Hello all! I know it's been awhile but I've been working on some other projects and some personal things. Hoping to get back into a routine pretty soon!
As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for it's use in my own creative expressions *bows*
Gray managed to slip away from his house early before all of his kids woke up, otherwise he might not have made it out at all. The office was quiet on a Sunday morning, especially on a long weekend a lot of the desks sat empty as their occupants were away with their families and enjoying themselves. The thought made Gray a little envious but he knew that he couldn't afford to take the time off with the open cases he had.
When he got to his desk block he was surprised to see that Erza hadn't arrived yet and when he checked his phone he realized that she hadn't texted him back last night either. He frowned, that wasn't like her at all, she usually lived at the office while they were in the middle of a case and you couldn't even talk her into taking the time to eat let alone sleep in. Deciding not to dwell on it he pulled out his chair and got down to work.
Mest had sent a copy of the official report for the salon assault case to his desk, Gray read through it checking the notes for anything they could have missed. He was surprised when he came across a picture of a golden pair of scissors; Mest hadn't mentioned them in his phone call last night. He read that they had found traces of blood and hair caught on the blades and they were sent for DNA analysis at Mest's request but they were unable to pull any usable fingerprints from the handles.
Gray checked his watch, it would still be at least another half hour until the lab would be open for the day and chances are they wouldn't have the results yet. He closed and set down the folder so that it was lying parallel to the Zoldeo murder file on his desk. He stared at the two documents and tried to brainstorm any possible connections. One side had Gajeel Redfox and an unidentified blue-haired girl who witnessed the murder of a Grimoire Heart member for reasons unknown. On the other he had the possible kidnapping of Lucy Heartifillia, who had no known connections to any criminal organizations, by Natsu Dragneel and they had no idea why. Gray groaned and thumped his head on the desk, it was too early for this headache.
"Very professional." He heard Erza tease from behind him; Gray couldn't help the small jump of surprise at the sound of her voice which only embarrassed him more.
"Good morning to you too," he grumbled. Despite the growing heat outside she was wearing a black suit jacket with a buttoned up white dress shirt and matching pinstripe pants. She had left her long red hair down and straight, a thick mane that fell to halfway down her back. Gray eyed her suspiciously as she shook off her coat and threw it over her desk chair.
"What?" She asked, catching his gaze.
It was subtle but Erza was slightly flushed and even in the harsh florescent lights of the station her skin looked like it was glowing. "There is something different about you today," Gray commented, not able to figure out exactly what. "How was the fundraiser?"
"There was an unexpected turn of events," she answered solemnly. Before Gray could ask she told him about the auction and how she had ended up as one of the items up for bid.
"What?!" Gray exclaimed in surprise. "What did you do?"
"I had no choice, I had to get up on the stage and play along." Erza didn't want to give out any more details than she had to.
"You don't think Captain Lahar had something to do with it, do you?"
"No, he said he didn't and I believe him," Erza answered. She looked over at the files on Gray's desk. "It was too late for me to respond to your text yesterday, what did you find out?"
"I had something weird happen to me too." Gray explained about the call from Mest and the trashed salon, showing her the case file notes as he went.
"So, I think that it might be connected in some way to the Zoldeo murder," he explained. "We need to see what Levy McGarden looks like; it's possible that she's the blue-haired girl that old man placed at the scene of the murder."
"That witness wasn't exactly reliable," Erza countered. She had moved next to Gray and was leaning over the desk to read the notes. "For all we know it could have been the blonde girl in the alley that night and he was wrong."
Gray shook his head. "I have a feeling about this, it all fits together somehow I just can't see it yet." Gray sniffed the air, something smelled off. "Are you wearing guy's cologne?" He asked Erza with bemused curiosity.
Erza stood up fast and jumped back a few steps like the desk was suddenly on fire. "No! Just a new shampoo, that's all." She smoothed an imaginary wrinkle out of her shirt. "I'm going to go check the lab and see if anything's come back yet on those scissors, you search the database and see if either of those girls are in the system. We might get lucky." She turned on her heel and almost marched out of the room.
Gray raised an eyebrow as she was walking away, he didn't know what he had said to get her panties in such a knot but she was definitely acting weird today.
It was still early but Laxus was already awake and sipping his morning cup of coffee, any minute now Sting and Rogue should be walking through the door to relieve him. The night had been quiet, which was how Laxus liked it and he hoped that the day would go as smooth. He heard steps on the stairs and that surprised him, he figured that the house would sleep in after the late night watching movies. It turned out to be the shorter bluenette girl, Levy. She was wearing a cute yellow sundress with her hair done up in ringlet pigtails, her demeanor seemed much happier than it had been the day before.
"Good morning," she greeted Laxus shyly.
"Good morning," he replied cheerfully. "I hope you slept well?"
"Yes, it was fine thanks."
"Would you like some coffee?" He offered her the pot.
"No thanks, but I would take tea thought…" Levy felt kind of weird asking him in his own kitchen but Laxus pulled out a kettle from one of the top cupboards and handed it to her.
"Thanks." She took it and went to fill it up at the sink.
"No problem, the tea bags are in the canister over there. Pick out the one you want."
Levy picked out a bag of strawberry tea and leaned against the counter while she waited for the kettle to boil. There were a few minutes of uncomfortable silence while Levy tried to think of something to say.
"So, you work at a bookstore?" He asked her.
"Yes," she replied, thankful for the question. "Or I guess I did…" Thinking of the bookstore made her a little sad about leaving Mr. Crux in such a though spot. She hadn't formally quit yet, but it seemed inevitable.
Laxus gave her a smile like he could read her mind. "You shouldn't think like that Levy, things will eventually blow over."
"I guess…" Levy wasn't convinced; she thought that he was just being nice. The kettle started to whistle and she turned back to making her tea so that he didn't notice that she was about to cry.
"Hellooo." Someone called out as the front door opened. "Laxus? Are you awake." Two men strode into the kitchen; the one in front was a tall blonde with a bright smile and the other had dark spiked hair and a sullen look on his face.
"You're late," Laxus greeted them.
The blond man just waved it off. "We had a late night training at the gym, right Rogue?" He turned back to his partner who narrowed his eyes slightly. Levy noticed that the dark man's face was bruised and swollen, especially around his jawline. Laxus just raised an eyebrow and he looked away, clearly not wanting to get into whatever it was that had happened.
"Where's Natsu?" The blond man continued, finding the cookie jar on the counter and snatching a cookie.
"Still asleep," Laxus answered. He glanced at Levy out of the corner of his eye; he didn't know how much he could tell them in front of her. "Boys, this is Levy McGarden, our client for this case. Levy, meet Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney, they work for Seven Dragons."
Levy wasn't surprised by their odd names anymore; chances are they were pseudonyms anyway. "Hi," she greeted them shyly.
The dark one, Rogue, just grunted a response but Sting looked her up and down with his wide smile. "You're kinda cute." He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet ya."
"You too." Levy shook his hand, he had a firm grip.
"Good morning." No one had heard Lucy come down the stairs and into the kitchen. She was still dressed in her pajamas and carrying a sleepy looking Plue under one arm, noticing the two newcomers she peered at them cautiously.
Sting on the other hand was eyeing her impressive tank top cleavage. "Well hello there," he greeted her in a tone that made Rogue roll his eyes. "I'm Sting, what's your name?"
Lucy looked at him in slight alarm and Levy remembered her rant the day before about Cobra's name. She reluctantly stuck out her hand. "Lucy." Sting shook it with the same enthusiasm that he had Levy's but his eyes were still glued to her chest until Laxus came up behind him and smacked him behind the head.
"Behave," he growled but instead of being rebuffed Sting just smiled sheepishly.
"What kind of shit are you trying to pull now?" Natsu appeared from the basement, his hair was a disheveled mess and he was missing his shirt. The room suddenly felt like it had shrunk about five sizes with the four men standing around so Levy snuck out and took her tea into the living room. It was quiet in there.
Lucy heard voices that woke her up from a fitful sleep. She tried to stretch out and was confused when her arms and legs couldn't get very far; it was like her bed had shrunk a few sizes in the night. She opened her eyes in confusion but instead of her bedroom ceiling all she could see were the wooden planks of a bunk bed. She sat up quickly, nearly smacking her head against the low frame; Plue had been sleeping beside her but the sudden movement sent him tumbling off the bed with a squeak.
"Sorry!" Lucy apologized to the little white dog; he climbed to his feet and shook himself awake. She looked around the strange room and then remembered where she was. Levy's bed was already empty and made up neatly; she wondered what time it was. More voices drifted up from downstairs through the open door and it made her curious, she climbed out of bed and crept down the hallway still dressed in her pajamas with morning hair. Plue was trotting along beside her and yipped at her ankles when they reached the stairs. She picked him up and climbed down, the voices getting louder as she went.
"Good morning." Everyone looked at her in surprise, Levy and Laxus were on one side of the kitchen near the sink and two men she didn't know where standing on the other. They looked friendly enough, except for the fact that one of them had glued his eyes to her chest and wasn't likely to look away any time soon.
"Hello there." A big smile lit up his down turned face. "I'm Sting, what's your name?"
Lucy knew that she shouldn't have been surprised about the name, but she was. "Lucy." She did the polite thing and held out her hand, even though the staring was starting to creep her out.
"Behave." She heard Laxus growl and Sting pitched forward a little after taking a hit behind the ears.
"What kind of shit are you trying to pull now?" She heard Natsu's voice before she saw him, shirtless and looking like he just rolled out of bed himself.
"Nothing." The blond boy lied but Natsu just grunted and snatched a half-eaten cookie out of his hand.
"Yeah right," he grumbled. He looked up a Lucy like he was just noticing her for the first time. "Mornin' Luce." He turned away from them and poked his head into the pantry, emerging with a box of cereal.
"You should have come to the gym last night Salamander, Gajeel and Rogue were sparring and it was epic." Sting leaned against the counter with his arms crossed.
Natsu peeked out of the corner of his eye at Laxus before answering. "I, uh, had something else I had to do. So Gajeel kicked your ass, huh?" He turned to the dark haired guy who was standing beside Sting, the man had seemed grouchy before but now he looked annoyed.
"It was pretty close until the end," Sting replied for him. "So Boss, what's the plan? Are we staying here with these beauties or what?" He asked Laxus.
The dark man named Rogue rolled his eyes like he was used to Sting's cocky attitude, Natsu frowned with his mouth full of dry cereal and Laxus sighed in response. "You will stay here and keep a look out for anything suspicious. Rogue can go take over from Cobra outside."
"Cobra's already inside." None of them had heard him come through the door; he was like a one eyed ninja standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
"All we need is Gajeel and the whole gang's here," Sting joked. Lucy was glad that that meant she wouldn't be meeting any more weirdos, with any luck by this time tomorrow her and Levy would be on their way to the real police station to make a report.
"Excuse me," she reached passed Natsu and took a banana out of a bowl of fruit on the counter before turning to go back upstairs.
The five Dragons watched as Lucy disappeared down the hallway.
"Those have got to be the biggest-" Sting started but this time he managed to dodge Laxus and Natsu's backhands before they hit him behind the head. "I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking."
"Well maybe you should think first before spitting it out," Laxus growled. "I have to get home; Natsu can fill you on the details. Call me if anything comes up."
"Yes Boss," Sting and Rogue answered in unison.
"Behave yourselves," Laxus warned before he left.
"I need to go to." Cobra pushed the radio into Rogue's arms. "Good luck."
Natsu was still shoving dry cereal into his mouth and watched Sting as he eyed the hallway that Lucy had disappeared down. "Don't even think about it," he warned.
"What?" Sting asked, faking innocence.
"Maybe you should take the outside watch," Rogue suggested trying to avoid the potential tricky situation.
"No way," Sting replied. "Laxus told you to do it and you're holding the box."
Rogue sighed and left the kitchen instead of replying, choosing not to argue. It was going to be a long day and he was almost relieved that he was going to spend it outside.
Short but we will be getting back into the action again soon!