Chapter 12: Sleepover at Lucy's.

"Good morning everyone!" I shouted happily as I entered the guild.

"Good morning, Lucy. So, did your mission go well?" Mira greeted me back.

"Very well! It didn't take too long and nothing was destroyed!" I answered, grinning.

"Eh, that's rare. Good for you!" She replied, smiling. Then, she acted as if she was going to tell me a secret, "Oh and don't worry, I didn't tell anyone you had to act as a couple. By the way, how did that go?"

I blushed deeply, "Hm… I…"

Then, we heard Natsu complaining loudly from behind, "Lucy! Why didn't you wait for us?" Saved. Thanks, Natsu.

"I tried to wake you guys up, but it didn't work. So, I decided to go to the guild first. After all, I didn't know how much longer you'll be sleeping." I replied with a shrug. And I remembered, "Plus, why are you complaining? I'm the one who had to sleep on the floor, again!"

"Don't be too harsh with them, Lucy. You know, they were in a bad mood while you weren't here. Saying they were bored and all. They missed you a lot." Mira explained to me.

"But I was away only for two days."

"Are you saying you didn't miss us at all?" Natsu whined.

"Lucy's selfish." Happy accused, but then his eyes were sparkling, "Fish!" He was now drooling a little.

I shook my head at him.

"Eh, Lucy-san's back? That means Gray's back too." Juvia was now next to us, grinning.

"Of course, she didn't abandon me there, you know." Gray chimed in.

"Of course I know. I was just saying that I was happy you were back." Juvia replied shyly, embarrassed.

Gray chuckled. "I was teasing you. 'T's good to see you, too." He smiled at her. "So, what's up?"

"Juvia has to tell you about her last mission! Juvia did a really good job, Gray will be proud of her." She was telling him while leading him to the bar, her arm around his.

I was staring at them, when I saw a hand moving in front of my face. "Natsu? What are you doing?"

"I was telling you to go sit over there, but you were spacing out. Are you tired or something?"

"And whose fault would that be?" I retorted.

He grinned and scratched the back of his head, "Hehe, sorry. But your bed's so comfy we immediately fell asleep."

"I know my bed's comfy. That's why I bought it. For me to sleep comfortably," I complained. I sighed, "Anyway, let's go sit. I'm really tired."

While Natsu and Happy were laughing and telling stories, I wasn't really listening. I was too busy watching Gray and Juvia laughing together. He wouldn't even glance at me. But why would he anyway? We're just friends. But I couldn't help feeling a little bothered because he didn't even talk to me this morning.

I rest my head on my hand and looked away from them. Why should I even be bothered by this? Juvia's his friend now, nothing more. And it's normal they're talking like that since it'd been some time since they had seen each other between their missions.

Ugh, being aware of my feelings is so annoying.

xxxxxxxxxx

"…and that's about everything." Juvia concluded after telling me about her latest mission. "And you, how did it go?"

"It went well. Simple case, quick to solve, no damages done." I resumed.

"Geez, I've been talking this all time about what I did and you're finished with just one sentence? You're no fun. Tell me more." She pushed.

"Well, the mission was to catch a guy who harassed young couples in town, but he's a mage who can move things without touching them, so he could attack them without anyone seeing his face. Turns out he did that because he was heartbroken after thinking her fiancée had left him. We caught him, Lucy found his girlfriend was back in town, they reunited, he apologized, we got the reward." I explained with more details.

"And how did you find him? I mean if nobody had seen his face, how did you know it was him?"

"We lured him into attacking us."

"I thought he only harassed couples..." She began, but made the conclusion by herself. "Ow, I see." She was blushing a little. "Does that mean you two k-k-k…" She stuttered, unable to pronounce the word.

"We didn't." I told her, slightly smiling at her antics.

"Oh. That's a shame." I was surprised to hear her say that. Even though she seemed to have truly moved on, I thought she'd still be uncomfortable about this kind of talks.

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, I mean, it would have been an opportunity for you. If Juvia had been in your shoes and with you when Juvia liked you…" She began but suddenly held up her hands, shaking them in front of me, "But that's not the case anymore, you know that, right? So, feel free to talk about it with Juvia."

I chuckled. "It's a little weird to talk about this with you, you know."

"Why? Juvia's okay with it. Plus, Juvia's the only person to know about this. Who else would you talk to?"

"Well, that's true. But I don't really need to talk about it, y'know."

"Of course you need to. When you don't know what to do, or when you're happy about something that happened between you two, or when you want another opinion about something…"

"I get it, thank you." I smiled, shaking my head. She was always so passionate and energetic about everything. I looked around. Nobody seemed to be close enough to hear us, but we never know with them. "But then, I'd prefer to talk about it somewhere else."

She didn't seem to understand, so I pointed the other members with my eyes. "Right. Let's go take a walk, then." She agreed with a smile.

xxxxx

We were now sitting on grass, alongside the river.

"So?" She suddenly urged.

"So?" I repeated, not really knowing what exactly she wanted me to tell her.

"Why didn't you k-k… Why didn't you do it?"

"Because it wasn't necessary at all. The culprit would go crazy just by seeing a couple holding hands, so."

"But didn't you want to?"

"I wouldn't say I didn't, but I was too busy trying to think straight and not to show my real feelings. Plus, it would have been awkward. She would have found it weird, and freaked out, and then she would have avoided me again."

"You already did something to make her avoid you? I didn't know that."

"No. I don't think so. But she was avoided me before the mission, though I didn't know why. I even did that mission with her to make her go back to normal. And I think it worked."

"See. That's why you have to talk. I could help you find out what she's thinking." She smiled proudly.

"I appreciate your offer, but that's ok." Juvia's really sweet but she does jump to conclusions too fast, and she's not the most subtle girl out there, either.

"Ok. I was thinking about doing a sleepover with the girls and use it as an excuse to make her talk about you, but then I won't do anything." She obviously was trying to make me regret saying no to her. And I had to admit, it was working a little.

"But then I'd be the main subject of your gossips. No thanks." I still declined her proposition.

"Don't worry, girls often switch subjects. Everyone's got her share." She explained.

"Speaking about this, how are things going with Lyon these days?" I smirked at her.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about. He infuriates me. That's all."

"Deny, deny. Come on, I thought we should talk about these things?"

"Since when you're interested about that anyway? You've always hated these talks." She wasn't looking at me and playing with her hands.

"I'm showing interest in your life, that's not gossip. Plus, I'm shouldn't be the only one having to talk about his feelings and all this crap." I teased her.

"Well, I don't have anything to say. No feelings at all." She strongly denied.

"That's not what it looks like when you're together, you know." I insisted.

"I thought you found Lyon annoying, too?" She retorted.

I leaned back a little and looked at the sky. "Well, it's complicated. We're kind of rivals since we were children and now in different guilds, but we're also childhood friends. There's no denying it."

She just slowly nodded, looking at the river.

"You know, he's actually a good guy. And I want you to be happy. So, think about it." I finally told her.

After a few seconds, she slightly smiled and replied, "I will."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Ok, they went out together. So what?" I asked to nobody, walking on the low wall alongside the river, trying to keep my balance. "They're friends. They can take a walk together. I do that with Natsu, too. Nothing weird."

"Lucy-chan, watch out!" A fisherman warned me.

"Hai, Hai!" I yelled back before going back to muttering to myself, "It's not like our mission could have made him realize how he would have preferred to be there with Juvia or anything. Or could it?" I suddenly panicked, and lost my balance a little, but managed not to fall. I still decided to go down on the ground.

I was becoming paranoid. I was starting to understand how Juvia was feeling all this time. I guess when you're in love, you become paranoid to some extent. That was still weird for me to think that I felt like that about Gray, though. I was totally new at this.

Of course, as a girl, I've thought about how it'd be like to have a boyfriend, and I'm not immune to a man's charms at all, but I'd never felt like that before. It had always been merely crushes, because I found the guy cute, or that he was really nice to me. But I'd never had the chance to develop these feelings into something deeper.

And now that it happened, I was overanalyzing everything he did. Seriously, I had been this close to follow them this afternoon to see what they were going to do together. Thankfully, I still had a little sense left and restrained myself.

"Stop thinking about it Lucy." I slightly slapped both of my cheeks, "Time to go home, now."

xxxxx

When I arrived in front of my apartment, I saw light coming out from my window. "Natsu…"

Then, I realized they were alone in my room, free to do whatever they want, while the photo frame was still in my drawer, not hidden at all. I ran and opened the door, "Guys, how're doing?" I was still panting, but managed to smile as if I wasn't worried at all.

"Lucy! You're finally here, we were starting to get bored." Natsu replied, obviously not caring about how I looked right now.

"Why are you out of breath?" Happy asked.

I closed the door and sat on my armchair. "I… I figured you'd go to my place and that I was late, so I ran because I was afraid I'd make you wait too long," I lied.

"Don't worry, we didn't wait that much. I just had the time to take a bath." Erza answered, going out of my bathroom. She was wearing a pair of pajamas. Wait, did she intend to sleep here tonight? Probably not, she was probably wearing that just to get into the mood. She could switch back into her armor in like one second, after all.

"Don't you have any fish? I searched for some but found nothing," Happy added with a sad face.

My eyes widened. 'I searched' That's what I feared. But at least, they didn't seem to have found the photo. "You ate everything I had left yesterday. Go ask Natsu for fish, next time."

"Natsu, would you buy me some fish?" He executed.

"Of course, Happy!" Natsu grinned at his best friend.

"By the way, you didn't go through my stuff again, did you?" I eyed them suspiciously.

"Yes, they did." I looked behind my armchair, and saw him, sitting on the ground, bare-chested, reading my novel.

"Gray! You could've told me you were there." I retorted. "And I already told you not to read that. It's personal." I took it from him.

"Yeah, I noticed there's a lot of personal stuff you don't want others to touch in your drawer. By the way, you should thank me to have opened it rather than one of our friends." He replied in a low voice.

So he saw the photo. Of course he did. It was the first thing you could see when you opened the drawer. But did he open it knowing it would be there to keep the others from searching in there, or was it just a mere coincidence? It had to be a coincidence, after all, how could he have known I put it there in all places?

"Thanks." I finally said as quietly to him.

"Hey! Stop whispering to each other. We want to know, too." Natsu whined.

"Yeah, don't keep secrets!" Happy added.

"We don't keep secrets." I denied, "He was talking about my novel, that's all." At least, I managed to come up with a believable lie for once.

"Can't I read it, by the way?" Erza asked me. "I'm really curious about your work."

"Well, it's not finished yet, and Levy has to read it first. Even though someone totally ignored this several times and takes it whenever they want without permission." I glared at Gray and looked back at Erza, "Plus, since we returned after seven years, I didn't get to continue it. I don't think it's good enough for people to read it, yet."

"I think it's not too bad, you know. You're being too modest here, Lucy." Gray complimented me in his own way.

I blushed a little. "You're saying this so I'll let you read it."

"And I want to read it because it's good to read." He retorted with a smile.

"Mou." I merely replied, looking away. Then, I smiled. "You know, it'd been a long time since we were all reunited here."

"Right." Erza smiled at me.

"Hai!" Natsu and Happy cried in unison.

"Oh." Gray nodded.

After everything we'd been through – and I just know a lot more was coming – I was glad we still could be together like that.

xxxxx

Everyone ended up sleeping at my place. For once, I had the bed. Erza and Gray had settled for the floor. And Natsu was on the armchair, Happy sleeping on his stomach.

But even though I had the bed, I still couldn't manage to fall asleep. I got too much on my mind to do it. And Natsu's loud snoring wasn't helping, either.

"Can't sleep?" Gray asked me, lying down next to my bed.

"Nope. You?" I whispered back.

"Me neither, obviously. Got something on your mind?"

Yeah, you. "Not really. And you?"

"Nah, I woke up and now I'm not sleepy anymore." He replied.

"How did you know I was awake? Am I the one who woke you up?" I worried a little.

"No, don't worry. It's been a few minutes that I'm awake and you wouldn't stop moving, so I thought you weren't asleep either."

"Oh, ok." I merely said. After a few seconds, I moved towards the end of the bed to look at him and asked, "I'm curious. Was it a coincidence that you found the photo before they could find it?"

He looked at me, "Well, yes and no. Obviously, I couldn't have known were it was exactly, but when they started going through your stuff I tried to be faster than them, and the first place I looked was your desk's drawer."

"Why?"

"Don't know. It was the closest to me, and I know you keep things like your novel in it, and I just thought it might be here."

"Did you know I was dumb enough not to hide it better?" I asked jokingly. It was pretty dumb to put it there.

"Of course not. You're not dumb. Plus, there are no real good hiding places in your apartment anyway. And…" He stopped.

"And?"

"… And I put mine in my bedside table's drawer, so I figured it was your equivalent for that."

"Eeh." I nodded slowly. Wait, then it meant it was important enough for him to have it next to his bed?

"Well, I don't have a lot of furniture, so I just put it there without a thought. I guess that was the same for you." He quickly added.

Did I just think out loud or what? Anyway, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Of course it was like that. Lucy, stop overthinking. "Actually, yes." That was right. I didn't think about where to put it, either. It was just a given that I put it in my drawer, and kept it there.

Gray suddenly stretched out and sounded like he was slightly in pain.

"Are you sure you're ok with sleeping on the floor? Maybe that's why you can't sleep."

"Yeah, because being I your bed helps you so much." He retorted ironically.

"We should try switching places, who knows." I replied as jokingly.

"After you managed to get the bed, I wouldn't dare. But I wouldn't say no if you lend me some space on it." I could hear his smirk.

I was blushing like hell. Thankfully, it was too dark for him to notice. But I managed to say with quite a steady voice, "I wouldn't mind, after all it wouldn't be the first time. But they'd found it weird to see us like that and would tease us to no end."

"I'd say I couldn't sleep on the floor, which is true." He retorted, teasing me.

Come on, stop it. You don't know what you're doing to me right now. "Ok then. But don't complain afterwards." Wait, what did I just say? Please, say no.

"Don't worry, I won't." He replied while standing up and quietly slipping under the covers. Just next to me. In my tiny bed compared to the one we had in the motel.

He was lying down on his back, his hands under his head and his eyes closed, seeming totally fine with this. I, on the other hand, moved the closest to the wall as possible, and wouldn't dare to even turn my head and look at him. "Goodnight, then." I said with the most neutral voice I could do.

"Goodnight to you, too." He replied.

I just couldn't believe I had done that, again. I should stop letting my pride speak and act as if I was ok with this. 'Cause I wasn't ok with this. At all. Even more now that I was aware of my feelings for him.

Don't let it get to you, Lucy. Just close your eyes, and sleep.

xxxxx

When I woke up, it was already daytime. When I opened my eyes, I saw Gray's sleeping face a few inches from mine. I realized I had moved during the night and was now resting on him. He was lying down on his back, his left arm spread out. And my head was resting on it, while my arms were on his torso, with his right hand on mine, and my feet were tangled up with his. I opened my eyes wide, highly embarrassed of our position.

I had to move before he woke up. Before they woke up. At least, everyone was still asleep and didn't witness this.

Ok, I just have to move very slowly and go back to my original position, which was the closest to the wall and the farthest from him.

I tried to move his hand with my free hand, while lifting up my head, but as soon as I moved, I heard him moan slightly and he pushed me closer from him with his left arm that was around my shoulders. Come on, shouldn't he not like heat? He shouldn't try to keep me close to him.

I guess I have no choice. I have to wake him up. I prefer being teased a little by him rather than for hours by them.

"Gray." I whispered to him. No response. "Gray!" I tried louder, tapping him on his torso. He finally seemed to wake up, he moved his head a bit and opened his eyes.

xxxxxxxxxx

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a Lucy's face, a little blurred since I was still adjusting to the light. "Oh, hey." I greeted her casually.

"Hey. Now that you're awake, could you please move?" She asked me in a loud whisper.

"Move? Why? I was sleeping well." I didn't try to understand what she was saying and instinctively closed my eyes again, enjoying having her close to me.

"No, Gray. Come on, wake up before the others do." I heard her protest.

I opened my eyes again, and could finally see normally. I looked around. And I noticed our position. I was practically imprisoning Lucy in my arms. Now wide awake, I let go of her, "Sorry! I didn't mean to.."

She lifted her head and moved her body a little away from mine. "Don't worry. You're not the only one who moved while sleeping." She smiled, "I'm sorry to have woken you up. I tried to move without bothering you, but as soon as I started moving, you pulled me closer, so..." She was trying to hide her embarrassment by looking away and giggling awkwardly.

I remembered why I was here, and remembered about the others. I immediately straightened up and looked towards them.

"Don't worry, they're still asleep." I heard her say. I turned my head to look at her. She was now sitting on the bed, and asked, "So, did you sleep well?"

"Yep. I guess the floor was the problem." I replied. "And you?"

"After we stopped talking, I think I fell asleep almost immediately. I was probably more tired than I thought."

"Plus, finding such a good pillow next to you must have helped." I joked, smirking.

Of course, she instantly blushed, and hit me slightly on the arm. "Idiot." She then stood up on her bed.

"What're you doin'?" I asked her.

"Going to the bathroom. So, if you excuse me." She put her foot on the right side of my body, and walked above me to get off the bed. Since she was being cautious not to fall, she did it quite slowly, offering me a good view of her legs.

She finally went to the bathroom. I sighed. She didn't even know what she was doing to me right now.

It was my turn to stand up, before Natsu or Erza woke up. I was going to pour me a glass of water, but I accidentally bumped into Natsu's foot.

"Oi!" He suddenly shouted, jumping on his feet.

"What's happening?" Happy asked in a sleepy voice, rubbing his head after falling on the floor as Natsu had stood up.

"Sorry, didn't see it. Plus, I merely touched it, stop overreacting." I retorted, not really caring about him and his mood.

"You didn't just touch it, you pushed it. And it woke me up. And I don't like being waking up like that, especially by you." He was glaring at me.

"Oh, then sorry to have disturbed you precious sleep, Ash Brain." I glared back at him.

We were now ready to fight, when our heads suddenly bumped strongly against each other and we our bodies slipped against each other on the floor.

"Don't fight in someone else's home. And don't wake up people by shouting first thing in the morning." We heard Erza lecture us.

"Sorry, Erza." We both apologized, not moving at all.

"What happened here?" Lucy asked.

"Nothing. Would you have some water please? I'm thirsty." Erza replied casually.

"… Yes, let me pour you a drink." Lucy answered after hesitating a little.

"Me too, please." I lifted my hand, still on the floor. After all, that's what I wanted in the first place.

"No problem!"

I could already tell it was going to be one hell of a morning. Even if the waking up was pretty cool.