Chapter 9: First impressions - part 2

'I'm fine,' I said, getting back on my feet and patting the dirt off my skirt. 'How about you?'

Behind us, the lizard creature was slamming himself against the icy bars, but they wouldn't break.

The still unfamiliar guy sat up cross legged and looked at me from under his messy hair. 'A little bruised. Was he after you?'

I looked over my shoulder at the creature. 'I think he was just looking for trouble. Anyway, thanks for the help, but I must be on my way.'

I turned around to leave. My spellbook was still in my skirt, pressing into my stomach.

'Wait,' the guy said, 'you can't just leave him like that.'

I shrugged. 'You're the one who trapped him.'

He crossed his arms. 'And you're the one who turned him into a lizard. I saw you do it.'

My cheeks suddenly felt hot. Him seeing the magic I was still just learning felt like he'd walked in on me in the bathroom. 'Self defense.'

The guy shook his head. 'We'll have to call this in. Do you know which way the Town Hall is?'

My stomach rumbled again, and it was eating away at my patience. I didn't want to have anything to do with this guy, whom I assumed was the same kind of person as Happy and Natsu.

On the other hand: I wasn't sure how Makarov or Misty would react to this. Back then I actually cared what the two of them thought of me. This mystery guy was part of the same guild I was, so they would surely hear about this.

I sighed.

'No, I don't know where your Town Hall is,' I said to the guy, 'but I'm guessing you do?'

He stood up. The lizard in the cage flinched, as if he was scared of another attack. The mystery guy paid no attention to him, however. 'I do. I'll go with you.'

I kept my face flat, careful not to show any of my annoyance. 'Fine.' I nodded towards the cage. 'So are you going to carry him there?'

'We can leave him be for now,' the guy answered, and then smirked. 'Ice Make Magic is nearly indestructible.'

I was pretty sure there was some sort of ice spell in Grandpa's book, so I wasn't impressed. I hadn't learnt it yet, but I assumed that if it could be taught from a book, it wasn't as amazing as the guy made it seem. Although he did save me just now, so I decided not to be rude.

'If you say so,' I mumbled.

Next, we headed back to Magnolia. The whole way, neither of us said a thing. I didn't feel like getting to know him, and he wasn't interested in me either. I later learned that's just the way he is. It's not that he's not interested, he just has his priorities straight. There could be more creepy people hiding between the bushes.

But back then, I assumed he was just cold to me because I was cold to him.

The guard's office at the Town Hall was still open, luckily. The officer was clearly very annoyed with us because we stopped by this late, even though it was his job to help us. I guess he just expected another quiet evening. At one point I did see him glance at the guildmark on the bare chest of the mystery guy and something close to desperation crossed his face.

We were led into a small room and sat down in front of a desk. The man, small and with a curly mustache (he smelled and looked similar to the cake shop owner, I guessed they must be related somehow) grabbed a form and a quill and instructed a lacrima to hover near him to shine a light on the paper. Then he asked for my name.

'My name?' I repeated.

A muscle above the man's eyebrow trembled and he spoke through gritted teeth. 'Yes, your name. What would one call you?'

'Rain,' I said.

The mystery guy, sitting on a chair next to me, leaned towards the window. He frowned. 'No, I don't think so.'

For a second, I just stared. First at him, then the window he was looking through.

He was right. It wasn't raining.

Then I burst out laughing. The mystery guy lifted an eyebrow at me and just then realized his mistake. His cheeks filled with air and he spluttered something incohesive. He didn't seem embarrassed, just amused.

The officer behind the desk wasn't. He waited with his quill in hand above the form. 'Last name?'

The mystery guy and I really tried to pull ourselves together, but for some reason it was impossible. His mistake amidst all the seriousness of tonight was just too silly. Everytime we looked at each other, we started laughing all over again.

'Last name?!' the officer repeated, as a drop of ink was about to fall from the quill onto the paper.

'Rain!' I said, and the mystery guy nearly fell out of his chair. 'Sorry, I mean…just Rain. No last name.'

The officer scribbled it down and I managed to get through the rest of the form without losing face, while the mystery guy sat beside me giggling behind his hand.

'Sign here,' the officer eventually said, and handed me the form. 'I will see to it that the guards capture the culprit. Thank you for your service to the community.'

He said it so insincerely I had a feeling he would just hand in his resignation letter right after we'd left his office. I quickly wrote down my name and we were free to go.

Once we stood outside, I was the first to say something. 'Well, that was…something.'

'Yeah,' the mystery guy said, 'but you did a good thing. If that lizard happened to escape the cage, he would've gone after someone else. You probably saved a life tonight.'

I stared at him, confused. Then I realized he was being nice to me. Someone from that same noisy, rude Fairy Tail as Natsu and Happy. I forced my eyes to the ground and muttered: 'I thought your cages were indestructible.'

'I said nearly.'

'Fine.'

I heard him chuckle. Suddenly, I saw his hand extended to me. 'I'm Gray, by the way. Gray Fullbuster.'

I accepted his hand. 'Rain, but you already knew that.'

Without warning, Gray grabbed my wrist and pushed my sleeve up, revealing the guild mark. I guess he saw a little of it sticking out.

'I thought so. Why didn't you say anything?'

I pulled my arm back. 'I don't know. I'm just…new around here.'

I still wasn't looking right at him. For some reason, I just then noticed I still had my spellbook tucked into my skirt. It probably looked weird.

'Hey,' Gray said then, and something in his voice made me look up. 'I know the guild can be a lot, but they're good people. Most of them, anyway. And a lot of them arrived here just like you; without a last name. I can tell that whatever happened before you came here has left some awful scars, but trust me: as long as you're part of Fairy Tail, you won't see such awful times again.'

Something crossed his face and it took me a while to understand. Besides Grandpa, nobody bothered about me. And when he died, all hell broke loose. Because of where I came from, the people of Bordertown concluded I was a monster. That has already affected every other relationship I will ever have with people. I can't help it: I just assume everyone is evil.

But with Gray I didn't. Because at that moment, I felt a form of understanding. I felt seen.

And that's when my world shifted, and I knew I couldn't ever have a normal conversation with him again.

All I could do was nod. For a moment there was silence.

Then my stomach rumbled loudly. For some reason I put my hand on my belly, as if to silence it, but I somehow succeeded in pressing my spellbook down, which was still tucked in there. It fell with a deafening thud on the ground, between my feet.

Gray looked at it strangely and asked: 'Did you just poop out a book?'

I wanted to disappear. 'N-no, I just hid it when I was attacked and never took it out.'

Before I could reach down to get it, Gray was on his knees, staring at the book as if it was a pet. 'That's where the spell came from, right?'

'Y-yeah.'

He grabbed the book off the ground, turned it around in his hands and then gave it back to me. 'Looks weird.'

'It's just a book,' I said, taking it from him. For a second I considered asking if it was the first time he'd seen one, but I hesitated for too long. My stomach rumbled again. 'I need something to eat. Sorry.'

Gray looked at the book a moment longer and then said: 'There's food at the guild. My treat.'

'Oh, I can't…you're the one who saved me.'

He shrugged. 'Doesn't matter. You've been through enough today. I'll take care of it.'


That's it. That's when it was settled.

Not someone who's in the way. Gray thinks of me as someone who needs to be taken care of. Like a child. A baby.