Lucy ran her fingers through her golden hair, letting a small sigh slip out as she traced the patterns in the wood countertop with her other hand. The silky strands drifted gently in front of her face, tickling her nose.
Mirajane glanced at Lucy, concern swimming in her big blue eyes. "Are you alright, Lucy?" The white-haired woman asked, pausing her tireless scrubbing of glassware for just a second. Lucy smiled wearily up at her, though it felt forced and unnatural. "I'm fine."
"I'll get you a glass of juice, then?" Lucy nodded tiredly and slumped down on the barstool, watching Mira disappear into the back room with a stack of cups.
It was quiet in the guild - too quiet. It'd been like that for the past week - conversations never rising above a murmur. The lack of the usual chair or table sailing at your face was unnerving. Even Juvia, who was usually stalking Gray from behind a wall, seemed to read the atmosphere and was sitting awkwardly by the ice mage, deep blue eyes flickering around the room.
The source was Natsu - ever since they came back, he'd been sitting by the waterway, staring into the water, a sad expression on his face. Lucy longed to reach out and comfort him, but there was something that held her back. She'd been angry at herself, and reminded herself that he was her friend, and friends didn't just sit back and watch the other suffer.
She still didn't do anything.
Lisanna had even talked to her with a grim expression on her face, unfitting for the young take over mage. Her words increased the guilt boiling in Lucy's stomach, but she didn't blame the girl - Lisanna was obviously concerned about Natsu.
"Lucy, if it's alright, could you please talk to him?" She whispered to Lucy. "I tried, but he's still so…" Lisanna struggled to find something to describe him, but gave up. Lucy did blame her for that, either - nothing these days were extremely easy.
Mira returned with the glass of juice and placed it gently down on the counter. "There you go, Lucy." She had a beaming smile on her face, but even for Mira, it looked forced.
So the celestial mage simply sat there, sipping the drink quietly as she watched the guild members leave, one by one, either on jobs or to go home. She was didn't even see Gray until he'd tapped her shoulder, causing Lucy to spill some of the drink over the rim of the polished cup. It left pale orange streaks down the side, and Lucy hurriedly grabbed a napkin to wipe it up, then turned to the ice make mage. "Hey, Gray."
"Hey." Gray looked a little downcast, but he held a paper out for Lucy to see. "I was thinking...our town - I mean, team - could go on a job. It's easy and has good pay."
The job was to eliminate a pair of shadowy-looking figures that always hung around a town, when they'd been spotted, the town had fallen into depression and despair. The reward was good, too. There were lots of zeros...Lucy nearly choked when she spotted the reward, and her eyes widened. "One million?"
"Yeah. It doesn't seem to bad, eh?" Gray grinned faintly. "I'll ask Erza."
It went without saying that Lucy would ask Natsu. She downed the last of her drink and got off the barstool, heading to where Natsu was sitting with his head on the table.
"Hi, Natsu!" She smiled cheerfully and tapped him on the shoulder.
No response.
"Job time?" Lucy tried again. Still no response.
"Natsu...get up, please. Stop moping around like a slug." She was about to add "cheer up", but decided that that wasn't the best of choices.
The pink-haired dragon slayer turned his head slowly to stare at Lucy, and his eyes lit up a little with surprise upon spotting her. "Lucy?"
"Yeah." Her smile became almost impossibly wide. "Want to go on a job? The reward is a whole million jewel! What do you say?"
What felt like eternity passed as Natsu stared at Lucy almost blankly, and her face muscles were beginning to hurt from holding her smile. His gaze make her cheeks flush pink, but she held still, waiting for an answer. And she wouldn't take no.
His answer nearly made her cry with happiness.
"Okay."
Short and late, I know, sorry. I just hit a huge writer's block and it took forever to write just one and a half pages. Thanks for reading and thanks again to the people who follow, review, and faved!
