annoying!"

"Oh, I'm the one who's annoying?" Levy's eyebrow twitched. "I'm not the one keeping an innocent girl out of a freaking garage for no apparent reason!"

From their feet, Lily meowed. Both Gajeel and Levy started. She'd forgotten the cat had followed them outside.

Gajeel rubbed a hand over his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, and took three deep breaths. "Fine," he said. "You can go in."

Then he reached down, and pushed the garage door open. It groaned loudly, flakes of rust falling down as if it hadn't been opened in years. Levy realized it probably hadn't been.

Inside, it was dark. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Levy saw a workbench, a lawn mower, and an entire corner piled with painting supplies. The walls were lined with power tools. Sitting in the center was an old, black, half-built Ford, like the ones first manufactured in the 20's.

"What is this place?" Levy asked, taking a step into the garage. Dust stirred up around her feet.

Suddenly the garage was flooded with light. Levy shielded her eyes, and looked over her shoulder. Gajeel was standing by the light switch, his face partially in shadow. "My dad's old workshop," he said gruffly.

"He was a mechanic?" Levy guessed. And a handyman, if all the paint tools were any indication. "Why haven't you gone in since..." Since, well, she didn't know what. Had his father died, or was he simply on a long vacation?

" 'Bout five years ago, he packed up and left. Said he'd be back in a few weeks. Bastard must have won the lottery, 'cause I haven't seen him since."

Levy hummed critically in the back of her throat. So she wasn't the only one here with daddy issues. Maybe that was why Gajeel had taken pity on her, and let her stay.

She felt a surge of anger towards Gajeel's absent father. She'd never met him, and maybe she had no right, but there was a set in Gajeel's jaw and a tension in his shoulders that made her want to punch all the deadbeat dads in the world. It was no wonder, Levy thought, that Gajeel was a social recluse with a beastly attitude.

"Come on," she ground out, and stomped further into the garage. She kicked a few things out of the way, tugging at the lawn mower.

"What are you doing?" Gajeel demanded, sounding almost too bewildered to be angry.

Levy dragged the lawn mower out into the sunshine. "We're gonna fix this house up," she ground out. "Here, take this."

She stormed back into the garage and started ripping things off the wall. They weren't gardening tools exactly, but she'd have to make do. "And when we're done, get ready to tear this garage a new one."

Gajeel hadn't moved from his spot, staring in amazement. "What?"

"I'm thinking a rec room? Or maybe a shop to practice welding. Even a storage unit."

"It's a garage."

Levy fixed her gaze levelly with his. "Gajeel?"

He stood his ground.

"Mow the lawn."

She might have imagined it, but the corners of his mouth went up in a smile that was almost soft. "Alright, shrimp."

"Don't call me that."

Erza stood outside the little pharmaceutics store on the edge of town, arms crossed, and wondering if she should go in.

Her head was pounding. It had been pounding non-stop for almost a week. She had emptied a bottle of Advil, developed a tolerance for Tylenol, and raided Kagura's bathroom cabinet for prescription painkillers. It was getting so bad, Erza was considering attacking the hospital and stealing their entire store of morphine.

Jellal was across the street at the gas station, pumping some air into his flat tire. Earlier he'd ridden his bike over a sharp rock, bursting the tire and causing him to go sprawling all over the road. It had been really funny, and normally Erza would have laughed at him. But she felt too queasy to laugh.

It wasn't fair to Jellal. He was starting to notice, no matter how hard Erza tried to keep it hidden. But with the pills wearing off, she was quickly becoming the world's worst person to go on a date with. So she told him she was popping across the street to the little store to find something to eat.

Closing her eyes, Erza tried to think. How had this started? Had there been any indications? When did her first headache come? Wednesday? Nothing special had happened on Wednesday.

Now that she thought about it, though, Tuesday night had been a little odd. Trinity Raven came to visit again.

As far as Erza knew, they'd stopped pressing to buy out Mikazuchi. But last Tuesday Ikaruga was in again, talking in hushed tones to Kagura over the counter. Erza had been putting some new flowers on the shelf before closing.

"You know you can't afford to stay open by yourselves," Ikaruga hissed.

"I think you have it backwards," Kagura replied calmly. "We are perfectly fine. It's you who needs us to keep your business afloat."

Ikaruga was without her loyal employees that day. Erza remembered, because the one with the guitar case always creeped her out.

"Now, get out of my shop before I have my brother throw you out," Kagura said coldly. "Or better yet, I'll throw you out myself."

Ikaruga barked in laughter. "You couldn't throw me out of you tried," she said cruelly.

Erza stifled a laugh. Clearly Ikaruga knew nothing if she thought that. Kagura still held the leading softball champion position in Magnolia. She could probably lift all three of them over her head at once if she tried.

Unfortunately, she didn't stifle her laughter enough. Silence fell across the two women at the counter. Then the sound of heels started, and suddenly Ikaruga whipped around the aisle Erza was standing in.

"Something funny?" She seethed, red with anger.

"Ikaruga!" Kagura came storming behind her, but the woman wasn't done.

"You don't get to laugh at me," she threatened, voice hissing like a rattlesnake. "I'm going to tear this company down brick by ugly brick, so I suggest you start showing me some respect, little girl."

"Ikaruga!" Kagura's voice was dangerous. "Leave. Now."

Erza tensed. She was ready to put up a fight if necessary. But Ikaruga had stopped paying attention to her, and was now flicking her eyes back and forth between the two. Finally, she gave Erza a withering look.

"Watch out," was all she said, distaste evident in her voice. "The employees of Trinity Raven are not people you wish to tangle with."

"Try us," Kagura had said.

Erza shivered at the memory. Afterwards, Kagura hadn't seemed worried, but Erza was. She didn't think normal, sane people issued those kinds of threats. But could they be behind what was making her sick? She didn't see how. They hadn't been back to visit the shop.

Her headache had started to fade. She walked away from the store, back to where Jellal was leaning on his bike. "You didn't get anything?" He called.

"I wasn't that hungry, I guess." Erza smiled for his sake. She really did appreciate him being so sweet. If not for Jellal, she might not have bothered going to school these past several days.

"Well, food aside," Jellal said. "I did have an ulterior motive in asking you out today."

"Really now?" Erza leaned on the seat of her bike. "If you're broke, I'm not buying you any cake."

Jellal laughed. "No, it isn't that. Although..."

"Point, Jellal?"

"Well..." Jellal scratched the back of his head. "It's just, the guys are always talking about how you used to be so into sports in middle school."

Erza nodded. Sports had been one of her favourite things to do, but she stopped when helping Kagura at the flower shop had taken priority.

"So, well, I talked to our softball team." Erza blinked in surprise, and Jellal shrugged. "The girls are usually really sneaky and don't tell anyone their strategies, but I'm friends with the captain. She said she'd consider letting a legend like you on the team this year."

Erza's bike wobbled a little. If she'd been standing she might have fallen over. "But...the team doesn't let anyone in senior year! They're so picky, and they demand two years of experience-"

"Ultear is willing to make an exception," Jellal said. "She hasn't exactly forgotten you."

Erza was speechless. Her head had completely cleared, and she leaped forward to wrap her arms around Jellal in a tight hug. "If I can play for the team this year," she managed breathlessly, "I could get a sports scholarship – I could go to college!"

"Heck, you could be a professional player from what I've heard," Jellal said. He drew Erza away, looking in her eyes. "Wait, you weren't planning on going to college?"

Erza shook her head. "I can't afford it," she said, "not even Mag Tech. I was planning on starting work at Kagura's full time."

"But Erza." Jellal looked amazed. "You're so talented! You could do anything, go anywhere! You can't be stuck in a flower shop for the rest of your life, no offense."

Erza shook her head. Then she kissed him, which must have really taken Jellal by surprise, because he took several seconds to react. Erza rarely took the initiative, but today she felt like she had to.

A chance to have a spot on the school's softball team. That was a dream Erza had given up long ago. She'd have to talk to Kagura about it, but surely she would understand. They could always hire new employees.

Erza broke the kiss. "I love you," she told Jellal, very firmly.

"Yeah, me too," he replied, looking dazed. "Er, that is, the same. But about you."

Erza reached into the saddlebag on her bike and pulled out a water bottle. She took a hearty swig. "Come on! Let's keep riding!"

Five minutes later, her headache started to come back.

Someone was knocking on the front door to Natsu's house.

Instead of getting up and answering it, he continued to toss the Nerf basketball into the hoop nailed into his roof. He wondered if it wasn't too late to just stay in sports and go to Mag Tech. It would be easier that way. He wouldn't have to worry about taking chemistry for pyrotechnics. Who the hell wanted to do pyrotechnics, anyway?

Well, Natsu did. He wanted to make things explode. He was good at it, he liked it, and as for that stupid chemistry class, he'd been planning on asking a smart friend for help. A very specific smart friend.

Natsu tossed the ball with extra vigour. It missed, and he slouched lower onto the floor.

There was a knock on his bedroom door. "Natsu?"

"What?" he asked, irritated. Igneel opened the door, leaning on the frame.

"Someone's here to see you," he said pointedly. Natsu didn't look up.

"Is it Gray?" Natsu tossed the ball again. "Tell him to fuck off."

"It isn't Gray," came Romeo's familiar voice. "And don't swear in front of me, I'm a kid."

"Yeah, sure you are," Natsu muttered under his breath.

Igneel's face darkened. "Young man, that is enough," he said sternly. "I understand you're in a bad temper, but don't take it out on your friends. And that language is enough to get you grounded."

"Whatever."

Romeo turned to Igneel. "Can I still stay, Mr. Dragneel?"

"Of course." Igneel glared at his son. "Perhaps you can talk some sense into this fool."

Natsu ignored him. When he closed the door, Romeo asked, "Can I use your computer? Mine's down."

"Sure." Natsu continued to toss the basketball. Romeo took a seat in his computer chair, sitting backwards and crossing his arms. He stared at Natsu, until he had no choice but to look up. "Well?"

"If your dad thinks grounding you is going to work, he's not very smart," Romeo said. "You haven't been outside all week anyway."

"Are you here to lecture me?" Natsu snapped. "And I do go outside. I go to school."

"Yeah, only so you can leave again." Romeo snorted. "Even my dad is worried. He needs to know where his finest patrons are."

"I just don't feel like going out, okay?"

"Bullshit." Romeo levelled his gaze. "Something happened on Halloween."

Natsu could feel his face going whiter, but he ignored it. Romeo stared at him, but eventually turned when Natsu's computer flared to life. "Something happened to me, too," he informed Natsu. "I met Wendy."

"Who the fuck is Wendy?" Natsu climbed to his feet and stepped over the messes on his floor. Romeo smiled smugly.

"The girl I met in the mall," he reminded Natsu. "You know? The homeschooled one who never leaves her aunt's house?"

"Homeschooled?" Natsu wrinkled his nose. "How weird is she?"

"She's not weird!" Romeo argued. "She's cute. A little naive, maybe, but cute."

He opened up instant messaging, and logged on. Natsu leaned in, squinting his eyes. "Your username is 'not_a_montague'?"

"Shut up!" Romeo kicked him. "People keep making fun of my name, okay?"

"Yeah, I can see why." A new message popped up. "And she's SkySorceress101?"

"See what I mean by naive?" Romeo said dryly. But he was smiling, and quickly typed back a reply.

"You're a strange person," Natsu said, returning to his spot on the floor.

"Well, at least I've met her," Romeo jabbed. "I don't think you ever met your creepy online girlfriend. Hey, come to think of it, did you ever meet her? I never hear about that anymore."

Natsu fell silent. His eyes traveled to his dresser, where he'd shoved off everything to clear a space for the only object that occupied it anymore.

"Whoah, you did meet her!" Romeo said gleefully. "Is that what happened on Halloween?" His eyes followed Natsu, and landed on his dresser. "Dude, what's that?"

"What does it look like, punk?"

"I mean, why do you have a girl's shoe sitting on your dresser, idiot."

Natsu slouched again, raising his shields of sulk once more. "No reason," he said through gritted teeth. "No reason at all."

Juvia was staring at the clock, waiting for her shift to be over.

She did that a lot recently. There wasn't much to do in the store these days, and Juvia was starting to get the impression that Jose was only asking her to work shifts just because he could. But Juvia didn't want to think badly of her boss – after all, it was because of him she was going to be hanging out with Gray this afternoon.

Part of her also hated Jose for making her wait this long. She had to keep continuously turning down Gray so she could work, and she hated it. This afternoon was the first time she and Gray would actually be hanging out. Together. Alone.

She was so nervous she could barely breathe. Last night, Juvia had stayed up until three in the morning re-reading all her girly mangas from middle school. If anyone ever wondered why she'd developed the unfortunate habit of referring to him as Gray-sama, that was why. She hoped she didn't slip and accidentally say it.

Not that she could ever talk in front of him anyway. If Juvia had thought her nerves might have calmed down by now, she was dead wrong. She was starting to wonder if she'd ever be able to tell him that she was the girl at the beach from that day.

Of course, for all Juvia knew, he'd forgotten about it completely, and reminding him could make her seem desperate, like she had only been trying to get his attention.

Juvia bit the collar of her uniform, screaming internally. Why did this have to be so difficult?!

There was a minute and a half left until she could sign out. Then she was going to change out of this stupid uniform and into something really nice from the store, and go meet Gray-sama at the food court. She took a deep breath. It would be okay, she could do it-

"What? Yo, Ultear, slow down. You want – what – socks – what?"

Juvia's heart plummeted into her stomach so fast she almost fell over from vertigo. Gray was here? Why? Why of all places did her have to show up here, when she was still working? His voice got closer and closer, and Juvia panicked. She dashed into the back room, closing the door quickly.

Okay, okay, deep breaths, Juvia told herself. She could handle this.

Carefully, she creaked open the door. The break room for employees was on the other side of the store. Juvia wanted to burn the building for its stupid layout. She was going to have to cross the entire floor just to get to it. Her stomach churned as she realized there was no way across without Gray noticing.

He was still arguing with his sister on the phone. Not even he could be so non-observant as to miss her completely. Juvia was trapped in here until he left, which didn't look to be any time soon.

Unless...

She turned to look behind her. The boxes and boxes of clothes loomed in front of her, like a wall of endless possibilities. Could she still take something from in here? Well, it was certainly possible... but normally Juvia spent a while choosing everything and coordinating it. She didn't have a while. She needed to find something now.

Making a split-second decision, Juvia dashed to the closest box and flipped it open. Great. Dresses, exactly the thing she was staying away from. Besides, it was cold out. What kind of person wore a summer dress in November?

The kind that didn't have anything to lose, Juvia thought. She pulled out a sunshine-yellow airy dress, and quickly started pulling off the employee uniform. Hurriedly she pulled the dress over. She shivered; this was freezing! How did normal girls manage?

Luckily, Juvia was not completely without her head. She rifled quickly through the shoes before finding knee-high boots with a wedge she could barely walk in, and then quickly pulled a coat off a hanger. She choked when she saw the tag was already on it – this would be going out on the floor later today.

But she couldn't put it back. It was spring green, went perfectly with her dress, and she needed a coat. It was too cold to go without.

Guilt started eating at her from the inside out, but she slid on the coat and tucked in the tag. She'd return it tomorrow, she promised herself, and no one would even notice it was gone.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and slipped out.

Gray was still on the phone. He took notice of Juvia almost immediately, and waved at her. She waved back, swallowing the nerves.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked. Juvia flinched. Why couldn't he just ask simple yes or no answer questions? But she was saved an answer when he snorted and continued. "Oh, you're shopping. Duh." Juvia nodded, and hugged her uniform tighter to her chest. "I've just gotta do something for my idiot sister, I'll be with you soon." He paused. "Yeah, you're the idiot sister. Yeah – shut up! Holy crap, I'm going already."

He rolled his eyes at Juvia, with a look like, can you believe her? Juvia shook her head, smiling slightly.

The second his back was turned, the smile dropped off her face and she ran for the break room. It took a grand total of five seconds for her to open her locker, shove the uniform inside, grab her phone and house keys, and close it. The rest she could come back for tomorrow.

Gray was just finishing buying when she got out. "Yeah, I got them, Jesus. Why you need designer clothes for sports is beyond me." Ultear promptly began to yell so loud that even Juvia could hear her, and Gray flinched. "All right, all right!" He yelled. "You owe me fifty bucks, though." And he slammed the phone shut.

Juvia cleared her throat. Gray looked up in surprise. "Oh, hey. You vanished for a second." He started walking out of the store. Juvia followed, secretly praising every higher deity that was that everything had gone without catastrophe.

Well, everything except for the tag hidden in the back of her jacket, of course.

Gray led her into the mall parking lot, where she kept passing her eyes over cars and wondering which was his. She was so busy looking that she didn't notice Gray stop in front of an old minivan with mud splashed along the tires.

Gray stuck his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. He looked faintly embarrassed. "Yeah, it's my mom's. I've been borrowing it a lot recently, after Sting decided he'd rather chauffer his new girlfriend around."

He said it with a bit of malice in his tone, and Juvia hoped it wasn't aimed at Yukino herself. She barely saw her anymore, but Juvia chose to believe that it was because Yukino was really happy. Juvia didn't like thinking ill of anyone, especially someone who had been so good to her as a friend.

Gray still looked like he wanted to kick the minivan. So Juvia mustered up all of her strength, and told him, "It's nice."

Well, it was all he was getting out of her for the day, but Gray loosened up considerably. "Yeah? Well, it's pretty old, and dangerous to drive, so I guess that makes it kind of cool." Juvia chuckled, and he opened the door for her on the side.

Juvia started in surprise when she settled into the passenger seat. The front dash, and the pockets in the doors, were lined with Phil Collins CDs.

Gray cleared his throat. "My mom really likes Phil Collins."

Juvia merely laughed, and pushed one of the CD's into the player. Music started blasting, and Gray settled a little more comfortably into the driver's seat.

Gray's house was, unsurprisingly, on Acalypha Mountain. Juvia rarely ever visited the homes out here, and she pressed her nose to the glass, watching in awe. Gray lived near the bottom of the mountain, where it was more of a suburb, with gated communities. He pulled into one such gated community, where all the houses were painted the exact same colour.

"Here we are," he said, hopping out. Juvia followed him. Gray's house was nice, she thought, but not drastically large. It looked just the right size to house four people comfortably.

Juvia noticed Gray getting a few dirty looks from the other homeowners as they walked up the driveway, and she realized Gray might not be as popular here as he was at school. Here, the women wore aprons and gardening gloves, and probably didn't look too highly upon a single mother who fostered two orphan boys.

If Gray noticed, however, he didn't seem to care at all, and Juvia fell in love with him a little more.

Before they opened the door, he turned to face her. "Um, my family's a little nuts," he said quickly, suddenly sounding nervous. "So don't-"

Juvia didn't get to find out what to do, because at that moment the door swung open and he was ambushed. "Gray! Where are my socks?"

Juvia fought the urge to hide. Ultear had been in Club Phantom so many times before, there was no way she wouldn't recognize Juvia. Fortunately, her attention was focused solely on Gray.

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled and tossed her the plastic bag. "What d'you even need socks for?"

Ultear smacked him on the head so hard even Juvia flinched. "Idiot! Softball tryouts are in two weeks! I'm the team captain! I have to look good!"

"That doesn't involve fifty dollar socks!" Gray complained, rubbing his head.

"Says the guy who bought a two hundred dollar hockey stick on eBay last year-"

"It was signed by-"

"I don't care who it was signed by!" Ultear smacked him again. Gray made to hit her back, but she dodged. "Who's this?"

Juvia realized Ultear was looking at her. She tried to blend in with the shrubbery.

"That's Juvia," Gray said irritably. "Where's my fifty bucks?"

Ultear stuck her nose in the air and started speaking in a prissy tone. "You'll get your money when I feel you deserve it."

Gray lunged, but she dashed out of his way and back into the house. He grumbled, and turned back to Juvia. "Well, now that you've been scarred for life," he said. "Would you like to come in?"

Lucy was pacing back and forth, in her attic. The Hargeon hoodie hung off her shoulders now, from all the weight she'd lost over the past week. She hadn't missed just Monday, but the rest of the week as well. Her loss of appetite had led to a genuine illness that had her confined to the attic so as not to contaminate the rest of the house.

Lucy opened her phone and dialed the first number. After a few rings it picked up. "Hello?"

The familiar voice was like an ache. "Hi, Levy."

"Lucy!" Levy's voice screeched through the speaker. "Where have you been all week? What happened?"

"I just came down with the flu," Lucy said. It wasn't necessarily a lie. "But I'll be back at school tomorrow. Do you need a ride?"

"Oh." It might have been Lucy's imagination, but Levy's voice seemed to drop several octaves. "Um, actually..."

"You found someone else." Lucy tried not to sound bitter. After all, she'd been gone for a week.

Levy sounded frantic and sick. "Well, it's just, I'm staying with someone...and he already drives down! So there's no need for us to..."

"I get it." Lucy cut her off. She managed to smile. "It's fine. I'll see you in class tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Levy sounded miserable. "I'm glad to hear from you, Lucy."

Lucy hung up, swallowing thickly. She didn't really have any right to be angry.

It occurred that, in her week of absence, all her friends must have found other ways to get to school. Feeling like an idiot, she began calling all of them and apologizing.

Juvia forgave her immediately. "Lucy was sick!" She protested. "Of course she couldn't be expected to call!"

"Have you been okay, then?"

"Juvia takes the bus, but sometimes Yukino drives her. Yukino has her car now."

Yukino, upon getting the call, yelled at Lucy. "Why didn't you call anyone back?" She demanded. "We were worried!"

"I know," Lucy said, "and I'm sorry. Really. I just – I don't know."

Yukino made a huffing noise. "I'm just glad to hear your voice. But please don't do that again! I thought Minerva had poisoned your food!"

Lucy almost laughed. "So you're driving Juvia, then?"

"When she asks. Most days she's at work before class, though, so she just takes the bus from there."

Lucy's brow furrowed. How much had she missed? Since when did Juvia take so may shifts?

She called Erza next, but didn't get any answer the first three times. Finally she called Kagura's store line.

"Is Erza there? I can't reach her cell."

"Probably because she's working," Kagura clicked her tongue, but she handed the landline over to Erza anyway.

"Hello?"

"Erza! I tried calling you."

"Oh." Erza's voice sounded tinny and far away. "Sorry, I didn't hear it."

Lucy worried her lip. "You don't sound too good."

"I'm fine. I probably just have what you had."

Lucy wanted to scream that what she had wasn't contagious, but bit everything back. "I guess. Do you need a ride to school?"

"That would be lovely, yes."

Lucy had to fight off the feeling of immense relief. "Great. See you tomorrow."

"Yes, sounds good. Bye, Lucy."

The line went dead before Lucy could reply. She stared at her phone. What was happening with everyone? Why did Erza sound so sick? Why was Juvia taking so many shifts? Who was Levy staying with, and what happened to her dad?

Sighing, she pulled the strings on her hoodie a little tighter. At least she would see everyone tomorrow. Maybe then she could glean some answers.

Lucy straightened. She couldn't afford to mope until she was physically ill anymore. Her friends needed her. She needed to get her priorities back in order. They'd been thrown out of whack since the summer, but Lucy decided no more. She was going to go back to the Lucy Heartfilia that had survived so far. Homework, side jobs for money, caring for her friends.

And no room for Salamander anywhere.